First-year Celtics coach Brad Stevens has been a revelation in Boston. The former Butler coach has figured out how to fit a roster of square pegs into round holes, finding his new team in the playoff mix in the Eastern Conference even without their All-NBA point guard. Stevens, thanks to his wild success at the collegiate level, could have entered the league with a huge ego (like a certain former big-time college coach who attempted to bring his college style to the pro game in Boston), but he has done the complete opposite.
Stevens gives all the credit to his players for executing and making the right plays. He is all about positive reinforcement, and rarely, if ever, gets animated on the sidelines (see his reaction to Jeff Green‘s last second prayer to beat the Heat in Miami earlier this year). Stevens is able to adapt his coaching style to his personnel and reach his players on a personal level, getting the most out of his players on the way to creating a winning atmosphere in Boston – even without top-notch talent.
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When Rick Pitino came to Boston in 1997, he thought he had all the answers. For his first act of business, he did the unthinkable – stripping the title of president from Red Auerbach. He brought in some of his former players from Kentucky, thinking he could make his vaunted full-court press work in the pros. Pitino didn’t have the patience to wait for Chauncey Billups to blossom, and traded him for Kenny Anderson after 51 games, only to see Billups evolve into an All-Star just a few seasons later. Pitino refused to take the blame for the Celtics struggles, and had a famous press conference after a particularly tough buzzer-beater loss, exploding and saying, “Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door and Robert Parish is not walking through that door.” Coaching a young Celtics team and trying to pick up the pieces after a recently departed Big Three. Sound familiar?
Stevens has taken a far different approach. When asked of expectations, he says his only wish is simply for the team to get better each day. Assuming that is the organizational goal as well, Stevens appears to be the perfect man for the job.
One aspect that has made Stevens so successful is his willingness to adapt. He is implementing schemes based solely on the talent on hand – not insisting on doing everything in the same manner he did at Butler and expecting it to translate seamlessly to the NBA. In fact, Stevens has made a huge adjustment to his philosophy on guarding the pick-n-roll heading into this season.
Recently, Stevens explained to Grantland how in his previous 13 years of coaching, he has had his teams show hard and blitz the dribbler on the pick-n-roll. However, this year he has had his bigs drop, in more of a lateral hedge. When asked why, Stevens responded he discussed the situation with his assistants and decided dropping was the best for the talent on hand this season.
Keep reading to hear how Boston has surprisingly become one of the league’s best defensive teams…
Whatever Stevens is having his guys do on the defensive end, he should keep it up. The Celtics are 5th in the NBA in points allowed per game at 96.8, an inconceivable statistic after losing Kevin Garnett this offseason, the heart and soul of the defense for the past six years. They have one superstar defender in Avery Bradley, but no one else on the roster is a stud defender at this point in their career. Many expected the Celtics defense to implode this season with the loss of Garnett, but that has certainly not been the case. Stevens implemented great schemes for sure, but maybe more importantly, he gets his guys to play hard every night, which is half the battle on the defensive end.
Another reason the Celtics defense has been great this year is because their coach is never satisfied. Take the Celtics game on New Year’s Eve against Atlanta, for instance.
Stevens’ team gave up only 92 points, but the coach was still not particularly happy. For the first 20 minutes of the game, the Celtics defense was phenomenal, turning turnovers into easy points. Stevens had five bench players on the court to start the second quarter, including two rookies, and that five-man unit went on a 13-0 run and pushed the lead to 18. Rather than push or even just maintain the lead heading into halftime, the Celtics would allow the Hawks to go on a 13-2 run of their own to finish the half. The Celtics, as they have done many times this season, gave up the rest of the lead in the second half and fell to the Hawks by one point. The inconsistent play is to be expected with such a young team, but the defensive numbers are certainly promising.
Nevertheless, in his postgame presser, as any good coach does, Stevens looked more at what his team could improve on versus what he thought they did well. He expressed his displeasure with the team’s effort hustling back on defense in particular.
“They got us in transition, and that hurts, because you should be back…it all goes back to transition,” he said.
“The biggest disappointment for me is we didn’t set our defense – we didn’t get back.”
This is a game in which his starting lineup shot 25 percent from the floor and went 1-for-12 from behind the arc, and his starting frontcourt finished the game on the bench because of less-than-stellar play. Despite all that, the head coach’s biggest disappointment was the effort in transition defense. Stevens won’t criticize guys for when the shots won’t fall, and even drew up the final play for Jordan Crawford, who finished the game 3-for-15 from the floor. Effort, on the other hand, will definitely come into question if need be – you better believe the Celtics will be hustling back harder next time out.
There have been many college coaches who have tried to make the jump from the college ranks to the pros, with differing levels of success. One reason why many previous attempts have ended in failure is because the coaches expect to be the centerpiece of the organization in the NBA like they were at their college program. That is not the way it works in the NBA. It is a players’ league, and Stevens has, without question, embraced that philosophy. Coming to the Celtics, Stevens said his first act of business was to get to know his players on a personal level. He evidently was successful – only a few weeks after Stevens was hired, Rajon Rondo referred to his head coach as his new “best friend.”
Stevens is only 31 games into his professional coaching career, and no one is comparing him to Gregg Popovich or Phil Jackson yet. All the same, heading into this season, many national pundits (and this esteemed writer) expected the Celtics to tank this season away. But these Celtics can’t tank – the coach is just too good.
Earlier this season, when asked about Stevens, Brandon Bass simply stated, “There’s something special about that guy.” It’s hard to argue with that.
Stevens will continue to get to know his players day by day – both on and off the court. He will continue to learn what makes them tick. All of that will help him know how to motivate his players to play their very best. Stevens is getting every last bit of talent out of this team, giving them a shot at a playoff spot that no one predicted was even possible coming into the season.
Will Boston make the playoffs?
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