Stevens Hire = Not Tanking

[LarBrd33]

He's on a 6 year contract and unless he does something really terrible... he'll probably be here for those 6 years.  We're looking at a 3-5 year rebuild.  These young guys are going to grow while Stevens grows.  Everything Ainge is doing is with the long-term vision of this team in mind.  Hire a guy who is 36... sure, why not?... he'll be in his 40s when we're finally ready to win.

Don't expect us to be competitive next year.  Next year class will be in session at the School of Brad Stevens. 

[Celtics4ever]

I agree.   This means the team will grow and he will teach.   I would not call it tanking and trying to lose games but we will lose some as he learns.   But this is not hire a guy and tank like we did for Duncan.

[guava_wrench]

I agree with this. Stevens can very easily be our Vogel or Spoelstra. Both of them were also young coaches with no prior professional coaching experience, but they're great player development guys who trust their players (but not to the expense of just letting them run amok a la Del Negro), and turn their team into winners.

Spoelstra turned the Heat into winners? I think it was Lebron who did that.

[rondoallaturca]

I agree with this. Stevens can very easily be our Vogel or Spoelstra. Both of them were also young coaches with no prior professional coaching experience, but they're great player development guys who trust their players (but not to the expense of just letting them run amok a la Del Negro), and turn their team into winners.

Spoelstra turned the Heat into winners? I think it was Lebron who did that.

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

[Boris Badenov]

I don't see this as definitive evidence that we're not tanking (though as I've said, I'm not sure it's as either/or as people make it out to be).

Stevens is, at this point, a high-potential but unproven NBA coach. His first year will be a learning experience and he may very well make mistakes that cost us games.

This is where the 6-year contract is actually helpful. Ainge is telling Stevens that he has a long leash, and can worry about the right things like long-term player development, even at the expense of winning in the short term.

By no means do I see any of this as increasing the number of games we win next year, compared to a situation where we hired any number of other coaches.

I think the hope is that our team and our coach will both be rounding into form in 2-5 years.

[Celtics4ever]

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Pat Riley is pulling the strings down there, Spoelstra is a figurehead.

[rondoallaturca]

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Pat Riley is pulling the strings down there, Spoelstra is a figurehead.

Yep, in every timeout, Riley telepathically communicates to his players from the stands while Spoelstra does nothing. Shoot, I'm stupid.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Pat Riley is pulling the strings down there, Spoelstra is a figurehead.

spoelstra could not coach himself to a hopscotch championship much less an NBA title.

he won those titles thanks to lebum, boshtrich, crybaby wade and the role players like chalmers, battier, miller, etc. oh and they can thank that last title to none other than KAWHI LEONARD by missing the game clinching FT in game 6. Miami should not have won that title. SA was the better team.

[ronaldo943]

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Pat Riley is pulling the strings down there, Spoelstra is a figurehead.

Yep, in every timeout, Riley telepathically communicates to his players from the stands while Spoelstra does nothing. Shoot, I'm stupid.

Yes, yes you are.

[hwangjini_1]

good points above. ainge is not tanking, but he is rebuilding with a plan and stevens has been anointed as the one to lead the team out of the wilderness and into the promised land.

ainge is thinking long term (3-5 years) and if that means 2013-14 will be a total train wreck in terms of wins and loses, then so be it....as long as the team is moving in the right direction under stevens.

as i see this hire and ainge's plan, one of the greatest things is that the team could win a total of 10 games next year and ainge and the owners will be unmoved from their long term plan of rebuilding. they wont panic. they wont throw stevens to the media hounds. and i am sure they have carefully told stevens that he has one of the longest leashes in the world.

one of the sales points to stevens had to be - "don't worry about winning at all in 2013-14. just instill your culture into the celtics team and have them learn to play team ball your way."

this is similar to what they did with doc when he came on board. i see the same thing with stevens. all the fanboy wailing and boston's notorious media noxious negativity will be ignored, which is precisely what the celtics need. 

ainge and the owners have the proper time horizon in mind - look beyond next year.

oh, and for what it is worth. the team truly will stink at wins and loses next year.

the team was 41-40 WITH KG and pierce. now they have no real scorer aside from green. and if opposing teams focus on him who can take up the scoring? how many times did KG or pierce bail the celtics out with less than 6 seconds on the clock? who will do that this year?

scoring will be a real challenge for the celtics. but that is ok by me.

i plan to watch the celtics and cheer for improvements and growth in the young players and the new team concepts stevens will establish.

all in all, i am surprised that i could look forward to a season that will be so devoid of wins, but i do.

