Brad Stevens made his first public comments since his Game 6 postgame press conference on Wednesday during his weekly interview with Zolak and Bertrand on 98.5 the Sports Hub. The lengthy Q-and-A featured Stevens' candid thoughts on his own coaching in the Heat series, the Celtics' crunch-time woes and what lies ahead for this group in the offseason. Here are the highlights from the exchange:
Is there anything you would have done differently during the Heat series looking back at it now?
Stevens: I think it goes back to just individual games. Obviously, you always scrutinize individual games, especially the ones you lose with a fine-tooth comb. I’d say in every game you ever coached, there are moments where you wish you would have done one small thing differently. I’d say that would be more the case in individual games. As far as trying things or things we didn’t try, I’d say we tried quite a bit. They were obviously better late in every game. They were extremely tied together and they were the best team we played I thought by quite a margin because defensively they were very good and had options. Offensively, the difference between them and other teams we played was their ability to score in three ways. They could score off all the cutting and motion, which was very difficult for everybody to stop during the seeding games and the playoffs. I thought we did a reasonable job guarding most of that stuff. I thought our pick-and-roll defense got better throughout the series. It was poor early and it got better. The third way, which is what a lot of playoff basketball becomes, is they could pick on matchups and they tried to do that obviously quite a bit. They did a good job of different guys at different times trying to take advantage of that. There was a lot to improve upon in that series as a team. I certainly go back and look at all the different games and especially the losses, especially the ones that went down the wire and say, ‘What could I have done different from a strategy standpoint, tactic standpoint, substitution pattern, whatever the case may be. I thought Miami deserved to move on. They were the better team. Disappointed certainly in the result but not disappointed in the input from our guys. What they gave all year was incredible and we’re disappointed to not still be playing but our guys gave it all they had.
Offensively, do you feel like there were too many 3s taken late in certain games, especially Game 6?
Stevens: Game 6, they stayed in that zone which we had played really well against during maybe the past five halves of basketball prior to the very end of that game. Sometimes that’s what you get and we did get a few that were like drive-and-kick, inside-out, ball touch the paint, those step-in 3s that are great shots. With Adebayo in the middle of that thing, the way you were gonna get layups was to engage him at some level and then be able drop it to cutters. We missed a few opportunities at the rim but we also missed some open shots. The early part of the series, Game 1 when you go back to it, I think our issue was we were just a little too stagnant. I thought we got better and really attacked their man well and that’s why they went to zone quite a bit. The last five halves, we felt good about our attack. Each game, each ending of that series was a myriad of issues. I thought there were a couple of times in the series where the turnovers were the biggest factor at the end of the game because not only didn’t get us points but it led to points on the other end of the floor. There were a myriad of things, there’s no question we need to finish better than we did. It was an interesting year because we started off the year in the first couple of months where we were really good at it and then we went through a little bit of a spell there in March where we didn’t finish well and then it bit us in this series.
Did Miami do a better job of imposing its will in late game situations and if so how do you improve on that next year with the same group of guys?
Stevens: I think one of the things, the 'want to' was certainly there, the desire to be. We had some errors obviously, some were forced by Miami on great defensive plays, some unforced that led to Heat baskets, so you are imposing your will with your activity defensively. I think the other way that they did that was that at certain times, they used their physical strength to get to places. You saw that with Bam Adebayo in Game 6, you saw on several occasions with Butler and Dragic and that’s a credit to them. There are individual areas that we can improve on, there’s no question about that. There’s collective areas that we can improve on but I don’t think that was a ‘want to’ issue. We have to credit them for being better in those moments on both ends of the floor. They deserve that. They are a heck of a team. They are the best team we played in the bubble by far. It should be a heck of a series here in the Finals.
What are your thoughts on Marcus Smart taking more shots in Game 6 than Kemba Walker or Jaylen Brown?
