Boston Celtics: ranking Brad Stevens’ 3 best seasons as C’s head coach

1) 2017 – 18 (Season Record: 55 – 27)

2017-18 was unequivocally the greatest example of how good of a coach Brad Stevens is and was easily his best whilst at the helm for the Boston Celtics. Sure, some could argue this statement… but they’d be wrong.

After an offseason in which they traded for All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and signed All-Star small forward Gordon Hayward, the season seemed to be theirs for the taking. After going all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals the season before with what was viewed as far less talent, with these additions it appeared all eyes were on Beantown to rival LeBron James and the Cavs to contend for the conference crown and represent the East in that year’s NBA Finals.

And then, on opening night, things took a turn for the worst.

Within the first five minutes of action against Cleveland, Hayward gruesomely fractured his left ankle after landing awkwardly on an alley-oop attempt and, just like that his season was over before it even really began.

However, even with his absence, the team was still finding themselves achieving much success and looked primed for a first-place finish in the East with the brilliant play of Irving, Al Horford, second-year wing Jaylen Brown and rookie replacement for Hayward, Jayson Tatum.

As the season progressed, the injury bug made its rounds with the roster, most drastically — aside from Hayward, obviously — biting Irving in late March when he opted for surgery to remove a tension wire in his left knee. After that, more surgeries were needed to remove screws from his patella that were inserted in 2015 and, in time, it would be revealed that he would be sidelined for the entirety of that year’s postseason.

Again, a season that started with such promise ended with a starting lineup of third-year guard Terry Rozier, second year wing Jaylen Brown, rookie forward Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Al Horford.

And yet, some how they continued to compete and succeed.

Despite their copious amounts of injuries, by the end of the regular season the C’s finished in the East’s second seed with a record of 55-27. With a rotation consisting of unproven and youthful talents, Boston made their way to within one game of reaching the NBA Finals, taking the Cavaliers to the final minutes of game-seven.

Improbable doesn’t even begin to describe their 2017-18 season. With everything that happened, it would have been a great surprise to have seen the C’s just simply stay afloat and, instead, Stevens guided them to as far as four minutes away from realistically going to the championship series.

Despite his excellence, however, Stevens unjustly lost out to Dwane Casey for Coach of the Year.

I get it, what’s done is done. Casey did a phenomenal job that season, guiding the Toronto Raptors to the first seed in the East with a record of 59-23.

That’s fine and dandy. However, it must still be stated — and never forgotten — that, despite this great success, it was relatively expected that they’d do well that season.

With everything that had happened to the Celtics in the begining, all the way to the waining months of that season, they very realistically could have completely fallen apart. Instead, however, they stunned the sports world and gave LeBron and co. a true run for their money.

While the players easily deserve their praise, it is Brad Stevens’ excellent coaching during such a difficult time that kept them in contention. With a lesser coach, perhaps they would have imploded right after day-one.