So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.
Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?
Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.
Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.
Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.
Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.
So tell me, who is this great coach who is available to be hired that would have had the experience to handle:
- Your possible best player coming back from a gruesome injury and struggling the whole year while trying to be productive and earn his $30 million a year.
- Telling a 20, 21, and 24 year old that led you to a quarter away from the Finals that they need to take much smaller roles because of returning vets and have them be 100% good with that and not let it effect their game.
- Having a mercurial superstar who loved talking about what a great leader he is but goes public with locker room stuff and show he is no leader
- Have a player on another team demand a trade, have all the drama surrounding it effect your star who is involved, have it become clear that many of your players are not in your future because they will be traded this offseason.
- Deal with several players rollercoaster seasons like Morris so good and now not, Brown being so bad and now so good, Tatum's good start and then not so good slow downhill slide. Rozier is a very good starter and so bad you think about not even playing him when coming off the bench. Hayward is nothing what you expected. Baynes has been in and out with injuries. Theis too. Three players gave you what you expected this year: Kyrie, Horford and Smart. No amount of coaching is going to change that.
Find me the guy that is available that is a good coach that would have handled all that and still come away with almost 50, if not 50 wins. Find me that guy and sure, fire Stevens. The only ones I can think of that may have done better are Doc, Pops, Carlysle....not sure who else. Kerr is kinda facing something similar in Golden State this year and he doesn't appear to be handling it perfectly. Spoelstra did handle the biggest pain in the ass player in the world, so maybe him.
But where is the guy that would have done a better job? Find him and then sure, fire the guy that in October was voted the best coach in the league by the 30 GMs in the NBA. Fire Stevens and he will have half the league looking to hire him, immediately.