How good has Brad Stevens been for the Celtics franchise ?

[celticinorlando]

Getting to the finals and losing to Denver means Joe probably keeps his job.

Not getting to the finals means he has to go.
The east is not as tough as it once appeared and any losses the Celtics incur will probably take a lot of help from the Celtics themselves (like we have seen in the past).

Brad has changed the roster drastically. If they can’t get to the finals the only thing to change would be the coach.

I bet a majority of Celtics fans think Finals or bust for Joe this year, versus Championship or bust.

I feel like championship or bust if they get there and play anyone but Denver.

If they get there and lose to Denver, then I think most of us would understand a bit more seeing Denver is great.

[SparzWizard]

I would have been ok if Joe was interim the rest of last season and revert him back to an assistant coach and we hired someone like Nick Nurse, Mike Bud, or a veteran/championship-experienced coach (not Doc Rivers). But to transition Joe from interim to official HC in All-Star Break last year left a sour taste in my mouth. I would've been happy if they picked up someone like Quin Snyder July 2022 when they found out about Ime's stunt...he wasn't that bad with the Jazz.

I probably wouldn't bag Joe as much (will still be frustrated) if he was interim the whole season. But since he is HC, he needs to get all the bashing he deserves. This year, no excuses; should be adjusting on the fly and figuring things out day and night.

[Big333223]

If you think Joe Mazulla might be fired before next season, you need a reality check. In his first year with a training camp and his own staff, the Celtics are going to walk way with the best regular season record in the NBA. Everyone on the team seems to like him. I can't imagine him not getting one more season given how dominant the Celtics have been this year, regardless of what happens in the playoffs.

As for Brad, I don't think there's any question he's been a huge positive as both coach and GM.

[tenn_smoothie]

Since when is Denver some championship juggernaut ? For years, even with Jokic, they have been viewed as talented but maybe a little soft and not quite up to the demands of winning a title (remind you of anyone ?). Now, they are unbeatable ? Give me a break. I'm sure they matured some, but it is time for this Celtic group to win some titles, as in more than one. Tatum is a little soft in terms of competitive drive and Brown is a little dumb on the court. However, acquiring a veteran with some fire in his belly and putting this team under the direction of a strong coach would solve some of those issues.

As for the roster, though it would be a gamble, shipping one of the J's for a huge return including some bite in the post and the aforementioned new coach, might be the key to unlock the title door. I still think we get too much "your turn, my turn" redundancy in our offense that leads to the iso stagnation we see too often. Both J's still hold the ball way too long and slow momentum.

Regarding the comment about fans expecting 11 titles in 13 years - of course we don't. But Red built three separate multiple-title teams from scratch and expecting 2-3 titles in a decade is hardly unrealistic. Winning one banner in 38 years is embarrassing to this great franchise.

[green_bballers13]

Since when is Denver some championship juggernaut ? For years, even with Jokic, they have been viewed as talented but maybe a little soft and not quite up to the demands of winning a title (remind you of anyone ?). Now, they are unbeatable ? Give me a break. I'm sure they matured some, but it is time for this Celtic group to win some titles, as in more than one. Tatum is a little soft in terms of competitive drive and Brown is a little dumb on the court. However, acquiring a veteran with some fire in his belly and putting this team under the direction of a strong coach would solve some of those issues.

As for the roster, though it would be a gamble, shipping one of the J's for a huge return including some bite in the post and the aforementioned new coach, might be the key to unlock the title door. I still think we get too much "your turn, my turn" redundancy in our offense that leads to the iso stagnation we see too often. Both J's still hold the ball way too long and slow momentum.

Regarding the comment about fans expecting 11 titles in 13 years - of course we don't. But Red built three separate multiple-title teams from scratch and expecting 2-3 titles in a decade is hardly unrealistic. Winning one banner in 38 years is embarrassing to this great franchise.

Expecting 2-3 titles is definitely unrealistic. No one can expect that. That is wild. I hope they win 2-3, but expecting more than one seems unrealistic to me. I think they should win one before setting such expectations. We don't know if we have a player that can take over a Finals series yet.

Go Vols- I hope they win tonight. Tenn-Purdue would be exciting.

[tenn_smoothie]

Since when is Denver some championship juggernaut ? For years, even with Jokic, they have been viewed as talented but maybe a little soft and not quite up to the demands of winning a title (remind you of anyone ?). Now, they are unbeatable ? Give me a break. I'm sure they matured some, but it is time for this Celtic group to win some titles, as in more than one. Tatum is a little soft in terms of competitive drive and Brown is a little dumb on the court. However, acquiring a veteran with some fire in his belly and putting this team under the direction of a strong coach would solve some of those issues.

As for the roster, though it would be a gamble, shipping one of the J's for a huge return including some bite in the post and the aforementioned new coach, might be the key to unlock the title door. I still think we get too much "your turn, my turn" redundancy in our offense that leads to the iso stagnation we see too often. Both J's still hold the ball way too long and slow momentum.