[raynman]

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Pat Riley is pulling the strings down there, Spoelstra is a figurehead.

spoelstra could not coach himself to a hopscotch championship much less an NBA title.

he won those titles thanks to lebum, boshtrich, crybaby wade and the role players like chalmers, battier, miller, etc. oh and they can thank that last title to none other than KAWHI LEONARD by missing the game clinching FT in game 6. Miami should not have won that title. SA was the better team.

I think Spo deserves a little more respect as a champion coach.. he did pretty well in coaching the heat pre-lebron, unless you only watched the nba after "the decision" ..
did rudy t. win with hakeem,barkley and drexler? phil with shaq, kobe, karl malone and payton? sloan with stockton and malone? etc.. you may argue that some of those stars are old and lebron is a different kind of monster but Spoelstra ’s job isn’t as easy as everybody thinks.. i also hate the heat but he deserves some credit, and im not just saying this because im a Filipino..

[guava_wrench]

I agree with this. Stevens can very easily be our Vogel or Spoelstra. Both of them were also young coaches with no prior professional coaching experience, but they're great player development guys who trust their players (but not to the expense of just letting them run amok a la Del Negro), and turn their team into winners.

Spoelstra turned the Heat into winners? I think it was Lebron who did that.

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Yes, Spoelstra is a good coach and deserves recognition. But that initial claim wasn't that humble. The initial claim was that he turned the Heat into winners. That was a bombastic but empty claim. All we can say for sure is that he didn't get in the way.

And for every guy a coach 'makes' into a rotational player, there are guys they don't make into rotational players. Also, every coach in the league makes some players into rotational players because someone has to be out there on the court. I like Spoelstra, but has Cole developed any better than Bradley (where people tend to say Doc is bad at player development)? I Cole good enough to hand one's hat on?

And why should those 3 have problems coexisting? It is seems to me to be quite common that 3 top guys can coexist quite fine (Spurs? Celtics?).

[bfrombleacher]

Any time a coach can successfully get three players of that caliber to coexist while making young guys like Norris Cole into key rotational players deserves recognition IMO.

Pat Riley is pulling the strings down there, Spoelstra is a figurehead.

spoelstra could not coach himself to a hopscotch championship much less an NBA title.

he won those titles thanks to lebum, boshtrich, crybaby wade and the role players like chalmers, battier, miller, etc. oh and they can thank that last title to none other than KAWHI LEONARD by missing the game clinching FT in game 6. Miami should not have won that title. SA was the better team.

I think Spo deserves a little more respect as a champion coach.. he did pretty well in coaching the heat pre-lebron, unless you only watched the nba after "the decision" ..
did rudy t. win with hakeem,barkley and drexler? phil with shaq, kobe, karl malone and payton? sloan with stockton and malone? etc.. you may argue that some of those stars are old and lebron is a different kind of monster but Spoelstra ’s job isn’t as easy as everybody thinks.. i also hate the heat but he deserves some credit, and im not just saying this because im a Filipino..

Nobody cared about the Heat after Shaq and before the "thing with the two guys who were whining and wanted to win but can't on their own and cried and got their way in the end only to fail in the first year and finally get lucky for two years in a row".

But, yes, Spoelstra probably has to at least know something about managing people and X&O's.

But it's fun to hate.

Also, what guava_wrench said. The initial claim was ludicrous. Hate to say it but LeBron fixes all your problems. Plus, kill me, Ray Allen also helped a lot. Agh.