Should Brad Stevens be fired?

[0003323344]

After sleeping on it and letting my post-game rage die down, I was probably a bit premature in my calls for Brad's head. I think there is blame that falls on his shoulders (PLAY GRANT!), but Ainge didn't help him out too much and neither did injuries. We need to make Finals next year. I don't care that the Nets are around, or that the Bucks will be hungry, or that the Heat have cap space. It's ours for the taking.

Did Stevens offer any explanation for his decision to pull Grant and replace him with Theis, who had struggled with Bam the entire series ?
Did he say why he didn't make a change when Bam took over the game late ?

nope. And nobody asked the question

But then again I guess you could also ask him why the team went ice cold in the last 5 mins.   Celts were only down 2 or 4. 

Instead the chucking show took over.   One after another after another misses.  And it was a 10 point lead in a blink of an eye.

Thats how careless the team became with the ball. 

All that effort to dismantle the zone ....gone. Because Brad has to play a small lineup with no force on the interior.  No 2nd chances via offensive rebounds. Because everyone is spread out. So its either 3 or nothing

Just terrible

Brad lineup choices... mainly in the 4th were brutal. Basically guys who don't deserve it in that particular game, get mins/finish game....due to familiarity or favoritism . Who knows

I really feel Brad is afraid to take command in games and lets the players take over instead. 2 years ago the same thing happened against Cleveland in game 7. It was a close game and in the 4th quarter the Celtics went 3-13 on threes. Didn't the Celtics learn any lessons in games 3 and 5 this year when they drove relentlessly in the paint and won both games? They were up 6 in the 4th quarter of game 6 and Miami went on a run and the Celtics panicked and started chucking threes and playing hero ball. That's when Stevens needs to call a time out and calm them down. There was plenty of time left to get back into the game. Three of the last four years they have been to this rodeo. They should know what to do by now but instead they keep doing the same things especially in the 4th quarter. That's on Stevens to a degree. I just don't think he can coach effectively at this level.

[Who]

Brad Stevens reminds me of Rick Adelman as a coach.

In the way their teams operate. They like to give ownership of the team over to the players.

Similarities to the offenses. Both like their bigs to move to the high post to create room for the guards and forwards to get to the hoop. Both encourage team passing / team based offense over individualism. Both create "read and react" offenses that gives more decision making to the players over set plays where the coach decides direction of the team.

They both created an egalitarian type offense where all players on the team had great freedom to act rather than a top down approach where the ball works through your 1-3 stars and the others play off of them.

Both create unity and a "buy-in" from the players through these things.

Rick Adelman created some beautiful teams but he didn't win as much as he could have in Portland (early 90s) or Sacramento (early 00s) when he had chances to win a title. His teams frequently had disappointing moments in the final moments of big games during those periods that cost them titles.

Was that solely down to the players?

Was the style of coaching responsible or partially responsible?

Does this egalitarian offense make lesser players do too much / do greater players not get the ball enough? Or fail to get it in dangerous areas where they can instantly attack in favour of a more team orientated positioning?

Do they create better regular season teams than playoff teams?



I don't know. It is just something that struck me the other day when reading this thread and thinking about Stevens as a coach and feeling reminded so strongly about Rick Adelman (when reading all these comments from everyone). And it's stayed with me in the back of my head pondering about it.

[GreenWarrior]

Every season we made the playoffs under brad stevens we were eliminated the same way every time - opposing team goes on a run and our answer to that is to Chuck up shots that never fall.

His 1st season here we'd shoot a jump shot with 20 secs. left on the shot clock.

His philosophy on offense is horrible and with young players it effects their defense which just cripples this teams chances to succeed.

But he'll be here for as long as he wants.

[PhoSita]

Every season we made the playoffs under brad stevens we were eliminated the same way every time - opposing team goes on a run and our answer to that is to Chuck up shots that never fall.

His 1st season here we'd shoot a jump shot with 20 secs. left on the shot clock.

His philosophy on offense is horrible and with young players it effects their defense which just cripples this teams chances to succeed.

But he'll be here for as long as he wants.

One thing you're eliding here is the fact that the team has made the playoffs under Brad every season except for year one.  Brad has had very young teams with a ton of roster turnover. Despite that they've gotten to round 3 in three of the last four years.

It's true there has been a similar pattern each time they've lost, but I think it's fair to say that in 2015-2019 they always lost to a superior opponent.

I think you can also argue this Heat team was a superior opponent. I think they were. Not from the perspective of talent at the top of the roster. But the Heat were deeper, bigger, and more experienced.

Brad has his flaws but I don't think there's any reasonable argument that he's failed to meet or exceed expectations based on the teams he's been given.

