Boston Celtics: More Pressure on Ainge or Stevens?

The Boston Celtics could have a lot of people feeling a lot more pressure than usual this season

First things first, neither Danny Ainge or Brad Stevens are anywhere near having to be worried bout their job security. They’ve had success every step of the way, and even a misstep in the most important season since the rebuild began would not be enough to put their jobs on the line.

That being said, the two of them are dealing with, by far, the most pressure since the two of them started together. This is the first time they are favorites to win the Eastern Conference together, and the talent they have right now is incomparable to what they’ve had in the past.

On top of that, the roster turnover makes everything they have to do more pressing. Even if the talent is there, there will be more challenges than ever in the past.

You have to commend Ainge for the job he did in acquiring the talent needed to compete for a championship. The problem is that he has left the rest of the team in the hands of a lot of rookies and second year players.

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Not only is Ainge betting on the trio of Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Al Horford to be able to handle the best talent in the NBA, he is betting on four rookies in Jayson Tatum, Guerschon Yabusele, Semi Ojeleye and Daniel Theis.

He has assembled a team where the longest tenured player is still on his rookie contract, and his defense expected to carry whatever unit he is playing on. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown are two of the three most important defenders on the team this season, and they need to be able to slow down the best talent in the NBA.

There are a lot of ways this roster will not work, and that will fall on Ainge. He still has to fill the final roster spot, but that is not going to do much to establish any more security. This team is expected to have all the talent Stevens needs to contend for a championship.

The problem is that the depth of the talent is incredibly uncertain this season, and with how much is being invested in the players Ainge has drafted, he will get all kinds of criticism if they are not able to get Stevens what he wants.

For Stevens, it is a different kind of pressure all together. Right now, even if they are young and new, this is the most talent that Stevens has seen as a head coach. He got his college star back in Hayward, and one of the most special offensive talents this game has ever seen.

He has talked up a lot of the young talent on this team, making it clear that he believes Ainge has done his job. Stevens has done amazing things with make shift rosters, that were constantly changing in the middle of the season, so he is comfortable with having unfamiliar players.

There is no doubt that Stevens will get criticism if they Celtics are struggling to start out the season, but that is a very real possibility as he tries to settle the roster.

We all know that the Celtics are going to make the playoffs. Stevens has more than proven that he will be successful in the regular season. Even if the Celtics are not the top seed as everyone is expecting, that is not where Stevens will feel any pressure.

For him, it will all come down to the playoffs. He did a great job getting his team where they belonged in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. This year the Celtics are now expected to make the Finals, and that is a kind of pressure Stevens has never dealt with before.

Ainge could prove all his doubters wrong before the finals. These players can showcase that they are worth the spot that Ainge has given them well before they are faced with something that has been close to impossible for almost a decade: LeBron James.

James alone is the reason that Stevens is under more pressure this year. Even if Ainge has given Stevens a more talented roster than the Cleveland Cavaliers have, and even if Stevens blows away Tyronn Lue on the sidelines, James could take all of that away.

Nothing that happens in the regular season will matter if Stevens disappoints in the playoffs, and taking down James would make up for anything and everything that could have gone wrong on the way.

For Ainge, the real pressure would probably come in the next draft. Giving away that Brooklyn Nets pick was the toughest pill to swallow in the trade, and if that ends up number one again with the way they are talking about this coming draft class, that is where the real pressure could come from.

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Even taking that into account, Stevens is still faced with the taller task. There are a lot of reasons to doubt what the Nets pick will become. James, on the other hand, we all know about, and he is going to be the one putting the most pressure on anyone in the Celtics organization this season.