For seemingly the first time during his tenure with the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens has a fully healthy roster heading into a season. With this, it appears the sixth year head coach is officially out of excuses if the team fails to perform in 2019.
Since accepting the job with the Boston Celtics back in 2013, Brad Stevens has been revered by many as one of the best head coaches in the NBA. He has been an All-Star Game head coach, brought his team to two Eastern Conference Finals appearances and has finished all but one season with 40+ wins.
Yet, even with these accomplishments, it appears fans still find themselves longing for more from their team’s head honcho.
Coming off of the success Boston had in 2017-18, as they ended their season one game away from reaching the NBA Finals without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, expectations were through the roof heading into 2018-19. With the two aforementioned players coming back healthy at the start of the season, coupled with rising stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown coming off of breakout playoff campaigns, the sky was seemingly the limit for this Celtics squad.
Fast forward several months later and you’ll see that, though they did have a relatively successful campaign, Boston never quite lived up to the pre-season hype. Although they managed to finish as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 49-33, the team’s up and down efficiency throughout the year coupled with their unceremonious second round exit to the Bucks made this past season little more than a letdown.
As for why the team failed to succeed in the way many fans and analysts alike had anticipated, that is still up for debate.
Some chalk it up to locker room drama created by Irving’s questionable leadership style. Others will say it was Gordon Hayward being thrust back into the starting line-up despite maybe not being fully recovered mentally from his brutal season ending injury from the year prior.
There are many excuses people can come up with as to why the team under-performed last season. However, at the end of the day, the simple fact is Boston just didn’t get the job done. That falls on coach Stevens.
A head coach is tasked with many responsibilities. From calling plays to be executed on the court to keeping the locker room together, it is up to the coach to make sure a team aspires to run like a well oiled machine.
This, however, was not the case in Boston last season.
Now, heading into 2019, it is apparent the franchise went through a few changes since their last campaign. However, depending on how one views them, these changes could very well be seen as positive.
While losing an All-Star is never an easy pill to swallow, for this specific situation it actually could turn out to be a blessing. Granted, the Boston Celtics lucked out by being able to (quickly) replace Irving with another All-Star floor general in Kemba Walker. That said, with Irving gone, the team now has nothing holding them back from reaching their fullest potential, both individually, and as an overall unit.
As previously mentioned, since taking on the mantle of head coach in Boston, Stevens has oft found himself with a roster riddled with injuries. For the first time in a long time, the Celtics appear to be coming into a season with health fully on their side.
If there were ever a time for Boston to unleash their full potential upon the league, 2019 would have to be it!
If the team ends the season in a disappointing fashion yet again, a majority of the blame will likely fall on the shoulders of the team’s head coach.
Frankly, it appears Brad Stevens is all out of excuses.