Stevens IS THE Coach of the year

[KGBirdBias]

I think this road trip solidified him as the COY. I know D'Antoni has done a good job with the Rockets but his stars are playing. Last night's win was the best win of the year IMO.

I can't even count the guys that are out but I believe it's 5 of the top 7....that's nuts. Then he takes what could be a summer league team or a DL team and beats...

OKC when they were playing well and for a playoff position
Portland when they were on fire
Kings and Suns nothing to brag on here
Utah when they were on fire and trying for a better playoff position


I don't know how he does it. The zone just flustered the Jazz. Rozier is a starting PG in this league and I think we need to keep him. He's no throw-in on any trade.

[fairweatherfan]

It's him or Casey, but recency bias and the attention-grabbing nature of our sweep on this trip has probably just about sealed it for Brad.

Good for him, he deserves it (so does Casey tbf).  Now next year he can deal with expectations being so high he basically can't exceed them, so we can all start tearing him down in earnest 

[ChillyWilly]

CBS has proven he has a knack of getting the most out of what he has. He's like McGyver locked in a storage shed. Just goes ok this is what I got I'll make a tank with 3 paper clip rockets and a blow torch made from old dirty socks and paint thinner!

In all seriousness guys must love playing for Brad. Everyone knows their role where to be what reads they have. Must make them feel confident when it's their time they have the tools to shine.

That was like a playoff game last night Utah is no joke on defense they really make you work.

Beyond that Brad is a tremendous leader he always gets his guys to buy into the WE not ME. Seriously every team he's coached all loved playing together. That never happens at this level.

[Big333223]

Lose Hayward? 16 game win streak. Lose Kyrie? 5 game win streak. Amazing.

All these injuries and the team is still going to wind up with the #1 defense and a better record than last season. Simply amazing.

[Donoghus]

I hope he wins it.  I'm not sure he will but its tough not to see him as a top 3 candidate.

[dreamgreen]

I really like CBS, not a fan of his continual switches on defense, lack of emphasis on rebounding and often lack of passing but you can't argue with results! He has done an amazing job this year, just amazing the wins this team pulls off.

[kozlodoev]

I really like CBS, not a fan of his continual switches on defense, lack of emphasis on rebounding and often lack of passing but you can't argue with results! He has done an amazing job this year, just amazing the wins this team pulls off.

I think he's great at setting and keeping the baseline, but find him lacking when he has to micromanage the game or adjust on the fly. But perhaps I'm just biased.

[jambr380]

Brad is just taking his coach of the year victory lap with what he’s been doing with our injured roster to close the season

Injuries or no injuries, I don't see it. Even taking Hayward out of the equation, this was a 53-win team that got better over the offseason -- and is on pace to improve by a couple of wins. We're pretty much just in line with expectations here.

so, having hayward for a seasons, irving uninjured, smart uninjured, and theis uninjured would not add any wins to this team this season? 

Just pulling this from the game thread as it seems more relevant here.

But, yeah, given a healthy team, it's not ridiculous to think that we would have won around 65 games this season and Stevens would be considered the runaway winner for COTY. Why is Casey - who has had a mostly injury-free season - considered to be the front-runner when the Raptors have only won a couple more games than this decimated Cs squad?

Stevens hasn't had the luxury of other candidates for the job. Casey has been discussed, but Brett Brown and McMillan also got really lucky with injuries and individual players breaking out on their own. Stevens has risen the level of the ENTIRE team and kept rookies and 3rd stringers
performing at an almost elite level - easily finishing 2nd in the conference.

This one really shouldn't even be close, folks.

[kozlodoev]

Brad is just taking his coach of the year victory lap with what he’s been doing with our injured roster to close the season

Injuries or no injuries, I don't see it. Even taking Hayward out of the equation, this was a 53-win team that got better over the offseason -- and is on pace to improve by a couple of wins. We're pretty much just in line with expectations here.

so, having hayward for a seasons, irving uninjured, smart uninjured, and theis uninjured would not add any wins to this team this season? 

Just pulling this from the game thread as it seems more relevant here.

But, yeah, given a healthy team, it's not ridiculous to think that we would have won around 65 games this season and Stevens would be considered the runaway winner for COTY. Why is Casey - who has had a mostly injury-free season - considered to be the front-runner when the Raptors have only won a couple more games than this decimated Cs squad?

Stevens hasn't had the luxury of other candidates for the job. Casey has been discussed, but Brett Brown and McMillan also got really lucky with injuries and individual players breaking out on their own. Stevens has risen the level of the ENTIRE team and kept rookies and 3rd stringers
performing at an almost elite level - easily finishing 2nd in the conference.

This one really shouldn't even be close, folks.

In fact, it IS completely ridiculous, given that there are just 20ish or so teams in the entire NBA history to win 65 games.

[Rosco917]

At times I look at the starting line-up and have to wonder if the Celtics really have a chance to win the basketball game, with the rash of injuries this team has had. Then I look down the bench at the subs and say, yeah...this is gonna be difficult.