Stevens: One of the things about the way they were playing us was a lot of attention at the top of the zones or even on the catch for certain guys was going to be more than others. I thought our guys made the right pass and the right play a lot. You saw Marcus hit those shots early in the game and I thought his best looks came in the third quarter, he had a couple of wide-open ones in the corner which he shoots a high percentage on. I don’t look at necessarily the quantity of shots taken by each individual, I look at the quality of shots generated by our team and there are certainly some throughout the game by our team that we could have gotten better looks but I also think we attacked a lot of what they were trying to do well. We scored 113 points in that game and didn’t convert much at the end. The deal is the other end of the floor, I thought they took advantage of us in several instances.
Was there a physical toll on your players by the end? Defensively, you guys trended down as the series went on?
Stevens: I don’t ever want to use excuses like that. It is what it is. You have to credit the other team for being able to operate in those circumstances and get to where they wanted to go. A lot of those shots were right at the rim or they put you in a bind. Their two shooters are ridiculous, they are two of the best in the NBA. Those other guys get to the basket and one opens up the other and then all of a sudden, you are in a real bind. For the most part, we had guarded well at times in the early part of the series. I did think for whatever reason, they really got to where they wanted to go and were able to put us in a tough spot.
You said there are things you can improve on going into next year. Do you think this group of players is capable of winning an NBA title?
Stevens: I think so much has to go right and bend your way. At the same time, this is the third time that I’ve been in the East Finals with pretty much three different groups. There are some similarities. Brown and Smart have been there for all of them, their roles have expanded over that time. Tatum was here. I think this is a really good group. I think from what was accomplished to where we can go and where we can grow, I feel like this group has a chance to be special. I think that’s really exciting and I’m really hopeful. A lot of that hope — when you look at Jaylen and Jayson’s, in particular, those guys' improvement — I looked at the first 17 games of the season and compared it to the 17 playoff games when things are ratcheted up, they improved in every statistical metric. When you think about that growth in one year’s time and with their age and where we can build, I think we have a lot of guys that can do a lot of good things and that’s a good example. Let’s get better at the things that we need to clean up and let’s see what we can get accomplished.
You guys need another big?
Stevens: I’m not going to get into that stuff right now. I’ll talk to you guys in a couple of months about all that stuff. (He went on to defend the contributions of his bigs, particularly Daniel Theis).
It changes every year which conference is stacked in the NBA. Looking forward to next year, Eastern Conference is gonna be stacked, right?
Stevens: It’s stacked. It’s not enough to stay the same as far as to expect that because you ended where you ended that you’ll be back there. That’s not the case. You have to improve within the group and have to improve from a coaching standpoint. We all have to improve. Everyone has to get better for us to have a chance to be back where we were and hopefully ahead.
You can check out the full interview on 98.5 the Sports Hub
BSJ Analysis:
1. Credit goes to Stevens for facing the music and taking part in this weekly interview despite the C's season coming to an end: This is a spot most coaches in any spot would skip after a tough finish to the year but he didn't shy away from taking accountability here. He didn't dive too much into specifics about his open coaching decisions into the series but it's clear he felt what most of us saw, a few subtle tweaks could have saved the Celtics at least a game in a series that saw four late-game collapses. There's no real benefit for him to sharing those now but admitting the obvious is a good thing.
2. He handled the Marcus Smart shot volume question wisely: Throwing a player under the bus publicly is never a good idea and so the conversations behind closed doors will be where the shot volume issues will be better well addressed. Smart wasn't the only player taking questionable 3s in the fourth quarter so making that admission on a team-wide perspective is fair. Crunch-time execution has to be No. 1 issue this team focuses on this offseason as far as internal improvement goes with how they fared against the Heat and Raptors in late-game spots.
3. This team's core starts with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown: A big picture look at the postseason shows just how far both guys have come and that was highlighted by Stevens in this interview. Those guys are locked into Boston for the next 4-5 years (barring any surprise trade down the line) so everything this team does moving forward should be centered around forming the best team around them. More reps with this current group with some added depth and shooting talent on the bench could simply be the answer and it sounds like that's going to be the course that Stevens is pushing for this offseason with the hope more internal improvements are able to bring this team to the next level.