Longest home winning streak since 08-09, Just smacked the hottest road team not called the Warriors; playing basketball sweeter than Manna from heaven and looking at the 3rd seed in the East. BRAD STEVENS IS GOD!
Yes indeed!! Stevens and Ainge deserve much praise for making the Celtics a viable Eastern Conference contender so quickly after the rebuild began a little under three years ago when Danny traded Pierce and KG. They basically got as bad as they could for one year and then Ainge struck gold with the IT trade and the Rondo trade. getting rid of Rondo and Jeff Green and bringing in players like Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas while drafting Marcus Smart and signing retread project Eric Turner, vet presence Amir Johnson and adding those players to the Celtics youth of Bradley, Sullinger, and Olynyk.
That team was assembled and then given to a coach that over the last year has probably been the best coach in basketball, especially given the lack of superstar talent on the Celtics. Stevens consistently has developed youth, developed a win first and foremost, professional, unselfish, team culture while establishing a defensive identity with the team on the court and appears to have found a very successful rotation of players that fit into the roles he needs filled to maximize his team's ability to win.
Keep this nine player core(IT, AB, Smart, Crowder, Turner, Johnson, Sully, Olynyk, Zeller) and add just one top 10 player in the league to it and I think the Celtics could start looking to be a team even the Warriors would need to worry about beating in a 7 game series.