Steven has been nothing short of fantastic. He's not perfect, he's sometimes too slow to call a timeout as many of you have pointed out. But in general, he's convinced this team of rookies, second-year players, and European castoffs that if they play within the system, defend hard, they can beat almost anyone.

In my book that is what a great coach is all about. 

[kozlodoev]

Stevens hasn't had the luxury of other candidates for the job. Casey has been discussed, but Brett Brown and McMillan also got really lucky with injuries and individual players breaking out on their own. Stevens has risen the level of the ENTIRE team and kept rookies and 3rd stringers
performing at an almost elite level - easily finishing 2nd in the conference.

This one really shouldn't even be close, folks.

And Stevens wasn't l lucky that Theis and Rozier turned into serviceable rotation player, that was just pure coaching skill, eh? Not even going to go into injuries.

This one probably isn't going to Stevens, and that's fine.

[jambr380]

Stevens hasn't had the luxury of other candidates for the job. Casey has been discussed, but Brett Brown and McMillan also got really lucky with injuries and individual players breaking out on their own. Stevens has risen the level of the ENTIRE team and kept rookies and 3rd stringers
performing at an almost elite level - easily finishing 2nd in the conference.

This one really shouldn't even be close, folks.

And Stevens wasn't l lucky that Theis and Rozier turned into serviceable rotation player, that was just pure coaching skill, eh? Not even going to go into injuries.

This one probably isn't going to Stevens, and that's fine.

Stevens has been working with Rozier for 3 years. I am going to assume that he has had more to do with Rozier's success than McMillan had to do with Oladipo lighting the world on fire from day 1 with the Pacers.

It's like you don't want Stevens to win it or [somehow] don't believe that he deserves it. From a Cs fan perspective, there is really no argument for anybody else. From a more objective point of view, you would have to genuinely dislike Stevens to not vote for him. Somebody like Casey had his team perform exactly to expectations. Heck, the Cs finished in 1st place last year with AB and Crowder as their 3rd and 4th best players and Stevens didn't even finish in the top 3. You can't have it both ways.

[fairweatherfan]

I mean....

- we turned over nearly the entire roster

- we lost one All-Star 5 minutes in and the other two have been in and out

- lost 2 top bench players for at least the regular season, with Morris in and out, and Jaylen having some missed time plus an extremely scary head injury. Only Tatum and Rozier have been consistently healthy in our rotation.

- 5 rookies have gotten rotation minutes, 3 of them fairly regularly.


And we're 52-23 having just swept a 4-game West trip immediately after beating OKC at home.  We have basically no seeding to play for and we're taking down teams scrabbling just to stay in the playoffs.  The last possession last night was 2 rookies, a 2nd year player, a 3rd year career backup, and a guy who was out of the league last year!

Whether Stevens gets the award or not, it's legit incredible what we've done with the guys we've had available. It's a testament to Danny for rounding up this roster, and to the players for making it work, but Stevens is right there in the middle of it. It's really been something to appreciate as a fan.  What a season.

[hpantazo]

Stevens hasn't had the luxury of other candidates for the job. Casey has been discussed, but Brett Brown and McMillan also got really lucky with injuries and individual players breaking out on their own. Stevens has risen the level of the ENTIRE team and kept rookies and 3rd stringers
performing at an almost elite level - easily finishing 2nd in the conference.

This one really shouldn't even be close, folks.

And Stevens wasn't l lucky that Theis and Rozier turned into serviceable rotation player, that was just pure coaching skill, eh? Not even going to go into injuries.

This one probably isn't going to Stevens, and that's fine.

Koz, I usually agree with you, but you must have some personal bias here. I just can’t see how anyon other than Stevens deserves COY this year. What he’s done is simply amazing , especially down the stretch.

[manl_lui]

I mean....

- we turned over nearly the entire roster

- we lost one All-Star 5 minutes in and the other two have been in and out

- lost 2 top bench players for at least the regular season, with Morris in and out, and Jaylen having some missed time plus an extremely scary head injury. Only Tatum and Rozier have been consistently healthy in our rotation.

- 5 rookies have gotten rotation minutes, 3 of them fairly regularly.


And we're 52-23 having just swept a 4-game West trip immediately after beating OKC at home.  We have basically no seeding to play for and we're taking down teams scrabbling just to stay in the playoffs.  The last possession last night was 2 rookies, a 2nd year player, a 3rd year career backup, and a guy who was out of the league last year!

Whether Stevens gets the award or not, it's legit incredible what we've done with the guys we've had available. It's a testament to Danny for rounding up this roster, and to the players for making it work, but Stevens is right there in the middle of it. It's really been something to appreciate as a fan.  What a season.

i can just see the day, when we win banner 18, Gordon Hayward embraces Stevens mid court finally completing their mission together as coach and player and winning it all