So much for a quiet start to the off season folks. If you’re like me, when you first read the breaking news story that Brad Stevens had been promoted to Director of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, you didn’t believe it at first.
Sure, Danny Ainge retiring makes sense. But Stevens as his replacement, with the responsibility of being tasked with finding a new head coach to replace himself?
That has to be a joke, right?
Well, this is no joke! It is happening and now all of us Celtic diehards are at the edge our seats wondering who may Stevens be looking at his replacement and what kind of changes will he be looking to make to the roster he saw up close and personal all season.
Danny Ainge told us that Stevens would be a part of the Celtics for a long time, but I must confess I am still in shock over the fact that it will be as Director of Basketball Operations, and not as head coach.
I am as big as a Brad fan as there is, and even I don’t know what to expect from Brad Stevens, Director of Basketball Operations, but there are two takeaways that we can take from this shocking development as we head into the off season:
Takeaway #1 The Boston Celtics brass agreed a new voice was needed
There are two ways to look at this news. On one hand, Brad Stevens got a promotion yesterday, and that was in spite of the fact that he finished this season with a 500 record and a first round playoff exit.
Clearly ownership thinks quite a bit of Stevens if they promoted him and are more or less asking him to run the team even after a disappointing season. Then again, no matter how you slice it, ownership and Danny Ainge didn’t think that Stevens remaining as the head coach was the best thing for the Boston Celtics.
There is a strong possibility that Stevens himself didn’t think returning as the head coach was in the best interest of the Celtics. I never bought into the players need a new voice narrative. Even when former Celtics like Antione Walker suggested the Celtics need a new voice, I scoffed.
Well it’s time for this Brad Stevens fan and all Brad Stevens to stop scoffing. Clearly the Celtics front office and even Danny Ainge thought the Cs could benefit from a new fresh voice, and even a new perspective.
There is no way around the fact that by making this move, ownership is openly acknowledging the fact that while they have great respect for Brad’s basketball knowledge and insight, they see that there is a need for a new voice and perspective in the locker room.
Who will that new voice be? Will it be someone from the Brad Stevens tree? Will it be a former Celtic player? At this point we can all have fun speculating all of that, but we know one thing for certain: it won’t be Brad Stevens, and that alone tells us all we need know about what ownership thought about the coaching situation.
Takeaway #2 This Boston Celtics challenge is greatest Brad Stevens ever faced
This may come as surprise to some. It even surprised me when I first considered it.
Brad Stevens has faced some pretty big challenges already.
First, he left a great job to take a volunteer position for the Butler Men’s Basketball team in an effort to start a career as a coach. After that, as the head coach at little Butler University he built a college power that advanced to back to back national title games. Finally, he took over the tradition filled Boston Celtics as an NBA outsider with very little talent on his roster and very little faith from the outside that he could succeed in the NBA.
Despite all of that, he managed to take a team with NBA castoffs and marginal players at best and mold them into contenders with the help from Danny Ainge of course. Clearly, Brad Stevens can overcome challenges, but he has never faced a challenge like this.
As we all just saw against the Brooklyn Nets, our beloved C’s are not even close to championship team, and as he even acknowledged himself in today’s press conference, that is the expectation in Boston.
He isn’t being tasked with fielding a competitive team or a playoff team. He is being asked to build a championship team, despite the fact they have basically no room in the salary cap and what has developed into an awful contract in Kemba Walker’s contract. He has to put quality pieces around Jayson Tatum while working around no salary cap space and the Kemba Walker contract debacle.
As if that is not enough, he has to find a quality replacement as a head coach, despite having zero experience with any of this. Brad Stevens has never called another team to offer a trade, or run a draft, or told a player he was being released or traded. Brad Stevens has never hired a head coach, or oversaw a team’s entire basketball operation. Even for someone as brilliant as Brad Stevens that is asking an awful lot.
I think Brad Stevens is up to that challenge, and for the sake of all Boston Celtics fans like myself, I sure hope I’m right!