My thing with Stevens is not to say he's bad now that the team has looked much worse than expected this post-season.
Yeah, stuff happens.
Also -- stuff ALWAYS happens in the playoffs. That's what makes winning a title such a sweet accomplishment. It's not just about winning games you ought to win. It's about overcoming bad matchups and stuff going on off the court, and holding the team together in good times and bad, and getting lucky.
Stevens is a good coach. He's been at the helm as this team has gone from a bottom 5 record in a tank year all the way to the #1 seed in the East, even if it was a weak year to be #1.
All of that said, he hasn't earned "great coach" status yet. You need to prove it in the playoffs to do that. That's all I'm saying. Many times I've seen Brad touted as the Celts' greatest asset. It's not true. Maybe he will be one day. He needs to figure out the playoffs first.
Carlisle, Spoelstra, Popovich, D'Antoni, Thibodeau, Brooks, Budenholzer, Rivers, Kerr ... all have steered their teams to multiple playoff series victories.
Brad has the goods to get to their level some day, but he isn't there yet. And yeah, it'll help when he has the chance to coach the kind of talent some of those coaches got to coach.