Boston Celtics: Team prefers third-year Celtic to Dwight Howard, DeMarcus Cousins, LaMarcus Aldridge

Every week, MassLive reporter Brian Robb’s Boston Celtics Mailbag provides a great glimpse into the decision-making processes for the team — and this week confirmed what has seemingly been apparent for a few weeks now.

Luke Kornet, who was running with Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford in the first unit during the first day of training camp, is preferable to Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens than any free agent veteran big man still available.

Robb revealed as much in answering a reader’s question regarding why the Cs weren’t pursuing one of the former All-Stars in free agency given Robert Williams’ knee surgery knocking him out of the first 8-12 weeks of the season and Kornet’s struggles so far.

This was Robb’s response to that question:

"“Money is not an issue to sign any of those guys you mentioned, the team clearly thinks Kornet (and their other big signings) are just better than those guys at this point in their career. Time will tell.”"

Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens has supreme belief in Luke Kornet

At this point, it’s obvious that Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens is a huge fan of third-year Celtic and career reserve big man Luke Kornet, who has started less than a quarter of the games he’s ever appeared in.

Having gone from signing a guaranteed two-year deal worth $4.5 million with the Chicago Bulls to signing minimum deals the past year plus, Kornet has had a rough go at it since leaving the New York Knicks — which is typically the opposite of what happens in a player’s career.

Still, Stevens’ recent social media activity points to an unwavering belief in the undrafted big out of Vanderbilt, and Joe Mazzulla certainly didn’t come to the conclusion of starting Kornet over Malcolm Brogdon without some persuasion from Stevens.

We shall see if the organization has their first significant Maine Celtics success story on their hands.