Brad Stevens

[Celtics4ever]

Some of the guys who dis Stevens in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four twice.  I would bet money on it.  In fact, I bet they don't even coach. 

I think he has done ok with the roster he has had.   I think he got a lot out of the team early on and they over performed but I think he let some of the vets take over the airways too much.

This roster was built to lose and tank.

[BballTim]

Some of the guys who dis Stevens in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four twice.  I would bet money on it.  In fact, I bet they don't even coach. 

  Saying that some of the guys in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four almost implies that some of them could. I'd say that's extremely unlikely. And that's being generous.

[PhoSita]

Brad Stevens hasn't shown me anything to make me think he can't be a really solid coxswain for this team.

That's all a really good coach is in the NBA, if you ask me. How far the team goes is determined by the muscle and the determination and the teamwork of the guys rowing, working in unison.  The coach sits in the stern and keeps them all on task, directs them where to go, and provides an example of focus and discipline.  The coach's job is to keep an even keel, figuratively and metaphorically speaking.

In a very choppy, rough season, Brad has done exactly that.  It's been impressive, really.

[kozlodoev]

Some of the guys who dis Stevens in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four twice.  I would bet money on it.  In fact, I bet they don't even coach. 

  Saying that some of the guys in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four almost implies that some of them could. I'd say that's extremely unlikely. And that's being generous.

And neither of us can ever play in the NBA either, so I suggest we collectively shut up on all NBA-related matters then. Oh, wait...

[kozlodoev]

That's all a really good coach is in the NBA, if you ask me. How far the team goes is determined by the muscle and the determination and the teamwork of the guys rowing, working in unison.  The coach sits in the stern and keeps them all on task, directs them where to go, and provides an example of focus and discipline.  The coach's job is to keep an even keel, figuratively and metaphorically speaking.

So you're saying the coach has nothing to do with the determination and the teamwork of the guys rowing. Ok then.

[BballTim]

Some of the guys who dis Stevens in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four twice.  I would bet money on it.  In fact, I bet they don't even coach. 

  Saying that some of the guys in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four almost implies that some of them could. I'd say that's extremely unlikely. And that's being generous.

And neither of us can ever play in the NBA either, so I suggest we collectively shut up on all NBA-related matters then. Oh, wait...

  I didn't say that we shouldn't talk about the nba. I'm just surprised that someone would think that anyone here would be able to step into a situation like that and coach as successfully as Brad.

[blink]

I think it is pretty silly to try to judge how good of a coach Brad is based on this season.  I mean DA set it all up to fail,on purpose. 

All you can really judge about him is does he have his team prepared to play, and is the team still engaged / working together to get better despite all the losses.  I think the answer is yes to both of those.

We have a bad team this year.  I think once the roster gets seriously tweaked in the next year or two is when we start to figure out Brad.

[kozlodoev]

I didn't say that we shouldn't talk about the nba. I'm just surprised that someone would think that anyone here would be able to step into a situation like that and coach as successfully as Brad.

The original post attempted to discredit the opinions of people who "dis Stevens" because couldn't "coach Butler to a final four twice". In fact, the people who don't "dis Stevens" probably couldn't do that either, so there's that. It's was a fairly transparent ad hominem, which isn't really trying to address the actual concerns of people that are less than impressed with Stevens.

[mmmmm]

My take on Stevens is that I like his demeanor and some of the things he's done on defense.  Ultimately, the defense is simply crippled by the lack of an interior defender so I can't be too harsh on him there.   Still, I predicted at the beginning of the year that, given the superior perimeter defenders on this team, even without a great defensive big man there was no reason this defense shouldn't be overall at least above average.   That's where it has been most of the season, floating just into the top 10 at times and then lately floating out of it.   So it has, imho, performed about too expectations but definitely not exceeded them.

However, the offensive scheme he has used for most of the season has been an abominable mess.   I find it hard to fathom in the modern NBA that we don't execute hard picks to free up our shooters.   I don't understand why we don't run actual plays designed to focus usage through our best players and instead just pass the ball around like happy daisy chain, just letting whomever *thinks* he has a great shot go ahead and just take it.

Now, since Rondo has come back, there have been some changes.   He's clearly giving Rondo a LOT more reign over the offense than he allowed Crawford or Bradley and Rondo does a lot more to create open looks and matchup advantages for his teammates.

So it is possible that the crap offense we used most of the season was more symptomatic of the players Brad had available than of what he actually wants to do.

So I'm willing to wait and see how things play out.

Basically, I can understand where kozlodoev is coming from.   I like a lot of the 'demeanor' and 'intangibles' that Stevens seems to bring with him, but I think the jury is still out on the Xs and Os.   That's not saying anything really negative.  That's saying we still have to wait and see.

