Brad Stevens expressed excitement over the Celtics’ acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis, which might signal how the president of basketball operations views the 27-year-old’s future in Boston.
“You’ve heard me talk about our playing big, playing long,” Stevens told reporters, per MassLive’s Brian Robb. “Kristaps can play with any combination of our players. He can play with (Robert Williams), he can play with Al (Horford), he can play as a standalone 5. He has just gotten better and better and better. You see what he was doing this year, and I thought the games that we played against him and the games that I watched with the most intent against other teams, I thought he just had really taken another step, too.”
“We hope so,” Stevens told reporters when asked about an extension. “You know, we’ll see how that stuff all works itself out. but he’s a guy that we think can certainly be a really good player. He’s been a really good player this far and has only gotten better. I think to me, that’s the part that really stands out. Sometimes when you’re the fourth pick in the draft and get all these accolades and all this attention and all these eyes and you’re going through your growth process, there’s some ups and downs. But he’s at a point where he’s starting to, I think, really play at his best I’ve seen. So we hope so.”