Boston Celtics: ranking Brad Stevens’ 3 best seasons as C’s head coach
By Mark Nilon
2) 2016 – 17 (Season Record: 53 – 29)
Every current fan of the Boston Celtics will forever look at the 2016-17 season as the year of Isaiah Thomas — and rightly so!
That season the 5-9 Thomas saw himself averaging astonishing numbers of 28.9 points, 5.9 assists and 2.7 rebounds a game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 38 percent shooting from deep. With his play IT was selected to his second career All-Star game and, by season’s end, came fourth in the running for that year’s league MVP.
No doubt Thomas deserves all the credit he gets for the success the team found that year. However, lost in this hype — admittedly, sometimes by ourselves at HH — is the brilliant coaching of Brad Stevens.
This was the season we brushed upon in the opening slide where Stevens was bestowed the honor to coach the Eastern Conference in the 2017 All-Star game. With him calling the shots, the team registered a record of 53-29, giving them the first seed in the Eastern Conference and they went as far as the Conference Finals — their first appearance since 2012 — where they’d wind up losing to the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
The team ranked in the top-10 in points and assists per game and held the fourth best winning percentage in the entire NBA.
Again, this season is mainly regarded as the Isaiah Thomas breakout campaign, and it is certainly warranted. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t give ample credit to Stevens for helping the talented guard reach such great heights.
Regarded as the point guard whisperer, we’ve seen the head coach work his magic with numerous players who suited up at this position for the team, including the likes of typical small forward Evan Turner in 2015-16 where, with Stevens moving him to lead ball handler, earned himself a lucrative pay day that offseason with the Portland Trailblazers.
Thomas — without taking anything away from his individual efforts — is just the greatest success story of Brad Stevens’ point guard guidance.