[kozlodoev]

All you can really judge about him is does he have his team prepared to play, and is the team still engaged / working together to get better despite all the losses.  I think the answer is yes to both of those.

I don't want to take over the thread, but I cannot not comment on this. Over the course of the season, the following happened:

1. Our most experienced player ripped the team for lack of effort multiple times in the media,
2. One of our top scorers had to be given a talking to by his dad(!) to get to play up to his potential somewhat consistently,
3. A player was send home because he got disgruntled with his role, and
4. The coach and the team's best player couldn't get on the same page about a fairly innocuous situation with a missed team trip.

Given all this, I am at a loss how Brad Stevens can get a pass on having the team engaged. But that's just me.

[PhoSita]

That's all a really good coach is in the NBA, if you ask me. How far the team goes is determined by the muscle and the determination and the teamwork of the guys rowing, working in unison.  The coach sits in the stern and keeps them all on task, directs them where to go, and provides an example of focus and discipline.  The coach's job is to keep an even keel, figuratively and metaphorically speaking.

So you're saying the coach has nothing to do with the determination and the teamwork of the guys rowing. Ok then.

I'd say the coach has maybe 40-50% to do with that, at most.

[D.o.s.]

Some of the guys who dis Stevens in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four twice.  I would bet money on it.  In fact, I bet they don't even coach. 

I think he has done ok with the roster he has had.   I think he got a lot out of the team early on and they over performed but I think he let some of the vets take over the airways too much.

This roster was built to lose and tank.

I bet you've never constructed a roster. I would bet money on it. In fact, I bet you've never even been a GM.

[PhoSita]

Some of the guys who dis Stevens in this thread could not have coached Butler to a final four twice.  I would bet money on it.  In fact, I bet they don't even coach. 

I think he has done ok with the roster he has had.   I think he got a lot out of the team early on and they over performed but I think he let some of the vets take over the airways too much.

This roster was built to lose and tank.

I bet you've never constructed a roster. I would bet money on it. In fact, I bet you've never even been a GM.

Neither have I, but I tend to agree with Stan Van Gundy.

You can look at some of these teams and say pretty confidently, hey, that team is a certified loser.  I'm NOT a GM, which means I'm not as savvy or knowledgeable about NBA stuff as a GM.  So if I can see it, a GM definitely can.

There's no way Danny Ainge saw this team winning 50% of it's games heading into this season.  Most analysts figured this team would win something in the range of 25-30 wins, and that looks to be just about right.


If Danny were interested in winning games this season, I think we would have seen a very different set of moves this past summer.  But Danny's goal has been to set the team up to be a winner 2-3 years from now.

[LooseCannon]

One important thing with Stevens is whether or not he can become the kind of respected coach who is a draw for free agents.

I'm not thinking so much about the max free agents but more about the veterans who become key role players on contenders.  Under Doc Rivers, the Celtics pretty much had their choice of MLE guys.  Will veteran players be a bit skeptical of Stevens until he proves himself by leading a team into the playoffs?

[vinnie]

He's shown me absolutely nothing so far this season.

How come I was expecting this from you?  Lol.  You haven't liked the guy since he got here, so I'm not surprised.  Even if he killed your cat, you shouldn't be this hard on a college coach that's taking his first ride in the nba on a really really bad team

I didn't know the guy when he got here. Based on his credentials, I expected someone who has solid grasp of that elusive ingredient that makes a team perform better than the sum of its parts.

I wasn't expecting a good team, mind you, mostly because even getting 150% of crappy "parts" gives you, more or less, crap.

However, we're 50 games in, none of this has happened. I'm looking at a team that plays vanilla defense, and is mostly meandering aimlessly on offense until someone takes a long jump shot or a tightly contested layup.

I can't see the team playing particularly hard, I can't see players outperforming their expectations, I can't see players responding enthusiastically to what Stevens is feeding them. Not all of this is his fault, but the combination of it, to me, means there's no redeeming factor for the coach here.

He may yet improve over the rest of his contract, but to reiterate -- he's shown me nothing about what he's going to be like as an NBA coach.

I agree with this 100 percent. I don't really have any idea what he is going to do as an NBA coach. 60 games in and they are 20-40, with a roster seriously lacking in talent. One of the things I wonder about is this: I love the fact that he is a positive upbeat guy, but at what point in the pros does a coach saying things like, "We're fine, just keep working at it, etc. etc." when the team is down 15-20 points start to become an irritant to the players? Maybe it doesn't, but these aren't college kids anymore. I think he might need to get a little tougher and drop the Mr. Rogers personality.