I don't understand the fascination with Stevens. I think he's been average at best so far (though somewhat improving in recent games).
Average for a rookie coach, or average for any coach? If it's the latter, perhaps the fascination is warranted.
Average. There hasn't been one thing I've seen one thing from Stevens that looks to me like it's going to be a definitive strength for him down the road.
His play calling isn't great. He doesn't set rotations or sub very well. He doesn't seem to understand or try to exploit matchups on the court. His team doesn't always play hard.
I'm willing to chalk some of these up to being a rookie coach. And perhaps it's not fair to compare him to Doc when he first showed up (because he came with 4+ years of experience and 3 playoff runs), but with Doc, for example, you could tell right away that team effort and offensive play calling would be strengths down the road.
Sure, there were some bumps early on with Doc, some of them he fixed, some of them he didn't), but you could tell right away what would make him a great coach
if he were to develop into one.
With Stevens, I see nothing. He looks to me like the Courtney Lee of the coaching profession. Perhaps it's just me, and I'll have to eat my words 3 years from now, but that's how I feel this season.