Brad Stevens Thread – Finding The Way

[themoneyteam2]

The Brogdon and Gallo acquisitions really soften the blow and make up for the horrendous White trade. Brad moves on quick from his failures which I like. He might have a future at this G.M. thing

The horrendous White trade lol you are such a prick and it’s hilarious. Thanks again for the countless laughs whenever I log onto this site!

[FlatearthZorro]

The Brogdon and Gallo acquisitions really soften the blow and make up for the horrendous White trade. Brad moves on quick from his failures which I like. He might have a future at this G.M. thing

The horrendous White trade lol you are such a prick and it’s hilarious. Thanks again for the countless laughs whenever I log onto this site!

It is a bad move, if the pick swap is not protected. 1 first and a pick swap for White IS WAYYY too much. Could still pay off, but it's a dangerous move.

[Curmudgeon]

Meh. pick swaps with rebuilding teams cost virtually nothing. Do you think the Spurs will ever prefer Boston's pick to its own in the foreseeable future? Maybe if Tatum decides to retire and take up tennis, but not before then.

[Hal14]

The Brogdon and Gallo acquisitions really soften the blow and make up for the horrendous White trade. Brad moves on quick from his failures which I like. He might have a future at this G.M. thing

The horrendous White trade lol you are such a prick and it’s hilarious. Thanks again for the countless laughs whenever I log onto this site!

It is a bad move, if the pick swap is not protected. 1 first and a pick swap for White IS WAYYY too much. Could still pay off, but it's a dangerous move.

It already did pay off. We made the NBA finals with White. The team hit an extra gear after the trade deadline. Offensive rating went up, defensive rating went up, our ranking in the league in assists per 100 possessions went up. We wouldn't have made the NBA finals without White.

Plus he's under contract for another 3 years. Very different than trading for a guy on an expiring contract.

Look, Brad knows and everyone knows that the White trade was a slight overpay. Brad did it because:

-Clearly he doesn't give a sh*t about 1st round picks on a contending team. More info on this here:
https://www.celticsblog.com/2022/8/5/23286366/dealing-future-firsts-extends-the-title-window-brad-stevens-derrick-white-malcolm-brogdon

-Brad knows that he overpays a little bit on certain deals, then other GMs around the league will be more open to working with him on future deals (and maybe even repay the favor later on down the line)

-He's willing to overpay to get a player he wants who he thinks can help move the needle.

Look, both trades were done in tandem. The spurs trade and the rockets trade. It was basically done as 1 big trade. These moves were done just as much to shift the culture in the locker room as they were done to bolster the team on the court. Brad knew he was adding 2 HIGH character guys in White and Theis. Brad coached Theis for a few years and Udoka coached White for a few years. These were calculated moves to get the person just as much as getting the player. Plus Theis and White had lots of years left on their contracts and are both mid level contracts which are good to use for future trades for salary matching.

And in terms of culture, clearly Freedom and Schroder aren't great culture guys. They're also not guys who contribute much to winning basketball. The team saw no reason to keep Bruno, the team was ready to give up on Romeo. Brad hates 1st round picks, pick swaps aren't that valuable. So it really came down to getting White and Theis in exchange for Richardson which is obviously a steal. Theis was HUGE for us down the stretch when Rob/Al missed games or had to get a breather. White was huge as well in terms of upgrading the defense and upgrading the ball movement.

Freedom was becoming a distraction with all of his comments about China and comments about lack of playing time. Richardson wasn't good for ball movement and Schroder was an even worse ball stopper..

So again, trade already paid off for us last year. And it will likely pay off even more for us this year since White will likely play even better for us now that he will have a full offseason and full training camp to get more acclimated to the team, the system, his role, etc. Plus we were able to use Theis in order to acquire Brogdon which makes us even better for this season and beyond..

[Smart2Nesmith43]

I much prefer Stevens using the 25th pick in the draft to have a 100% chance of getting a guy like Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon than using that pick and having like a 25% chance of it panning out and three years down the road getting... Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon.

[Celts17Pride]

I much prefer Stevens using the 25th pick in the draft to have a 100% chance of getting a guy like Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon than using that pick and having like a 25% chance of it panning out and three years down the road getting... Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon.

Especially when your team has a real shot at competing for a championship.

[Darthlukey]

The Brogdon and Gallo acquisitions really soften the blow and make up for the horrendous White trade. Brad moves on quick from his failures which I like. He might have a future at this G.M. thing

The horrendous White trade lol you are such a prick and it’s hilarious. Thanks again for the countless laughs whenever I log onto this site!

It is a bad move, if the pick swap is not protected. 1 first and a pick swap for White IS WAYYY too much. Could still pay off, but it's a dangerous move.

I agree with this, the future pick being basically unprotected was a mad overpay. But no point in crying over spilt milk

[Hal14]

by doing the horford, Theis, brogdon and white trades, here's what brad did:

He turned:
-Kemba Walker
-Bruno Fernando
-Enes Freedom
-Romeo Langford
-Aaron Nesmith
-Malik Fitts
-Nik Stauskus
-Dennis Schroder

Into
-Al Horford
-Malcolm Brogdon
-Derrick White

He turned 8 useless players into 3 REALLY good ones.

Brilliant.

[playa-hater]

by doing the horford, Theis, brogdon and white trades, here's what brad did:

He turned:
-Kemba Walker
-Bruno Fernando
-Enes Freedom
-Romeo Langford
-Aaron Nesmith
-Malik Fitts
-Nik Stauskus
-Dennis Schroder

Into
-Al Horford
-Malcolm Brogdon
-Derrick White

He turned 8 useless players into 3 REALLY good ones.

