Why Brad Stevens is So Valuable

The Celtics biggest asset may be their promising young coach

At only 39-years-old, Brad Stevens is already one of the best coaches in the NBA. Stevens is an outlier in many aspects of the league.

In the first place, Stevens is currently the fourth youngest active head coach in the NBA and is the only one in this group not to have played in the NBA. The average age of a head coach in the NBA is just above 48-years-old, which puts Stevens well below average.

Another point about Stevens that makes him unique from other coaches is that his path to the NBA was a non-traditional journey. At the beginning of his coaching career, he took low paying jobs at Butler University and worked his way up until he was finally promoted to an assistant coach. After six years in this position at Butler, Stevens was hired as head coach during the 2007-08 season.

Stevens was extremely successful at Butler where he notched a .772 winning percentage over the course of six years. In five out of these six years at Butler, Stevens made the NCAA Tournament, and even more importantly, moved Butler from the small Horizon League to the larger more competitive Atlantic-10. As a result of this, Butler now plays in the Big East, an even more competitive division, against powerhouse programs such as Villanova, Xavier and Marquette. In the Big East, Butler has made it to the NCAA tournament twice in the past three seasons. Butler is now considered a top tier college basketball program.

Although, here’s why Brad Stevens is so successful.

First of all, Stevens is adaptable. The Celtics have had so much roster turnover in the past couple of years that during the course of the 2014-2015 season they staffed 40 players. At one point during this season the Celtics held a record of 20-32 at which point it was widely viewed among experts to be a rebuilding year for the organization, however, Stevens turned it around and the Celtics ended up finishing the season 40-42, making the playoffs as a 7th seed.

The ability to coach while not having the same core of players to work with all the time is extremely impressive, especially for a second year coach. He should be praised for his ability to win ball games while undergoing a massive rebuilding attempt.

In addition, Stevens does not overplay his players. He uses the Celtics deep bench to his advantage. Unlike some coaches, Stevens goes 11 or 12 men deep on any given night. He is not afraid to experiment with different lineups. Last year he started 10 different players. Only three players averaged over 30 minutes a game – the highest being Avery Bradley at 33.4 minutes per game.

Of players who played more than 30 games last year, rookies Terry Rozier and R.J. Hunter were the only ones who played less than 10 minutes per game. Stevens is very detail oriented on making substitutions, and his tactical thinking sets him apart from many other coaches.

Also, Stevens seems to get the best out of every player he coaches. He often sees talent where others don’t. After becoming acclimated with his roster, many of the so-called role players stepped up and became valuable assets.

Jae Crowder is a prime case of how Stevens has been able to get maximum  effort and production out players who are seemingly average or below average. Prior to the Celtics, Crowder barely saw any time in Dallas and even played some games in the D-League. When the Celtics traded for Crowder, he was considered the worst player of that deal, yet Stevens stuck with him Crowder and is now a cornerstone of the Celtics young core of players.

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With notable big man Al Horford added to the roster, Stevens will now be able to stretch the floor even more and play at the fast pace he has always wanted to play at. This season, we should expect big things from Stevens as he looks to make a deep run into the playoffs.