Coach Stevens is amazing but I do think it is very, very difficult for young players to gain his trust. His focus is on winning every game and he doesn't seem to have any interest in giving the rookies minutes unless he sees in practice that they're actually better than the guy they're replacing in the rotation.
I understand where he's coming from, but it's becoming very frustrating in the context of Rozier and Mickey.
That's frankly nonsense. Marcus Smart earned his trust by the second game last season. Phil Pressey was his binkie at times. Hunter's gotten some good time in the rotation when healthy. Olynyk played his rookie year a lot -- foul trouble was the only reason he didn't play more. James Young just flat out wasn't ready. Rozier hasn't looked capable of running the offense when he's been in there, unfortunately, and that's what they need him to do. The Celtics have 6-7 people ahead of Mickey in the rotation. There's no reason at all for Mickey to see court time, or even be active most days.
It's not Stevens job just to play rookies (which he does, when appropriate). It's his job to coach all 15 guys, and if Terry Rozier and Jordan Mickey are given real minutes just because he's curious to see if they magically develop better skills in real games compared to practice, he's going to lose the other 12-13 players on the roster very quickly. If this team had eyes on the lottery, and most of the players weren't going to be back next year aside from the rookies, it might be different. But that, thankfully, is not this team's current lot in life.
I'm sure Popavich doesn't know what he's doing either because Kyle Anderson doesn't get much run.