Brilliant.

Can't disagree, but it should be mentioned Stevens did have to use 2 1st rd picks. But yeah Stevens for executive of the year sounds about right for me.

[zoyathedestroya]

Evergreen gif.

[MagicBagley18]

It’s easier to be willing to give up first round picks when you have a top 5 guy like Tatum. Brad is willing to give up the picks when he has a team that can actually win it. Up until last season second half of the season the team wasn’t ready.

This is the first actual legit contender we’ve had in a long time imo. Not gonna get into a back and forth with the homers but never saw the IT teams as actual threats and even the bubble team wasn’t this good and 2019 even on all cylinders and good chemistry likely loses to a healthy warriors team in 6. History shows you need a bonafide mvp level player and we have that now.

[Andrew McCeltic]

I much prefer Stevens using the 25th pick in the draft to have a 100% chance of getting a guy like Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon than using that pick and having like a 25% chance of it panning out and three years down the road getting... Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon.

Especially when your team has a real shot at competing for a championship.

Would you rather have Horford or Sengun? Derrick White or Herb Jones?

[BK_2020]

I much prefer Stevens using the 25th pick in the draft to have a 100% chance of getting a guy like Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon than using that pick and having like a 25% chance of it panning out and three years down the road getting... Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon.

Especially when your team has a real shot at competing for a championship.

Would you rather have Horford or Sengun? Derrick White or Herb Jones?

Horford and Derrick White. Is this a serious question?

[Fencer reregistered]

by doing the horford, Theis, brogdon and white trades, here's what brad did:

He turned:
-Kemba Walker
-Bruno Fernando
-Enes Freedom
-Romeo Langford
-Aaron Nesmith
-Malik Fitts
-Nik Stauskus
-Dennis Schroder

Into
-Al Horford
-Malcolm Brogdon
-Derrick White

He turned 8 useless players into 3 REALLY good ones.

Brilliant.

Can't disagree, but it should be mentioned Stevens did have to use 2 1st rd picks. But yeah Stevens for executive of the year sounds about right for me.

3 picks, one of them high enough to be used on Senguin, plus a swap. And a couple of the "useless" players are ones Brad signed himself, so we can add at least one MLE signing into the "cost".

[Andrew McCeltic]

Especially when your team has a real shot at competing for a championship.

Would you rather have Horford or Sengun? Derrick White or Herb Jones?

Horford and Derrick White. Is this a serious question?

No, rhetorical. And I had the year for White wrong - the 2022 pick could've had Koloko or Patrick Baldwin, Jr. Jones 2021. So the net reward's even higher for us.

[BK_2020]

Would you rather have Horford or Sengun? Derrick White or Herb Jones?

Horford and Derrick White. Is this a serious question?

No, rhetorical. And I had the year for White wrong - the 2022 pick could've had Koloko or Patrick Baldwin, Jr. Jones 2021. So the net reward's even higher for us.

Horford and White are better players. By far.
And it's just nonsense to value draft picks retrospectively based on the best player available at the spot. That data was not available when the picks were traded.

[Hal14]

by doing the horford, Theis, brogdon and white trades, here's what brad did:

He turned:
-Kemba Walker
-Bruno Fernando
-Enes Freedom
-Romeo Langford
-Aaron Nesmith
-Malik Fitts
-Nik Stauskus
-Dennis Schroder

Into
-Al Horford
-Malcolm Brogdon
-Derrick White

He turned 8 useless players into 3 REALLY good ones.

Brilliant.

Can't disagree, but it should be mentioned Stevens did have to use 2 1st rd picks. But yeah Stevens for executive of the year sounds about right for me.

3 picks, one of them high enough to be used on Senguin, plus a swap. And a couple of the "useless" players are ones Brad signed himself, so we can add at least one MLE signing into the "cost".

Sengun is a nice player, who's put up some solid numbers on a horrible team. Please don't tell me you'd rather have him instead of Al.

[Captain_Caveman]

Both have done well, but 90% of this was Ainge building the core, and 10% Brad spending picks like a drunken sailor while going waaaaay into the tax to field a decent supporting cast.

I mean...

Tatum (Ainge)
Jaylen (Ainge)
Smart (Ainge)
Timelord (Ainge)
Grant (Ainge)
Horford (Brad, but also Ainge)

Brad spent one pick each to land Horford and Brogdon, and one plus a possibly killer swap to land White.

[Fencer reregistered]

Can't disagree, but it should be mentioned Stevens did have to use 2 1st rd picks. But yeah Stevens for executive of the year sounds about right for me.

3 picks, one of them high enough to be used on Senguin, plus a swap. And a couple of the "useless" players are ones Brad signed himself, so we can add at least one MLE signing into the "cost".

Sengun is a nice player, who's put up some solid numbers on a horrible team. Please don't tell me you'd rather have him instead of Al.

I think Brad was right to make the purchases he did.

But they weren't quite the extreme bargains people think.

Basically, he paid a total price similar to what it costs to get one major star (Jrue/Harden/Gobert/Mitchell/whoever), and got Horford, Brogdon and White.

The salary situation was also similar to just sending over expirings, in that Kemba was more salary relief than that, but Horford is somewhat overpaid.

[steefP2]

Brad paid fair price for a bunch of good moves. Just like his coaching he likes to hit a bunch of singles over the homerun move. Of course he is only in this position cause ainge hit the big one before.