Danny Stepping Down / Brad To Lead Front Office / New Coach

[BruceBanner18]

The “power struggle” theory seems to not be true:

According to Ainge, he reached his decision to retire months ago. However, according to SNY sources, one of his final decisions as active president of basketball operations was keeping Stevens around, despite the fact that one member within the Celtics organization wanted Brad canned.

“At one point in the regular season as the Celtics were struggling, a prominent member of the Celtics organization wanted to fire Stevens immediately, per SNY sources familiar with the matter,” wrote Ian Begley of SNY. “Ainge was among those in the organization who were against the decision, sources say.”

I’m curious who the “prominent member” was.

I'd put a box of ziti on Mike Zarren

[Kuberski33]

Doc going to coach Boston again one day......

Simmons will leave for Lakers and Embiid is hurt all the time .

I can see this happening. If Brad can get the pieces in place, Doc may eventually be the guy to push it over top.  I think he'd be great for the J's.

[Big333223]

This is fascinating because of how uncommon it is but I think it makes a lot of sense.

I don't get the concerns about his experience. I always got the sense that Brad was very involved in roster construction. He's clearly a smart, analytical guy and Mike Zarren is the cap wizard anyway. He has a relationship with everyone in the front office already so the transition should be pretty smooth.

I'm excited to know who the new coach will be. I've heard Sam Cassell and Juwon Howard's names out there, I like those ideas.

[ozgod]

This is fascinating because of how uncommon it is but I think it makes a lot of sense.

I don't get the concerns about his experience. I always got the sense that Brad was very involved in roster construction. He's clearly a smart, analytical guy and Mike Zarren is the cap wizard anyway. He has a relationship with everyone in the front office already so the transition should be pretty smooth.

I'm excited to know who the new coach will be. I've heard Sam Cassell and Juwon Howard's names out there, I like those ideas.

I tend to agree. I feel like there's overlap between being a coach and being in the front office. To me it's more about does Brad have the IQ to make the transition and to make the decisions, and does he have a solid team around him to cover for the knowledge gaps that he will have, and who will be able to present him with a solid set of options, and I think he does in both cases. In any case we'll see what happens.

Ainge was asked about Brad's lack of experience and here was his response:

So Ainge chuckled when he retired this past week and heard some suggest that his replacement, Celtics coach Brad Stevens, might not be qualified for this new post.

“Brad was in so many of our meetings over the years,” Ainge said. “He had salary-cap questions, he had ideas, he spoke to agents for us, and he was in any really big discussions that we had. He’s not somebody fresh that’s never been in this position before. He’s basically been an assistant general manager, and I think this is a good progression. I don’t think that it’s as big of a jump as some people say it is.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/05/sports/does-celtics-brad-stevens-have-what-it-takes-be-good-nba-general-manager/

Another coach/GM, Bill Belichick, was asked about it at Patriots' OTAs today and here's what he said.

One man who has had a bit of success as both a coach and an executive and still fills both roles believes that Stevens’s background should help.

“There’s a lot of lines that run together there,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “You can’t be the head coach and not be aware of contracts and acquisitions and things like that. I don’t know exactly how they’re set up, and each situation is a little bit different, but Brad has enough experience in basketball and with the Celtics and with the NBA to handle all the things that he’ll need to be handling.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/05/sports/does-celtics-brad-stevens-have-what-it-takes-be-good-nba-general-manager/

[Kiorrik]

This is fascinating because of how uncommon it is but I think it makes a lot of sense.

I don't get the concerns about his experience. I always got the sense that Brad was very involved in roster construction. He's clearly a smart, analytical guy and Mike Zarren is the cap wizard anyway. He has a relationship with everyone in the front office already so the transition should be pretty smooth.

I'm excited to know who the new coach will be. I've heard Sam Cassell and Juwon Howard's names out there, I like those ideas.

I tend to agree. I feel like there's overlap between being a coach and being in the front office. To me it's more about does Brad have the IQ to make the transition and to make the decisions, and does he have a solid team around him to cover for the knowledge gaps that he will have, and who will be able to present him with a solid set of options, and I think he does in both cases. In any case we'll see what happens.

Ainge was asked about Brad's lack of experience and here was his response:

So Ainge chuckled when he retired this past week and heard some suggest that his replacement, Celtics coach Brad Stevens, might not be qualified for this new post.

“Brad was in so many of our meetings over the years,” Ainge said. “He had salary-cap questions, he had ideas, he spoke to agents for us, and he was in any really big discussions that we had. He’s not somebody fresh that’s never been in this position before. He’s basically been an assistant general manager, and I think this is a good progression. I don’t think that it’s as big of a jump as some people say it is.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/05/sports/does-celtics-brad-stevens-have-what-it-takes-be-good-nba-general-manager/

Another coach/GM, Bill Belichick, was asked about it at Patriots' OTAs today and here's what he said.

One man who has had a bit of success as both a coach and an executive and still fills both roles believes that Stevens’s background should help.

“There’s a lot of lines that run together there,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “You can’t be the head coach and not be aware of contracts and acquisitions and things like that. I don’t know exactly how they’re set up, and each situation is a little bit different, but Brad has enough experience in basketball and with the Celtics and with the NBA to handle all the things that he’ll need to be handling.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/05/sports/does-celtics-brad-stevens-have-what-it-takes-be-good-nba-general-manager/

:]

This is kinda the fun about discussing teams. Fan bases always know better. Always know exactly who needs to be hired/fired, subbed in or out. And with a billion-and-one opinions flying around, there's always someone that's right. We all have our "called it!" moments, that stick with us more than the times we were wrong.

It's kinda why I prefer to tread the middle of the road with my sports opinions. I honestly don't believe the NBA is a place where you can hold a job for longer than a few years without being qualified for it. Let alone go on several decade long tenures without knowing what you're doing.

We don't know everything - not even close, actually

[cman88]

I think its just a case here that the team/front office really likes Brad stevens and his basketball mind but at the same time he lost the locker-room. So they want to keep his talent around and maybe the front office is a better role for him behind the scenes building a team around tatum/brown.

Also, while Ainge has been a great GM  fairly or not, I think his reputation has ruined him in recent years. Players don't seem to trust him because of the Isaiah Thomas situation and other teams are weary of dealing with him due to his reputation of wanting to "win" every trade. We will see if Brad stevens can alay those fears.

for whatever reason, the team didn't respond to his criticism. When he had young inexperienced guys they listened to him. Now that they are becoming stars and veterans they are tuning him out. So, it makes sense to me that we would want to shift to a "rah rah" ex-player type coach who might not be the best with X's and O's as brad was but can get in these guys ears.

its one thing for a tatum brown or smart to not listen to brad stevens who never played the game professionally. but if you have someone who played the game and was successful at it telling you that you are wrong? thats different