Brad Stevens: There will be no tanking

[clover]

There's a difference between developing younger players and tanking.  We developed nothing the last half of 06-07.  We sat out healthy young players and a healthy Pierce to secure a spot. In sitting out a healthy Pierce you essentially already insured a lottery pick.  Why sit out everybody else?  By playing your young players instead of borrowing subpar NBDL talent...You're at least putting a presentable product forward... In two of the three games I went to that year... Rivers found combinations that made big runs.  As soon as they got close they were pulled and we never saw the combination again. It was overt and pathetic. They were trying to lose. Short of somehow acquiring a one-in-a-million player like Garnett...How do you fumigate that culture?  I would contend that you don't.  It's a disservice to the paying customer...It's a disservice to the players...It's a disservice to the league. It's a disservice to the sport.

TP. Went to many games in the second half of that year and to see the team fight so hard to keep things close against the best teams only to have the rug pulled out from under them in the 4th quarter with Doc's overt tanking measures was sickening.

Really? It was "sickening"? Aren't you being a tad melodramatic? I mean everyone knew we were tanking like Rommel in North Africa. Why be so invested? We weren;t going to win a championship. We will most likely be horrible this year, why not relax and enjoy the ride. Besides last time you got 5 years of highly competitive ball out of it. Would you trade a few tanks this year to get another 5 years of high-level ball? Lighten up a little

Thanks for the advice but I think I will ignore it. I find overt tanking very distasteful. And that tanking didn't get us a championship or competitive team. Very good drafting by Ainge in the previous years, very good player development by Doc in the previous years and the opportunity to land the best two players available for trade that off season within a month got them that championship.

Tanking didn't land the C's a top 3 pick, We had the 5th pick. Whether we had the 5th, 6th, 8th or 9th pick that year, Ray Allen would still have been coming to Boston.

How do you know that?

[bfrombleacher]

Interestingly, playing hard seems to be a big part of his philosophy.

Sure, all coaches want their players to play hard but this guy seems to have it up front and center.

The focus on experience sounds so vague yet so right. I don't know what to think of it. But this definitely goes against tanking and I'm sure Ainge has considered this.

Quote from an interview with Brad Stevens:
https://youtu.be/y7S76ezgUzw?t=5m15s

At the end of the day, what I want all of our teams to do is really be all-in together. Any time you’re coaching a team of 15 individuals, no matter what industry you’re in, everybody has ambition and goals and personal drive. But at the same time, being able to agree on a common goal and really strive for a common goal is obviously a critical part of success, but also makes for a better experience. The most important thing would be committed to the collective good.

[Q_FBE]

I really don't get the fascination with getting the 8 seed, missing out on the best lottery in 11 years and getting swept in the first round.  I would fire Stevens if we get the 8th seed without hesitation.

Two teams in the NBA will get the 8 seed every year in the NBA. Stevens would be a candidate for coach of the year if the Celtics got the eight seed. This is a season of player evaluations, never for tanking.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Unless Danny deconstructs the team further, which I really don't see him doing at the moment, I predict we'll win more games than last year.

[Q_FBE]

Unless Danny deconstructs the team further, which I really don't see him doing at the moment, I predict we'll win more games than last year.

It would not surprise me either especially if Rondo comes back early on in the season. I predict more teams will hit the reboot option and the Celtics could benefit from being unknown and underscouted by other teams. 42 wins is more than 41, correct? Heck I think the cut line will be 38 wins in the East this year and perhaps less than that with the race to the bottom taking shape.