The best indication of how good a job Brad Stevens is doing as President of Basketball Operations is that no one is really talking about him being a coach anymore.
At this point, no one wants to take him away from the job he’s doing.
Stevens at the helm has brought the Celtics an extra layer of stability. As good as Danny Ainge was at his job, Ainge ended up being the big-swing guy; his forte lying in fleecing teams as part of the big rebuild or big tear down. Ainge’s tinkering around the edges dealt more with signings. The only trades he made by the end of his tenure were salary dumps or the Gordon Hayward sign-and-trade to begin the infamous domino of Traded Player Exceptions.
Stevens stepped into the role and the strategy changed fairly quickly. The first round picks Ainge would never trade were suddenly on the table, and the Celtics depth was suddenly replenished.
A first rounder went out with Kemba Walker and the Celtics got Al Horford.
A pair of firsts went out with Romeo Langford and Josh Richardson and the Celtics got Derrick White.
A first rounder went out with five other players and the Celtics got Malcolm Brogdon.
When the first rounders weren’t necessary, Stevens turned two seconds and Justin Jackson into Mike Muscala.
He also signed Robert Williams and Marcus Smart to reasonable extensions, meaning Stevens’ fingerprints are on three of Boston’s five projected playoff starters, the sixth man, and a projected playoff bench player who has started 51 games this year and is the current Player of the Week.
Throw in the Muscala move, turning a DNP-CD regular into a potentially key bench contributor and it’s fair to say that while Ainge did a lot of the drafting, including the two main stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, This has shifted to more of what Stevens has envisioned.
When Stevens first left the sidelines to take over as President of Basketball Operations, it was widely assumed he’d play out his contract and find his way back to the sidelines. He was, after all, a basketball coach at heart, right?
But part of Stevens upbringing as a college coach included recruiting, and recruiting at a mid-major like Butler means looking for diamonds in the rough. Recruiting isn’t easy and the competition for top talent is fierce, leading to bold promises and … ahem … “convincing arguments.” But recruiting at Butler means finding good fits and talented guys with intangibles who will overperform.
How else do you get a team like Butler to two Final Fours? People gave him a ton of credit for coaching those guys to reach ridiculous levels, but they overlooked, to some degree, the talent in finding the right type of players who could not only play, but also accept his coaching and push to reach the upper reaches of their capabilities. (Thanks to commenter dminer for suggesting this line of thought)
Take that kind of talent evaluation into an NBA front office and it might explain why he was willing to part with multiple first round picks for White. At the time, people thought Stevens had gone off the deep end for a decent player with a suspect jumper. Now no one is talking about the price Stevens paid. Again, there's no better way to tell that something is working out well than the complaints or snide comments about it going away.
Stevens, with the help of a savvy front office staff with an intimate knowledge of how to massage the collective bargaining agreement in their favor, has brilliantly maneuvered in the margins to maximize the tradability of his draft picks, turn salary dumps into gold, and turn the Celtics into the deepest, most dangerous team in the league.
And perhaps more impressive is that Stevens was able to quickly recognize the few mistakes that he’s made and rectify them.
Dennis Schroder seemed like a bargain that the taxpayer mid-level two summers ago, but when that move proved to be counterintuitive, Stevens quickly pivoted and even got Daniel Theis back for the second half of the season. Theis gave Boston some valuable minutes, and the Celtics offense started to click when Schroder’s ball-stopping was removed from the equation.
Even Richardson, who was good in Boston, but still not quite the ball-mover Boston needed, was upgraded in the White deal. Anyone who wasn’t a perfect fit had to go.
That applied to Ime Udoka as well. It looked like Udoka was going to be Stevens’ most masterful move of all, signing a coach who looked to be part of the long-term vision for Boston. He helped turn the season around last year and the run to the Finals solidified Udoka as one of the league’s brightest minds on the sideline.
But when Udoka’s off-court behavior led to his suspension, and ultimate departure, Stevens had to put his talent evaluation to the test again. There were coaches on the roster with more experience, and coaches outside of the organization that could have been justifiable hires, but Stevens, surprisingly, turned to Joe Mazzulla for the job.
It was a critical decision made at a critical time for a young team with championship aspirations. The players were confused and hurt, and any wrong move threatened to undo all the team had accomplished to this point.
Mazzulla has shined in the moment. He managed to keep things moving rather seamlessly into a new season, and even though there have been ups and downs, the team enters the All-Star break with the best record in the league, and the undoubted championship favorites.
It takes a true team effort to win in the NBA, and that means more than just what happens in those 48 minutes every other night. It’s a top-to-bottom effort to make sure that the 15 guys on the sideline are the right guys, in the right roles, making the right plays every night. That starts from the attendants in the locker rooms, to the trainers, and coaches, all the way up to the front office and the owners.
On this All-Star weekend, players and coaches are getting a lot of shine. The Celtics are well-represented in Utah, and the credit they get is well-earned.
So, too, is the credit for Stevens. He has assembled a roster that fits, that is deep, and that works beautifully together on and off the court. There has been a lot of talk about how great the Celtics locker room is this past week, and it’s like that in large part because Stevens prioritized finding the right players and the right coach. It works because of everybody involved, Stevens included.