Should Brad Stevens be fired?

[Spilling Green Dye]

No, Brad should not be fired, but I don't think he is an elite coach.  Maybe X's and O's and player trust, but he's missing 2 big things to me:

1)  Do you think elite coaches would allow Hero to shoot at will without trying to throw him off his game?  Personally I would have fouled Hero hard across the forearm once so that he wasn't so comfortable, but if you don't do that you have to do so something.  Elite coaches would force Hero into pick and rolls to get physically overwhelmed on defense.  Elite coaches would run Hero through a ton of screens on the other end of the court (when not in Zone) to tire him out.  And they definitely would have run him through some physical screens along the baseline.  But Brad is too nice and just hopes that Hero misses.  I've never seen a 20-year old look so comfortable, and that is on Brad.

2)  Do you think elite coaches just wait for Tatum to get out of his funk?  Phil Jackson would have known what motivates him and that would never have happened.. or worst case Tatum would have come alive in the 2nd quarter.  Brad is just too passive and patient for my taste.

[gift]

Calling to fire Brad Stevens is always funny. Like there's a magical coach out there who would have the Celtics up 3-1 in this series. Might as well punch a wall as your reactionary move.

[Donoghus]

Celtics win.   Players did it.

Celtics lose.  Brad's fault.

 

[Roy H.]

Do you think elite coaches just wait for Tatum to get out of his funk?  Phil Jackson would have known what motivates him and that would never have happened

https://www.complex.com/sports/2014/05/kobe-bryant-awol-game-7-against-suns

[GreenFaith1819]

At this point we fire Brad who are we bringing in here, LOL?

And would he be able to keep THIS GUY



After next season? Isn't Tatum a restricted FA next season I believe?

[flybono]

The problem is JTatum at the moment. I believe all the hype of a superstar in making max contract and all the other b.s might have gone to his head.
The lack of focus on the court is also hurting Tatum. Quit arguing with the refs and play to your capabilities.

Is this on Stevens, yes, because it continues to happen every game.

Player rotation is also an issue. Stevens continues to substitute players at the same minute mark most games despite how the player is playing. How many times has a player been red hot and pulled? Several
Perfect example game 4 Williams playing well pulled after so many minutes same with Walker game 4

Yes, bench is a joke and has been for years

[celts55]

I don't see how last nights game had anything to do with Brad. He did everything this board wanted him to do. He took the correct timeouts to eliminate big runs, he played timelord. What else do we want?

3 reasons the celtics lost last night:

1. Marcus Smart. He was horrible. He shoots way too much.
2. Tyler Herro - Kid had the game of his life.
3. Turnovers.

I don't think this game is on Brad one bit.

Have to disagree.
1. Brad could take Smart out of the game. He was awful and killed them in the 4th with terrible 3's early in the shot clock and horrible turnovers. Sit him down.

2. Maybe put someone other than Walker on him. Bring Wannamaker in to guard him? Switch Brown onto him? I agree he was ridicules, but Brad made no adjustments. Maybe the Celtics could have tried a zone, works great for Miami.

3. Maybe Smart shouldn't have had the ball in his hands? Maybe the team should be prepared for the zone, sense they have used it 4 games in a row. Isn't Kemba is on the team? The handle the ball and run the team?

4. Big reason that I believe you missed, they gave up about a million second shots. The were out worked and out hustled on the boards so badly, it was painful to watch. There was one position near the end when they gave up 4 offensive boards in a row. Is this on the coach? I'd say yes, to some degree. Isn't it up to the coach to teach players to box out? Put a body on someone? Play with energy?

I'm truly beginning to believe this team is reflective of the coach. Way too layed back. I would have loved to seen him call a time out and really lay into them. Fire them up a bit, but instead he maintains he calm demeaner.

I don't know if he should be fired or not, but I do know a team should be ready to play in a game like that. I do know they should be playing with fire and intensity. To be out worked like they were last night should be completely unacceptable. In my humble opinion, a lot of that has to be on the coach.

[JohnBoy65]

I don't see how last nights game had anything to do with Brad. He did everything this board wanted him to do. He took the correct timeouts to eliminate big runs, he played timelord. What else do we want?

3 reasons the celtics lost last night:

1. Marcus Smart. He was horrible. He shoots way too much.
2. Tyler Herro - Kid had the game of his life.
3. Turnovers.

I don't think this game is on Brad one bit.

Have to disagree.
1. Brad could take Smart out of the game. He was awful and killed them in the 4th with terrible 3's early in the shot clock and horrible turnovers. Sit him down.

2. Maybe put someone other than Walker on him. Bring Wannamaker in to guard him? Switch Brown onto him? I agree he was ridicules, but Brad made no adjustments. Maybe the Celtics could have tried a zone, works great for Miami.

3. Maybe Smart shouldn't have had the ball in his hands? Maybe the team should be prepared for the zone, sense they have used it 4 games in a row. Isn't Kemba is on the team? The handle the ball and run the team?

4. Big reason that I believe you missed, they gave up about a million second shots. The were out worked and out hustled on the boards so badly, it was painful to watch. There was one position near the end when they gave up 4 offensive boards in a row. Is this on the coach? I'd say yes, to some degree. Isn't it up to the coach to teach players to box out? Put a body on someone? Play with energy?

I'm truly beginning to believe this team is reflective of the coach. Way too layed back. I would have loved to seen him call a time out and really lay into them. Fire them up a bit, but instead he maintains he calm demeaner.

