Brad Stevens said no about coaching Cousins.

[elcotte]

If true, it makes me respect Stevens less. He's not up to the task of trying to mold a generational talent, and he's commenting on a guy he's never worked with.

Imagine if Bill Belichek had that mindset.

you are not considering the guys that Belichick passed on.
And Ainge has modified his approach to character over time, not accepting questionable guys as much as he did in his early years.

[Kuberski33]

Roy, since you're a huge Cousins supporter what would you do if you're in Stevens' shoes, land Cousins and the same issues start popping up? Say he starts going coast to coast, takes ill advised shots, takes multiple possessions off, fails to get back on D, etc. ? What do you do sit him? And if that blows up on you, which it likely would, what then? How to you address it then?

The point is that with Stevens at the helm we have built a culture. Cousins would only disrupt that culture and likely undermine Stevens. If anything, I respect Stevens more for not taking this cubic zirconia.

Good coaches adapt their system.

If he doesn't work out, suspend him. Trade him. Waive him.  Or, like worked so well with Mike Malone, communicate with him.

So Stevens isn't a good coach? If Cousins doesn't work out it's doubtful you'll get equal value back for him.  Look at what Sac got.  On talent alone 90% of the league should have been looking to acquire him.  A lot of coaches have gotten themselves in trouble by having their ego tell them they could change a head case.  Especially if the head case is your highest paid player.

[wdleehi]

I can't help that the examples are cases where the head case is not the most talented player on the team.


If we had a Tim Duncan, a Curry, a NBA version of Tom Brady, then bringing in a head case that can be removed easily makes sense.


But on the Celtics, Cousins clearly would be the most basketball talented player.  Would he accepted following IT and Horford? 


The only thing that is clear, the Celtics saw an issue with making a move for Cousins. 

[droopdog7]

If true, it makes me respect Stevens less. He's not up to the task of trying to mold a generational talent, and he's commenting on a guy he's never worked with.

Imagine if Bill Belichek had that mindset.

Makes me respect Stevens MORE.  Choose team over anything else.

[Roy H.]

Roy, since you're a huge Cousins supporter what would you do if you're in Stevens' shoes, land Cousins and the same issues start popping up? Say he starts going coast to coast, takes ill advised shots, takes multiple possessions off, fails to get back on D, etc. ? What do you do sit him? And if that blows up on you, which it likely would, what then? How to you address it then?

The point is that with Stevens at the helm we have built a culture. Cousins would only disrupt that culture and likely undermine Stevens. If anything, I respect Stevens more for not taking this cubic zirconia.

Good coaches adapt their system.

If he doesn't work out, suspend him. Trade him. Waive him.  Or, like worked so well with Mike Malone, communicate with him.

So Stevens isn't a good coach? If Cousins doesn't work out it's doubtful you'll get equal value back for him.  Look at what Sac got.  On talent alone 90% of the league should have been looking to acquire him.  A lot of coaches have gotten themselves in trouble by having their ego tell them they could change a head case.  Especially if the head case is your highest paid player.

If this report is true, he's not a confident enough coach for my liking. Coaches need to be able to manage a locker room. If Mike Malone can do it, there's no reason Stevens should be afraid to try.

[chilidawg]

It's about where you draw the line.  All players can be a problem to a greater or lesser degree, Stevens said no in this one case.  You can't conclude from that that "he won't coach difficult players".  He drew the line, I have no problem with that.  I'd be more concerned if he didn't want him and didn't say something.

[ssspence]

Interested to see how the Pels do.

Cousins is a marquee talent. And yet never has a center as good as he is led a team as bad as the Kings for as long as he's been one.

Not wanting him to coach him might not be a function of his attitude, but rather not seeing a path to a championship with Cousins in the fold.

[wdleehi]

Roy, since you're a huge Cousins supporter what would you do if you're in Stevens' shoes, land Cousins and the same issues start popping up? Say he starts going coast to coast, takes ill advised shots, takes multiple possessions off, fails to get back on D, etc. ? What do you do sit him? And if that blows up on you, which it likely would, what then? How to you address it then?

The point is that with Stevens at the helm we have built a culture. Cousins would only disrupt that culture and likely undermine Stevens. If anything, I respect Stevens more for not taking this cubic zirconia.

Good coaches adapt their system.

If he doesn't work out, suspend him. Trade him. Waive him.  Or, like worked so well with Mike Malone, communicate with him.

So Stevens isn't a good coach? If Cousins doesn't work out it's doubtful you'll get equal value back for him.  Look at what Sac got.  On talent alone 90% of the league should have been looking to acquire him.  A lot of coaches have gotten themselves in trouble by having their ego tell them they could change a head case.  Especially if the head case is your highest paid player.

If this report is true, he's not a confident enough coach for my liking. Coaches need to be able to manage a locker room. If Mike Malone can do it, there's no reason Stevens should be afraid to try.

Too the tune of 39 and 67 and fired. 

It is sad that that is the best showing we can point out for Cousins. 

[Eddie20]

Roy, since you're a huge Cousins supporter what would you do if you're in Stevens' shoes, land Cousins and the same issues start popping up? Say he starts going coast to coast, takes ill advised shots, takes multiple possessions off, fails to get back on D, etc. ? What do you do sit him? And if that blows up on you, which it likely would, what then? How to you address it then?

