While Brad Stevens may have been snubbed by his fellow coaches this past spring in the voting for National Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year, general managers around the league showed how highly they regarded the 42-year-old coach in NBA.com's annual survey this week.
Stevens was voted top head coach in the survey, beating out Gregg Popovich for the honor with 47 percent of the overall vote, ending a seven year run for Popovich at the top of the category. Stevens also took home the majority of the vote for best in-game adjustments (53 percent), while finishing third in the "best motivator" category with 17 percent of the vote.
Stevens was just one of the several Celtics featured in the voting on the variety of questions. Here are a few of the notable results for Boston fans:
- Kyrie Irving got 10 percent of the vote for best point guard and also received votes for MVP award winner for this season.
- Jayson Tatum received 10 percent of the award for most likely to have a breakout season. It's hard to imagine him doing much better than 43 percent shooting from 3-point range in year two, but some general managers want to see more I guess.
- The Celtics finished second overall among teams in several categories, including best team defense (behind Utah), most-fun team to watch and best youngest core (behind Philadelphia). They also got two votes for title winner this year, coming in second behind the Warriors at 87 percent.
- Marcus Smart ranked third in the "toughest player" category, while Terry Rozier finished fourth for "Bench player who makes the biggest impact."