I don't know if he should be fired or not, but I do know a team should be ready to play in a game like that. I do know they should be playing with fire and intensity. To be out worked like they were last night should be completely unacceptable. In my humble opinion, a lot of that has to be on the coach.

I agree it's on Brad for letting Marcus shoot that much. 8 3s is unacceptable, however who do you play instead of Marcus? Don't love the idea of Wannamaker closing a game out. With the amount the Celtics switch, nearly everyone covered Herro. He made a lot of tough shots. Some that I thought were really well defended. I think he's a good player, he isn't as good as he was last night.

I don't know for sure, but it felt like some of our rebounding woes came as we played our small ball line up.

[Roy H.]

Maybe put someone other than Walker on him. Bring Wannamaker in to guard him? Switch Brown onto him? I agree he was ridicules, but Brad made no adjustments. Maybe the Celtics could have tried a zone, works great for Miami.

For the series, Herro has scored a total of 19 points on Kemba, shooting 3-for-9 from 3PT. 

He's scored 20 points on Tatum, and 17 on Smart.

https://stats.nba.com/team/1610612738/matchups/?sort=OFF_PLAYER_NAME&dir=1

The idea that Brad hasn't tried different matchups just isn't true.  Walker has covered him about 25% of Herro's total minutes.

[cltc5]

All these people complaining about smart yet the guy has saved us so many times in the playoffs.  Can barely say that about so many of our overpaid stars.  I’ll take Marcus all day

[nyceltsfan]

I don't see how last nights game had anything to do with Brad. He did everything this board wanted him to do. He took the correct timeouts to eliminate big runs, he played timelord. What else do we want?

3 reasons the celtics lost last night:

1. Marcus Smart. He was horrible. He shoots way too much.
2. Tyler Herro - Kid had the game of his life.
3. Turnovers.

I don't think this game is on Brad one bit.

Have to disagree.
1. Brad could take Smart out of the game. He was awful and killed them in the 4th with terrible 3's early in the shot clock and horrible turnovers. Sit him down.

2. Maybe put someone other than Walker on him. Bring Wannamaker in to guard him? Switch Brown onto him? I agree he was ridicules, but Brad made no adjustments. Maybe the Celtics could have tried a zone, works great for Miami.

3. Maybe Smart shouldn't have had the ball in his hands? Maybe the team should be prepared for the zone, sense they have used it 4 games in a row. Isn't Kemba is on the team? The handle the ball and run the team?

4. Big reason that I believe you missed, they gave up about a million second shots. The were out worked and out hustled on the boards so badly, it was painful to watch. There was one position near the end when they gave up 4 offensive boards in a row. Is this on the coach? I'd say yes, to some degree. Isn't it up to the coach to teach players to box out? Put a body on someone? Play with energy?

I'm truly beginning to believe this team is reflective of the coach. Way too layed back. I would have loved to seen him call a time out and really lay into them. Fire them up a bit, but instead he maintains he calm demeaner.

I don't know if he should be fired or not, but I do know a team should be ready to play in a game like that. I do know they should be playing with fire and intensity. To be out worked like they were last night should be completely unacceptable. In my humble opinion, a lot of that has to be on the coach.

This - TP

Brad could have done a lot last night to win that game.  In addition to everything mentioned above, his switch everything defense left Kemba on Butler so many times last night and I think we were fortunate that Butler only scored 21 points, because he was passive.  Why did Grant Williams and Kanter sit the entire game?  Timelord played well, but it seemed to come out of nowhere.  Theis looks overmatched in this series.  Should we go in a different direction?  They just seem very disjointed and sloppy.

Also, I was thinking that someone needed to foul Herro hard during the game just to make him think twice before dancing around with the ball.  There was no fire and no grit.  Just passive, sloppy basketball.

[jbpats]

Stevens is being out coached this series but he should not be fired.
At the end of the day the coach can only do so much. it's up to the players to execute and make the right decisions on the court.
Stevens isn't responsible for carless turnovers or missed shots. He can attempt to coach players out of their careless mistakes but at the end of the day it's really on them to execute, not Stevens.

[celts55]

Maybe put someone other than Walker on him. Bring Wannamaker in to guard him? Switch Brown onto him? I agree he was ridicules, but Brad made no adjustments. Maybe the Celtics could have tried a zone, works great for Miami.

For the series, Herro has scored a total of 19 points on Kemba, shooting 3-for-9 from 3PT. 

He's scored 20 points on Tatum, and 17 on Smart.

https://stats.nba.com/team/1610612738/matchups/?sort=OFF_PLAYER_NAME&dir=1

The idea that Brad hasn't tried different matchups just isn't true.  Walker has covered him about 25% of Herro's total minutes.

Guess I was mistaken. Looked to me, watching the game, that Walked was on him the majority of the forth quarter. I sit corrected.

[KGs Knee]

You would think eventually the coach would be held responsible for his failures. This team has the same issues every season, regardless of who is on the roster.

There's nothing any of us can do about it, though, so.....

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[td450]

The team lost this game. Other than Brown, everyone on the team did something really dumb in the last 3 minutes.

One thing that stands out to me is that Hayward and Walker don't provide any end of game stability. Hayward got completely lost for no apparent reason on defense and gave Dragic a wide open corner 3 with 1:40, and Walker looks like a rookie at the end of these games. Tatum makes clutch shots but he's still not making great decisions out there. Smart was horrible. We just don't have the personnel to end games.

Tatum and Brown have to be the ones making plays at the end, and they have to be good enough. The other guys aren't getting it done.