Brad Stevens’ reputation as one of the best coaches in the NBA has gotten a nice boost this postseason. It helps when Doris Burke calls out your inbound play perfectly on national television, giving even a casual basketball fan a clear understanding of one of the best coaching moves of the playoffs.
Stevens’ reputation among players, fans and other coaches is an interesting dichotomy of expectations and understanding in sports. While it’s assumed among fans that Stevens has done a great job with the Celtics this season, coaches seem to think he wasn’t worthy of coach of the year votes this season.
Some nuanced NBA fans will say he’s had plenty to work with in Boston despite the loss of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward this season. And according to NESN, LeBron James says the credit Stevens has gotten for coaching up Boston this season has been “overblown,” although he did not necessarily mean it as a slight against him.
“I think it has been a little bit overblown this year because of the names that has been out,” James said. “Obviously, with Kyrie and Gordon and the injuries with those two big guys, but he has gotten the most out of everybody he has ever put in his position since he’s gotten to Boston.”
LeBron’s point isn’t that Stevens is a bad coach, but rather that the roster the Celtics have remaining isn’t nearly as depleted as many have argued in the past. The team finished second in the conference despite losing Hayward minutes into the season, and other players — some of whom, like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, were top-3 draft picks — have stepped up in Irving’s absence this spring.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘How can they succeed like this without Gordon Hayward?’ I’ve heard that,” James said. “He’s been out since the first quarter of Game 1, so it’s like do we even know who they would have (become)? He’s not even like been on the team. So we can talk from like potential, but he’s been out since the first quarter of Game 1 in Cleveland.
“I get it with the Kyrie thing. He was obviously a teammate of mine for three years, and I know what he’s capable of doing, but they got guys that’s damn good no matter if they are young or not, they know how to play basketball and their coach has put them in position to succeed.”
Stevens has made it clear that he doesn’t care about coaching awards, and the results on the floor are what matter most. But if we’re searching for bulletin board material before the series begins, this is probably as close as James is going to get to giving Boston some added motivation.