The point is that with Stevens at the helm we have built a culture. Cousins would only disrupt that culture and likely undermine Stevens. If anything, I respect Stevens more for not taking this cubic zirconia.

Good coaches adapt their system.

If he doesn't work out, suspend him. Trade him. Waive him.  Or, like worked so well with Mike Malone, communicate with him.

So Stevens isn't a good coach? If Cousins doesn't work out it's doubtful you'll get equal value back for him.  Look at what Sac got.  On talent alone 90% of the league should have been looking to acquire him.  A lot of coaches have gotten themselves in trouble by having their ego tell them they could change a head case.  Especially if the head case is your highest paid player.

If this report is true, he's not a confident enough coach for my liking. Coaches need to be able to manage a locker room. If Mike Malone can do it, there's no reason Stevens should be afraid to try.

What did Malone do exactly? During the Malone era the Kings went 39-67 and the only reason Cousins liked him is because he allowed Cousins to do whatever he wanted.

[Tr1boy]

Roy, since you're a huge Cousins supporter what would you do if you're in Stevens' shoes, land Cousins and the same issues start popping up? Say he starts going coast to coast, takes ill advised shots, takes multiple possessions off, fails to get back on D, etc. ? What do you do sit him? And if that blows up on you, which it likely would, what then? How to you address it then?

The point is that with Stevens at the helm we have built a culture. Cousins would only disrupt that culture and likely undermine Stevens. If anything, I respect Stevens more for not taking this cubic zirconia.

Good coaches adapt their system.

If he doesn't work out, suspend him. Trade him. Waive him.  Or, like worked so well with Mike Malone, communicate with him.

So Stevens isn't a good coach? If Cousins doesn't work out it's doubtful you'll get equal value back for him.  Look at what Sac got.  On talent alone 90% of the league should have been looking to acquire him.  A lot of coaches have gotten themselves in trouble by having their ego tell them they could change a head case.  Especially if the head case is your highest paid player.

If this report is true, he's not a confident enough coach for my liking. Coaches need to be able to manage a locker room. If Mike Malone can do it, there's no reason Stevens should be afraid to try.

Out of the x,y,z coaches that came through those doors only cheerleader Malone was able to be friends with Cousins

Doesnt mean Malone is a good coach

[rochrist]

If true, it makes me respect Stevens less. He's not up to the task of trying to mold a generational talent, and he's commenting on a guy he's never worked with.

Imagine if Bill Belichek had that mindset.

Ask all the guys Belichick cut when more often then not they don't work out. So much easier to cut your losses in NFL. Comparison doesn't work.

The point is, Belicheck doesn't say no to coaching guys because they're difficult.

If Cousins hadn't worked out, how much worse of a position would we have been in? It was low/moderate risk versus extremely high reward.

No, the point is, it's easier to do that in the NFL. And even at that, there have been plenty of guys he won't go near.

[rochrist]

If true, it makes me respect Stevens less. He's not up to the task of trying to mold a generational talent, and he's commenting on a guy he's never worked with.

Imagine if Bill Belichek had that mindset.

He had it with Terry Glenn if I remember correctly.

Parcells drafted him (at least he was drafted on his watch). It was Belichick who cut him.
i think that was parcells that had the beef w glenn.

[clover]

So we know that Brad and Danny to some degree agree on the Parcells school of coaching: if you want him to cook the meal he should have the right to veto an ingredient.

FWIW I think that Danny could have coached him just fine. I don't know about Brad, at this stage of his career, at least.

[spikelovetheCelts]

I think this is some made up BS. I hope it comes out. CBS would be more diplomatic than saying just "NO".
I am sure somebody will ask him this now.

[BaronV]

To be clear, Brad didn't refuse to have Cousins on the team.  He replied 'no' when asked 'would you like to coach him'.  There's a big difference between 'would you like to?' and 'will you?'.  Remember that Brad, Danny, and the players hear lots of information that doesn't get out to the fans.  IT played with Cousins in Sacramento, and hasn't exactly been beating a drum to get Cousins here, compared to how active he was with recruiting this summer.  Who knows what information he gave to the Celtics leadership regarding Cousins' personality, coachability, locker room habits, etc.  Likewise, Rondo played with him last year, and Brad may still talk to him as well. 

With regard to the comments on BB and his willingness to take on problem players, most of those have been with regard to behaving badly off the field, not on it.  As someone rightly pointed out regarding Jamie Collins, if BB doesn't like someone's attitude, he trades them away or cuts them right away.  That's easier to do in football.  If Danny brings Cousins to Boston and he tries to undermine Brad's system, they can either cut him and have his salary negatively impact their cap space for the next two years, or they can bench him and have the same problem, while still having his bad attitude around the other players.  There is no good way to get rid of a malcontent player if they don't work out in the NBA. 

Finally, Celtics management likely looked at whether picking Cousins up would make them good enough to get past Cleveland and into the finals this year, and what the impact would be going forward.  In another malcontent move, his agent announced that he would not consider signing an extension wherever the Kings traded him to, so picking him up would be a short-term deal, and the player arrives with baggage from day 1.  Given how good the current team chemistry seems to be, bringing in someone like Cousins seems pretty risky, for a relatively short term reward.  If he was the final piece to win this year, maybe you take that chance.  However, for the longer-term plan he really doesn't fit in, and risks slowing down or stopping the progress that has been made so quickly.