Rate Brad Stevens as a Coach

[Roy H.]

354-282 record (.557)

38-40 playoff record (.487)

Best season:  55-27 in 2018

Final season:  36-36

Made the Conference Finals in 2018 and 2020.

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Brad's tenure is interesting, because he saw teams both overachieve and underachieve.  He also saw some pretty significant roster turnover, and was stung by some pretty bad luck.  The Hayward and Kemba injuries came out of nowhere, and really set the team back.  Then, Kyrie completely flaked.

The positives:  he got his team to play hard.  He built a successful quasi-contender around Thomas, despite his size and lack of defense.  He developed the Jays and Marcus Smart.

The negatives:  He lost control of the chemistry of the team.  He admittedly got burnt out after the "bubble", and his team only finished at .500 in his last season despite having two All-NBA level talents.  He never reached the Finals.

[Donoghus]

B-/C+

Definitely helped bring them back from rock bottom.  Those early teams really played hard and overachieved.   3 conference finals.  Just couldn't quite get them over the hump and they seemed to stall out a bit at the end.    Pretty solid run all things considered.

[slamtheking]

I'd give him a B.  Very solid coaching that got his teams to overachieve until the final season where they seemed to tune him out.

very important point, he didn't get outcoached.  never had the feeling that the other team had an advantage on the sideline.  Can't say the same about the current coach.

[Vermont Green]

My question is if you give Stevens a B or a B- or a C+, what are you giving other contemporary coaches?  Here are the champions for the seasons that Stevens was a coach:

SAS
GSW
CLE
GSW
GSW
TOR
LAL
MIL

Some of those coaches that won titles are Popovich, Jackson, Kerr, others are lesser known.  I am not sure that Stevens coached any worse then these other coaches who had better players, better teams.  Is Nick Nurse a better coach (TOR in 2019)?  How about Tyronn Lue for CLE in 2016?  How about Mike Budenholzer?  Was each of these more about Leonard, Giannis, and LeBron or was it the coaching?  Would you rather have had any of these over Stevens?

I think that if Stevens wanted to coach again, teams would line up to hire him.  I think he was viewed as a top tier coach.

[Roy H.]

My question is if you give Stevens a B or a B- or a C+, what are you giving other contemporary coaches?  Here are the champions for the seasons that Stevens was a coach:

SAS
GSW
CLE
GSW
GSW
TOR
LAL
MIL

Some of those coaches that won titles are Popovich, Jackson, Kerr, others are lesser known.  I am not sure that Stevens coached any worse then these other coaches who had better players, better teams.  Is Nick Nurse a better coach (TOR in 2019)?  How about Tyronn Lue for CLE in 2016?  How about Mike Budenholzer?  Was each of these more about Leonard, Giannis, and LeBron or was it the coaching?  Would you rather have had any of these over Stevens?

I think that if Stevens wanted to coach again, teams would line up to hire him.  I think he was viewed as a top tier coach.

I would give him a B+, and I agree that he was an excellent in-game coach.  And, early on, he was excellent at getting the most out of his team.

But, I think he left at the right time, because he wasn't getting through to his team by the end.  He lost the team chemistry and couldn't find a way to get it back.

It would be interesting to see how those Kyrie teams would have done under Mazzulla.  It either would have been a disaster with the inmates running the asylum, or Joe's weird style may have appealed to them. 

[Vermont Green]

My question is if you give Stevens a B or a B- or a C+, what are you giving other contemporary coaches?  Here are the champions for the seasons that Stevens was a coach:

SAS
GSW
CLE
GSW
GSW
TOR
LAL
MIL

Some of those coaches that won titles are Popovich, Jackson, Kerr, others are lesser known.  I am not sure that Stevens coached any worse then these other coaches who had better players, better teams.  Is Nick Nurse a better coach (TOR in 2019)?  How about Tyronn Lue for CLE in 2016?  How about Mike Budenholzer?  Was each of these more about Leonard, Giannis, and LeBron or was it the coaching?  Would you rather have had any of these over Stevens?

I think that if Stevens wanted to coach again, teams would line up to hire him.  I think he was viewed as a top tier coach.

I would give him a B+, and I agree that he was an excellent in-game coach.  And, early on, he was excellent at getting the most out of his team.

But, I think he left at the right time, because he wasn't getting through to his team by the end.  He lost the team chemistry and couldn't find a way to get it back.

It would be interesting to see how those Kyrie teams would have done under Mazzulla.  It either would have been a disaster with the inmates running the asylum, or Joe's weird style may have appealed to them.

I will say that I agree that even good coaches have a shelf life.  Very few defy this.  And even the ones that do (Popovich, Kerr as examples), players and overall situations contribute to this.  I think Stevens recognized this and made the right move to become a GM at the right time.  GMs don't have the same shelf life issue as coaches.

As to Kyrie, I don't think Kyrie would have respond to Mazzulla.  That is not a knock on Mazzulla.  Kyrie has not responded well to any coach.  Simons will be a good test for Mazzulla.  Simons will not be asked to be a team leader, on the court or off, so there are fewer challenges with him than Kyrie.  But if Mazzulla can get him to buy in, that will be a win for Mazzulla and team (and for Simons for that matter).

[Vermont Green]

Put another way, if there are 32 coaches, maybe 4 should get an A, 6 B, 12 C, 6 D, and 4 F.  That would be a typical distribution.  So if Stevens is a top 10 coach, he gets  B or B-.  I don't see now he could be any lower than that.  And he was probably better than top 10.

[Who]

8/10