when does the coach start to get some blame? im losing faith in that aspect of it.
Exactly. The posters on this forum will blame everyone except the coach. The coach is getting a free pass even though:
He never stops the opposing teams runs
He plays guys one game then don't play them the next. No consistency.
He allows the team to get into major holes at the beginning of every game.
He goes super small but never EVER goes super big. Why hasn't he ever played Theis and Kanter at the same time?
The list goes on and on with Stevens. The one constant in this season and last is the coach and his inability to get these guys to play at a higher level. Isn't that the coaches responsibility?
I wrote this in another thread but it bears repeating given your constant calls that Stevens isn't given guys consistent minutes, roles or has a hierarchy on the team
Out of the top 7 guys of Kemba, Brown, Tatum, Hayward, Theis, Smart and Kanter, the Celtics have lost 46 player games to injury or illness. There have only been 5 games out of the 40 they have played that all 7 rotation players have been healthy enough to play. There have been multiple games of at least two of those players being out and a couple of games or so of three of those players missing the game together.
Add in long term injuries to Langford, Timelord and Poirier and having a bunch of inconsistent rookies, and what you see is a coach trying his best to balance the development of young players getting rotation minutes, with needing to win while overcoming the loss of a rash of injuries to top rotation players, while attempting to keep some semblance of consistency in roles and minutes through it all
I think Stevens has done a great job of getting this team to 27-12 considering the injuries and being stuck with one of the youngest and most inexperienced benches in the league. His hierarchy is clear:
1A Kemba
1B Tatum
1C Brown
4 Hayward
5
6
7 Smart
8 Kanter
9 Theis
10 Everyone else.
And if someone is out, everyone move up. Next man up.
As for playing two centers together(Theis and Kanter) when you only have two healthy centers that deserve minutes, well, that is just not good coaching or very smart.