Brad Stevens

[Ogaju]

what are the initial impressions?

Any first game jitters? Did he seem comfortable with the NBA game? With his players? The officials?

[NocturnalRebel]

I love Stevens and I think he's gonna do great as our coach.

He's had time to spend with tha team so I'm sure he's already comfortable with his players. I think it's just getting tha right rotations and getting use to tha NBA game and timeouts. He had 3 timeouts left but I think he'll get a grasp of tha game during tha rest of our preseason games.

This was a learning experience for everyone and they'll soon catch on. What I love about this whole thing is that even when Stevens is adjusted to tha NBA and tha players learn his system, he has plenty of room and time to improve and perfect it.

I'm excited for our new coach and I have high hopes for him.

[D.o.s.]

He seemed like a relative non-entity on the CSN telecast, but was talkative with players during free throws, and spent about 60% of the time available calling plays (against pushing transition baskets).

Lots of lineup tinkering, but that's the typical preseason thing. He certainly bailed on the starters quickly (a good thing, IMO). Seemed like he subbed out multiple players fairly often.

[Ogaju]

I could not get the game so I was resigned to watching Rivers and that constipation frown he always has on his face. Could only stand him for half a quarter so I tuned that one out.

[D.o.s.]

I could not get the game so I was resigned to watching Rivers and that constipation frown he always has on his face. Could only stand him for half a quarter so I tuned that one out.

My guess is that Brad Stevens probably won't be as good of a head coach as Doc Rivers this season.

[bfrombleacher]

Seemed like he subbed out multiple players fairly often.

He did say he was going to try out different lineups.

[bfrombleacher]

Edit: double post

Players that outperformed expectations for me:
AB, Faverani, Craw, Sully, Olynyk, G-Wallace, Hump, even Keith Bogans

Players that underperformed:
Bass, Lee, Green, Marshon

I think that's a nice testament to how Stevens can bring out the best in his players.

J-Craw shooting well over 50% was impressive. This J-Craw would certainly have helped out a lot last season but having a 25 year old with his abilities and contract can't hurt.

I never thought I would say this but: one of the many impressive things Stevens has done in his first NBA game is keep J-Craw on a leash.

The at-rim attempts and resultant FTAs felt fantastic. There were at least 4 cuts to the rim that connected, one of them by the resident veteran G-Wallace.

Rotations were slow leading to a field day of sorts by the Raps but the turnovers we caused shows the potential of the Stevens run defense.

I'm ecstatic about Stevens. So far he has been as advertised - a coach who brings the best out of players and is incredibly intelligent in the art of basketball.

[clover]

Edit: double post

Players that outperformed expectations for me:
AB, Faverani, Craw, Sully, Olynyk, G-Wallace, Hump, even Keith Bogans

Players that underperformed:
Bass, Lee, Green, Marshon

I think that's a nice testament to how Stevens can bring out the best in his players.

J-Craw shooting well over 50% was impressive. This J-Craw would certainly have helped out a lot last season but having a 25 year old with his abilities and contract can't hurt.

I never thought I would say this but: one of the many impressive things Stevens has done in his first NBA game is keep J-Craw on a leash.

The at-rim attempts and resultant FTAs felt fantastic. There were at least 4 cuts to the rim that connected, one of them by the resident veteran G-Wallace.

Rotations were slow leading to a field day of sorts by the Raps but the turnovers we caused shows the potential of the Stevens run defense.

I'm ecstatic about Stevens. So far he has been as advertised - a coach who brings the best out of players and is incredibly intelligent in the art of basketball.

Indeed it will be interesting to see what Stevens can make of Crawford, but a three-shot sample size is rather small to go on.

[Celtics4ever]

It's preseason.   I saw a lot of things to be encouraged and a few to be discouraged by but either way we win.    A lot of young guys played a lot of minutes.   They looked like they could ball.

Bradley, who had a nice game in some ways is not a PG.  The offensive flow was downright offensive at times when he was at the point.   I thought that it flowed better under Lee.   All the point forwards in the world can't fix the fact that this kid is not a PG.

[SHAQATTACK]

He admitted he didn't even know the way to the court .....so it had to be a lot on anybody , especially first NBA job, being young, and it all being new with only a couple weeks of practice in.

Factoring in no Rondo to coach to the team on court  ,  it all went a bit better than I thought it might have given all the new players, guys coming back from injuries,  and the team just being together for very long.

[slamtheking]

I think he'll do fine.  Can't be worse than Doc.

once he weeds out the underperformers from the regular rotation, I think we'll look better as a team.  I don't think we'll win a lot but we'll look better while losing

[Celtics4ever]

I think he will take some time to get adjusted.   I think he will succeed though.   Dude loves basketball.   Guys who love their job  and are competent often due well provided they give a good effort, which I think he will do so.

[Galeto]

Brad Stevens, changing up starting lineups in only the second game of preseason.  I find this very endearing.  At the very least it tells me that he will genuinely play whoever plays best, that he's not coming in with pre-conceptions, that he's constantly evaluating.  I hope this is true.  One of my biggest pet peeves with Doc was how dang conventional and sate he was and when he wasn't conventional, he went in the stupid direction of pulling KG 4.5 minutes into every game as if that was the magic elixir to keeping him healthy.

Doc would keep running plays even if they weren't successful as if he didn't watch the game or review the tape.  For instance, Doc came up with the gimmicky circle play two years ago where Ray would circle with a teammate usually under the basket in an attempt to throw off the defender.  I guess on a paper, it must have seemed creative and exciting.  In practice though, it never sprang Ray and then later Jason Terry loose at all.  It was such an useless time killer but this ineffectiveness never seemed to get the freaking play out of the playbook. The man transposed it to another player the next season for freaking sake.  I don't see this happening with Stevens.   

[green147]

Agree with Galeto. Stevens' willingness to adapt is positive. Already we saw better interior defense and rebounding in game 2 because he was willing to let guys like Faverani play extended minutes. That was what was most infuriating about Doc. He would say all these great things in press conferences, but he didn't really change styles or lineups in between games or during games to meet new challenges. It's why he focused so hard on "beating the HEAT" and not learning how to pass a less-skilled Knicks team on the way there. Let's hope Stevens continues to grow as a coach, but I'd say he's off to a pretty stellar start.

[SHAQATTACK]

For a perfectionist this time must be mind blowing .

All the new players, new league, new city, new boss,  everything form scratch and your best player and floor captain is out.  Not like he is walking into a established team with a set starting lineup.

I'm amazed he is putting on a good show as he has with so little time to prepare.

He gets an  "A".  for effort  and dealing with this mess and still making the Celtics look professional .