[LilRip]

Brad Stevens reminds me of Rick Adelman as a coach.

In the way their teams operate. They like to give ownership of the team over to the players.

Similarities to the offenses. Both like their bigs to move to the high post to create room for the guards and forwards to get to the hoop. Both encourage team passing / team based offense over individualism. Both create "read and react" offenses that gives more decision making to the players over set plays where the coach decides direction of the team.

They both created an egalitarian type offense where all players on the team had great freedom to act rather than a top down approach where the ball works through your 1-3 stars and the others play off of them.

Both create unity and a "buy-in" from the players through these things.

Rick Adelman created some beautiful teams but he didn't win as much as he could have in Portland (early 90s) or Sacramento (early 00s) when he had chances to win a title. His teams frequently had disappointing moments in the final moments of big games during those periods that cost them titles.

Was that solely down to the players?

Was the style of coaching responsible or partially responsible?

Does this egalitarian offense make lesser players do too much / do greater players not get the ball enough? Or fail to get it in dangerous areas where they can instantly attack in favour of a more team orientated positioning?

Do they create better regular season teams than playoff teams?



I don't know. It is just something that struck me the other day when reading this thread and thinking about Stevens as a coach and feeling reminded so strongly about Rick Adelman (when reading all these comments from everyone). And it's stayed with me in the back of my head pondering about it.

TP for the interesting post

I hope Brad Stevens can adjust to his players strengths than going for this egalitarian offense, to use your term. If Smart takes 22 shots in the game that decides your season, your gameplan is wrong or you don’t have the personnel who will execute your offense properly.

[PhoSita]

Was that solely down to the players?

Was the style of coaching responsible or partially responsible?

Does this egalitarian offense make lesser players do too much / do greater players not get the ball enough? Or fail to get it in dangerous areas where they can instantly attack in favour of a more team orientated positioning?

What's the difference between Stevens and, say, Steve Kerr?  Is it just the talent level of the players? 

I would say the Warriors have occasionally run into similar problems as the Celtics.  The Warriors at the end of Game 7 in 2016 looked painfully similar to how the Celts have looked as they went down against the Cavs in 2018 and the Heat in 2020.


I feel like Kerr and Stevens seem to have a similar kind of philosophy and instill similar offensive principles in their teams.

[Somebody]

Was that solely down to the players?

Was the style of coaching responsible or partially responsible?

Does this egalitarian offense make lesser players do too much / do greater players not get the ball enough? Or fail to get it in dangerous areas where they can instantly attack in favour of a more team orientated positioning?

What's the difference between Stevens and, say, Steve Kerr?  Is it just the talent level of the players? 

I would say the Warriors have occasionally run into similar problems as the Celtics.  The Warriors at the end of Game 7 in 2016 looked painfully similar to how the Celts have looked as they went down against the Cavs in 2018 and the Heat in 2020.


I feel like Kerr and Stevens seem to have a similar kind of philosophy and instill similar offensive principles in their teams.

I disagree. The Warriors offence in game 7 of the 2016 finals looked like crap because Klay Thompson was shooting from Cocytus that game and Curry was hobbled by injuries in that playoff run that no offensive scheme could've saved, our offence was p--- poor against the Heat in crunch time because we couldn't compensate for our lack of premium on-ball talent after Kemba's injury with off-ball movement and screens to get easy baskets like the Heat did.

If anything our offence wasn't egalitarian enough: we could've blended in more off-ball action to our high PnR (we usually use the latter to initiate our half-court offence) so we wouldn't be reliant on one or two on-ball creators who aren't at that super elite level anyways to carry our offence when defences clamp up. We were the team with the least amount of cuts (or at least we were the worst in a metric that attempts to measure off-ball movement) among all 4 conference finalists and the lack of off-ball movement really showed when we couldn't get easy baskets and were reliant on making shots against tough defences to keep our offence afloat.

Btw I'm not advocating for us to sack Brad Stevens right now (I did call for his head when Jaylen was getting blatantly frozen out last season but I think he's been barely passable in this regard this year), I just want to see Brad incorporate what I believe will be the three point shot of the 2020s into our offence.

[Uncle_Stingfinger]

would tristan thompson have changed this series?

[Bobshot]

Time to bring Doc back?

[gouki88]

Time to bring Doc back?

No!

[KGs Knee]

Time to bring Doc back?

YES!!!

[gouki88]

Time to bring Doc back?

YES!!!

So we can choke some more leads?

[SHAQATTACK]

Im for keeping him for now......i ve thunk about it ...and ...

I can't come up with a better available replacement .

[SparzWizard]

Time to bring Doc back?

YES!!!

Overrated

[BASS_THUMPER]

I Need a job




Imma put a application in then




*sippin*


*sippin*