Regarding the comment about fans expecting 11 titles in 13 years - of course we don't. But Red built three separate multiple-title teams from scratch and expecting 2-3 titles in a decade is hardly unrealistic. Winning one banner in 38 years is embarrassing to this great franchise.

Expecting 2-3 titles is definitely unrealistic. No one can expect that. That is wild. I hope they win 2-3, but expecting more than one seems unrealistic to me. I think they should win one before setting such expectations. We don't know if we have a player that can take over a Finals series yet.

Go Vols- I hope they win tonight. Tenn-Purdue would be exciting.

We don't, unfortunately.

Thanks for the good wishes.

[green_bballers13]

Since when is Denver some championship juggernaut ? For years, even with Jokic, they have been viewed as talented but maybe a little soft and not quite up to the demands of winning a title (remind you of anyone ?). Now, they are unbeatable ? Give me a break. I'm sure they matured some, but it is time for this Celtic group to win some titles, as in more than one. Tatum is a little soft in terms of competitive drive and Brown is a little dumb on the court. However, acquiring a veteran with some fire in his belly and putting this team under the direction of a strong coach would solve some of those issues.

As for the roster, though it would be a gamble, shipping one of the J's for a huge return including some bite in the post and the aforementioned new coach, might be the key to unlock the title door. I still think we get too much "your turn, my turn" redundancy in our offense that leads to the iso stagnation we see too often. Both J's still hold the ball way too long and slow momentum.

Regarding the comment about fans expecting 11 titles in 13 years - of course we don't. But Red built three separate multiple-title teams from scratch and expecting 2-3 titles in a decade is hardly unrealistic. Winning one banner in 38 years is embarrassing to this great franchise.

Expecting 2-3 titles is definitely unrealistic. No one can expect that. That is wild. I hope they win 2-3, but expecting more than one seems unrealistic to me. I think they should win one before setting such expectations. We don't know if we have a player that can take over a Finals series yet.

Go Vols- I hope they win tonight. Tenn-Purdue would be exciting.

We don't, unfortunately.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Creighton has some fight. I thought they were cooked after that 18-0 run in the second half. This has been a really good game.

[tenn_smoothie]

That was two good teams, Vols stayed tough after Creighton rallied (an example our Celts could take a lesson from).
Taking on Goliath Sunday. Tennessee lost to Purdue in Maui Classic before Christmas 71-67.
Vols are gonna have to ratchet up the physical defense for this one.

[tenn_smoothie]

Tough loss for the Vols, refs let Edy get away with murder.
Be interesting to see how he does in the pros.

Anyway, I digress. Back to Brad Stevens.
It's easy to say Brad has been a huge plus for the casual observer and he certainly has done a lot to put us in position to finally win titles again.
But the two glaring negatives may, in the end, cost us those titles if he does not correct them soon.
The finessee philosophy that is still pervasive throughout the franchise and a clearly incompetent head coach have to be changed.
To take action, Brad has to recognize that these are problems and I'm not sure that he does.

[mobilija]

Brad Stevens has been excellent for the Boston Celtics. To evaluate his tenure here and spin it as more negative than positive requires putting far more weight on the negatives than the positives.

Early coaching success is fantastic. Scrappy underdog teams that consistently overachieved. Later tenure had some disappointments, but I’d put a lot of that blame on the GM.. Players brought in that were malcontents, loss of Horford the most team oriented player, hoarding of draft picks and marginal players drafted with those picks. Expectations were higher but results were similar to those underdog teams. And his last year was bad, players tuned him out. In general, pretty hard to armchair coach nitpick his in game management, ATO plays and emphasis on ball movement. Definitely a talented coach, was seen as a top 3-5 coach in the league.

The transition to GM was great. He identified players that fit with his core (Horford and White) and wasn’t afraid to use draft capital to obtain them. He continues to be excellent at using draft capital at the trade deadline to improve a championship caliber team without emptying the war chest. Brogdon was a good get, Hauser contract and Pritchard contracts are excellent value. He wasn’t afraid to make major changes to a championship caliber team bringing in Holiday and Porzingis, again at decent value. The roster has gotten better every year he has been GM.

Initially a good coaching hire but then when that coach deserved to be fired, the transition was bumbled. Hiring a second rookie coach was risky, especially with minimal time to prepare. Failure to reach the finals last year was the result of that bumble. Mazulla isn’t incompetent, he has the team playing hard, fully bought in and it’s hard to quibble w the excellent regular season this year. But really high expectations this year and if Mazulla’s rookie coaching inadequacies rear their head in the playoffs again this year…that hire will be a failure. So TBD.

Past and present, Steven’s has put this organization in a position for success, but hasn’t been able to get them over the hump.  Unless you view anything short of a championship as a failure, his tenure has been really good.

[Kernewek]

"Decent, boys, decent."
-Bubbles, when asked about Brad Stevens.

[SHAQATTACK]

Duke wishes they had got Brad , he can coach circles around their current coach .

