You're totally right. When the Celts play poorly or lose a game in the last few minutes, I hear all kinds of negative things about the team, especially Brad. When the Celts are on a winning streak? Crickets.
My theory on this is that Brad's job is the least transparent one on the team. Arguably, his job is less transparent than Ainge's, even.
What does Brad say to the guys in timeouts? What does he have them doing during practice?
How does Brad communicate to the players what things will earn them playing time and which things will get them yanked?
What does Brad talk to the guys about during film sessions?
We don't know any of that. We just have no real idea except what the players mention in interviews, and it's hard to know how much of that is even accurate.
Then there's the stuff we can see, but that is hard to really glean or understand unless you're a huge basketball X-and-O junkie (I am not).
What are the ins and outs of Brad's offensive and defensive schemes?
What things do the players do on the court that Brad tells them to do, versus those things the players do against Brad's instructions and game plan?
When it comes to players, we can see what they do on the court. We see how they respond emotionally to diversity. We see the decisions they make (or fail to make) in crunch time.
With the GM, we know the trades he makes. We know who he signs in free agency. We don't know about the trades that don't go through or all the free agents that don't sign. But we know more.
What compounds all of this is that Brad has a philosophy of remaining mostly calm and blank in public. He doesn't say very much, and he maintains an even keeled composure. You don't see him gesticulating, yelling, stamping his feet on the sidelines. After games, he doesn't tear into his players. He doesn't even tear into the refs. He doesn't give us much to go on as far as his emotional state, let alone his mental state.
All of that can be unsatisfying for fans who want something to latch onto with the coach. When the Celts no-show a game, or when a player takes a bad shot in crunch time, or the refs blow a huge call, people want to see Brad losing it. They want accountability. They want consequences.
Brad isn't Bobby Knight. For a certain kind of fan, that's a problem.
So in light of all of that, when things go wrong and there's not an obvious person to blame for a specific mistake or issue, Brad is an easy fall guy.
Why isn't the team playing well? The coach must not be motivating them. Why are the guys taking shots that I don't like? Must be the coach failing to discipline them. Why isn't the guy I like playing more? Must be because Brad refuses to give him playing time (as opposed to that player failing to do certain things behind the scenes).
Personally, I like Brad's demeanor. I don't think he's perfect. I get frustrated at times that the offensive gameplan isn't more focused on getting the ball into the paint. It bothers me that the team has never really been any good at generating free throws as long as Brad's been here. I also think that Brad shoulders some of the blame for the fact that the Celts in the last couple of years have arguably underperformed their talent level somewhat in terms of late game execution.
At the same time, when the team just generally seems to be playing poorly, losing focus, or failing to play in a cohesive way, I don't blame Brad just because I can't point to a specific player who is responsible. I just feel generally disappointed that the team didn't play up to their potential. To Brad's credit, he always takes responsibility for when the team doesn't play well.
Topic: Interesting - always Stevens fault went the Celtics lose (Read 7244 times)