NBA training camps open in the final week of September, and between now and then, we’ll be trying to answer 20 questions about the Boston Celtics as we head into the new season. Today we begin with a closer look at the next phase of Brad Stevens’ job as President of Basketball Operations.
I’ve had all summer to process Brad Stevens’ move to the front office, but no matter how often I write about Stevens as President of Basketball Operations, I’m still not fully used to it.
I’m sure Stevens has a moment here or there where he looks down at the court at the Red Auerbach Center from his office and finds it weird that he’s not preparing to coach this upcoming season.
The whirlwind of the transition to a bigger office to match the increased responsibility is still being felt. Stevens freely admits that the cap dynamics continue to throw him the occasional curveball and that there’s an emotional toll that goes along with trading away players that he’s coached.
Yet, Stevens has done pretty well so far making personnel decisions. He’s had a pretty solid offseason cleaning up some of the loose ends left over from the Danny Ainge era and pointing the Celtics in an acceptable direction. How Stevens would fare at this job is one of the main storylines of this offseason, and even the most pessimistic of observers can at least admit that Stevens is ahead on points after the first few rounds.
The Kemba Walker trade was solid. It accomplished a financial goal and brought back a useful player. The Tristan Thompson trade might be similar if Stevens keeps either of the players he got in return. The Josh Richardson trade has “steal” potential if a few things break right. And the Dennis Schröder signing was like finding a valuable gem at a yard sale, even if the Celtics are still trying to figure out how it fits in the house.
These were solid moves. The extensions he doled out to Robert Williams and Marcus Smart were similarly good, and the Celtics seem to at least have some measure of flexibility across the roster.
But, continuing the boxing analogy earlier, these were the equivalent of feel-out rounds for Stevens. There has been no real pressure involved with these moves.
Sure, he wanted to get some moves done under the old calendar for salary cap purposes, but there was still no deadline looming. There weren’t rumors floating around about certain players that would result in distracting questions. So far, Stevens has been able to operate in relative peace.
That will soon change, which will throw a new challenge at Stevens. He’ll probably get to make a few more moves in the quiet of the summer, but the season will be here very quickly. Invariably, some things will not go quite as expected either here in Boston, or somewhere else around the league. Opportunities will present themselves.
At the same time, news and rumors will filter into the Celtics locker room. Even if Stevens and his front office are able to keep things quiet, agents and rivals won’t. Eventually, noise filters into every locker room, putting players and coaches in tough spots.
The next phase of Stevens’ job will be much tougher than the first. Opportunities will come fast and they have the potential to create chaos. Stevens is a meticulous operator who puts great stock into the process of doing a job. And though he has been around the job while Ainge did it in the past, it’s one thing to watch someone drive and it’s entirely another to get behind the wheel yourself.
This Celtics roster has a lot of moving parts to it. Stevens has wanted to create flexibility with a lot of his moves, but with that flexibility comes some level of uncertainty for the players. If the opportunity to add a third star comes along, someone who believed he was a Bostonian for a long time will be in for a rude surprise. Fans will be clamoring for that third star, leading to potentially awkward situations (like when Jae Crowder got very upset that the TD Garden crowd cheered loudly for Gordon Hayward, then of the Utah Jazz).
And then the trade deadline could ramp up that pressure, forcing Stevens to make long-term decisions in a very short time. His ability to live up to that moment and make the right decisions for this team will be tested.
Pass, and he could pull off a heist or two.
Fail ... well, failure could derail everything.
Missing a chance to add the right guy, or jumping at the chance to add the wrong one, could be enough to change the course of what Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown want to do with their careers. Trading away too much could sap the team’s ability to properly build around their two pillars. Losing a trade target to a rival by being indecisive could have the dual impact of making the Celtics worse while making an adversary better.
How Stevens handles this will likely dictate the future of Tatum and Brown in Boston. If Stevens is truly prepared for the moment, he’ll make the kinds of moves that impress his two pillars to the point of inking at least one more contract with the Celtics.
If he isn’t, and if the trade deadline proves to be too stressful for Stevens, then another rebuild could be in the offing sooner than expected.
Things are about to get very real for Stevens, and I’m sure he relishes the challenge. Whether he’s truly up for it is yet to be seen, and could be the biggest question of this season.
The 20 questions series:
