The Danny Ainge System: Ranking every NBA shot-caller from worst to fi

We have reached the finale of The Danny Ainge System, our ranking of every NBA executive.

We have already separately ranked every executive according to his history in the trade, draft and free-agency markets. It is probably best to catch up on those analyses before we dive into today’s edition …

Advertisement

Using baseball’s Sabermetrics, we categorized every trade, every draft pick and every free-agency signing as a strikeout, walk, single, double, triple or home run, creating a rating (or OPS) of each executive. If you want to get a feel for exactly how this works, go back and read Parts 1, 2 and 3. It will all make sense then.

Here, we combined those scores to create an overall ranking of every NBA executive.

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]

A final reminder: Newcomers Jeff Peterson (Charlotte Hornets), Trajan Langdon (Detroit Pistons), Ben Tenzer (Denver Nuggets), Onsi Saleh (Atlanta Hawks), Scott Perry (Sacramento Kings), Brian Gregory (Phoenix Suns) and Bobby Webster (Toronto Raptors) do not have sample sizes big enough to evaluate.

Advertisement

And again: If you take issue with a particular executive’s ranking, go back through his history and tell me which decision was more of a walk than a strikeout or a triple instead of a double. If we agree, we’ll adjust the System. But you can’t just change the System because you didn’t like the way a ranking turned out.

Let us cease with the preamble and get to the actual rankings …

23. Artūras Karnišovas, Chicago Bulls (2020-)

• Trades: .500 OBP • .000 SLG • .500 OPS

• TOTALS: .545 OBP • .467 SLG • 1.017 OPS

It should come as no surprise that Karnišovas’ Bulls rank dead last. The once-proud franchise has been a mess ever since Michael Jordan left in 1998, save for a short-lived resurgence under Derrick Rose. They have made the playoffs once under Karnišovas, getting gentlemanly swept from the first round in 2022.

Advertisement

Other than…