Too Bad …so sad

[tenn_smoothie]

Brad Stevens has been excellent for the Boston Celtics. To evaluate his tenure here and spin it as more negative than positive requires putting far more weight on the negatives than the positives.

Early coaching success is fantastic. Scrappy underdog teams that consistently overachieved. Later tenure had some disappointments, but I’d put a lot of that blame on the GM.. Players brought in that were malcontents, loss of Horford the most team oriented player, hoarding of draft picks and marginal players drafted with those picks. Expectations were higher but results were similar to those underdog teams. And his last year was bad, players tuned him out. In general, pretty hard to armchair coach nitpick his in game management, ATO plays and emphasis on ball movement. Definitely a talented coach, was seen as a top 3-5 coach in the league.

The transition to GM was great. He identified players that fit with his core (Horford and White) and wasn’t afraid to use draft capital to obtain them. He continues to be excellent at using draft capital at the trade deadline to improve a championship caliber team without emptying the war chest. Brogdon was a good get, Hauser contract and Pritchard contracts are excellent value. He wasn’t afraid to make major changes to a championship caliber team bringing in Holiday and Porzingis, again at decent value. The roster has gotten better every year he has been GM.

Initially a good coaching hire but then when that coach deserved to be fired, the transition was bumbled. Hiring a second rookie coach was risky, especially with minimal time to prepare. Failure to reach the finals last year was the result of that bumble. Mazulla isn’t incompetent, he has the team playing hard, fully bought in and it’s hard to quibble w the excellent regular season this year. But really high expectations this year and if Mazulla’s rookie coaching inadequacies rear their head in the playoffs again this year…that hire will be a failure. So TBD.

Past and present, Steven’s has put this organization in a position for success, but hasn’t been able to get them over the hump.  Unless you view anything short of a championship as a failure, his tenure has been really good.

Very good points.

Don't misunderstand, I credit Brad with an awful lot of positive accomplishments for the Celtics.
As GM, he has corrected some of the mistakes Danny made with the roster. He has us in position to win titles.

But for me, yes, given the talent and experience on this roster, anything short of a title is a failure.
I realize we are not the same franchise we were under Red Auerbach's direction.
But we now have a team and organization in place that is capable of regaining some of our past success.
Brad Stevens deserves much of the credit for that. He just needs to get a couple of other pieces of the puzzle right to get this team over the top.

[JSD]

Brad marked a clear philosophy change, one that was needed for this team. And I’m saying that as perhaps the biggest Danny Ainge supporter on this board. But we have to be honest with ourselves; how Ainge handled the roster from 2019 onwards was not great. Now, not all of it was his fault. We tasked him with transforming the Celtics into a first-class organization attractive to free agents, and he achieved that. Gordon Hayward's signing was the franchise's biggest if you consider the context - an All-Star player about to hit his prime, etc. His significant injury changed the course of history for this team.

Ainge also overvalued draft picks towards the end. Stevens knew what his group needed, and it wasn’t first-round draft picks who were preparing for the limelight; it was good, solid veteran players to round out the roster and mesh personality-wise. Stevens took this team to the next level and has yet to actually draft a first-round pick himself.

While I would give Stevens a solid A-, there are few GMs I would want more than Ainge in a rebuilding situation.

[Kernewek]

Brad marked a clear philosophy change, one that was needed for this team. And I’m saying that as perhaps the biggest Danny Ainge supporter on this board. But we have to be honest with ourselves; how Ainge handled the roster from 2019 onwards was not great. Now, not all of it was his fault. We tasked him with transforming the Celtics into a first-class organization attractive to free agents, and he achieved that. Gordon Hayward's signing was the franchise's biggest if you consider the context - an All-Star player about to hit his prime, etc. His significant injury changed the course of history for this team.

Ainge also overvalued draft picks towards the end. Stevens knew what his group needed, and it wasn’t first-round draft picks who were preparing for the limelight; it was good, solid veteran players to round out the roster and mesh personality-wise. Stevens took this team to the next level and has yet to actually draft a first-round pick himself.

While I would give Stevens a solid A-, there are few GMs I would want more than Ainge in a rebuilding situation.

I think this is true, but I also think it discounts just how much Stevens was able to 'shorten' the rebuild era in the wake of the Big 3. Obviously, Ainge was in charge of the roster, but we only had two properly bad seasons under HC Brad Stevens: '13-'14 and '20-'21.

For a team that had blown up its core and was stockpiling for the future, this is a fairly unprecedented run:

13-14: missed the playoffs
14-15: first-round exit
15-16: first-round exit
16-17: ECF appearance
17-18: ECF appearance
18-19: second-round exit
19-20: ECF appearance
20-21: first-round exit

Compare that to the Lakers over the same period when the Nash/Howard/Kobe roster imploded with injuries. Yes, they did snag a title from the bubble season (the largest asterisk season any of us are likely to see in our lifetimes), but otherwise, they've missed the playoffs every year but 20-21, where they were also a first-round exit. People talk about the Los Angeles advantage but we have absolutely been a much better team over the last decade.