President Brad Stevens - Executive of the Year

[Fierce1]

It took Presti 18 years to finally win a championship.

Brad only needed 3.

Don't forget Presti had KD, Russ, and Harden.

This is not me saying Presti is bad.

Point is it takes time to win a championship.

That's why I don't understand why Brad is getting bashed for his drafting.

[Fencer reregistered]

Brad shipped out a lot of assets: Smart, Timelord, Nesmith, a bunch of firsts, etc. He also used some picks and UFA roster slots.

He got White and Hauser long-term, plus rentals of various lengths of Horford, Holiday, Porzingis, Brogdon, Kornet, et al., plus the prospects still on the roster.

White alone is worth the traded picks. The rentals were upgrades over Smart and Rob, whether or not you focus on health issues.

So yeah -- overall, Brad has done well on personnel.

[redslastlaugh]

The Celtics have yet to miss the conference finals since Brad Stevens took over Danny Ainge's job as POBO. That must be one of the more successful starts to an executive's career in the NBA. Usually, when you take on this role, there's some turmoil that caused the personnel change or you're in for some rebuilding or at the very least an adjustment/transition period.

If we don't **** it up, the Cs are poised to make their 4th consecutive conference finals appearance.

Narrator: They did indeed, **** it up

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Interesting data here:

Read on Twitter

Brad is not listed. Why? Because it's only for GM's who have made at least 10 draft picks.

Brad has made 8 picks..and 3 of them haven't even started their rookie season yet (Amari, Hugo, Shulga).

What's my point?

1) I think some folks on here have been unfairly critical of Brad's drafting, saying he can't draft. Well, we don't even have a large enough sample size to judge his drafting. Seems like at least 10 picks is probably a fair minimum threshold before any strong judgement.

Also, out of his 8 picks, only 2 of them were 1st round picks..those 2 picks were very late 1st rounders (28 and 30)..The 28 has not started his rookie year and the 30 has only played 1 season so far and it was a season where we were title or bust so naturally a rookie isn't gonna play much on that type of a team.

2) Someone on here mentioned memphis recently, pointing to the success they have had with late 1st round picks and 2nd round picks and said "Oh, why can't Brad be more like Memphis..he's not memphis, so he must be bad at drafting". Well, according to this data, Memphis is an outlier. Memphis has been outlier good at draft, wayyy better than every other team. So it's unfair criticism..especially since Brad hasn't even made 10 picks..

Plus, Memphis has had like more injuries than any other team in the league over the past few years which means more opportunity for young draft picks to get playing time..especially in comparison to a team like Boston who hasn't had nearly as many injuries and has had far more talent and more depth..

What metrics were used?

I ask in particular because Sam Presti was listed as being particularly unsuccessful at drafting.

The graph lists multiple executives that have been out of the league for years as active so I'm not too sure how much stock we should put in it. I think we can assume the cutoff point doesn't include Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins which are pretty significant data points. The thing with Presti is that he understands the key is volume. Nobody remembers the Ousmane Diengs and Aleksej Pokuševskis if you really hit on one late lottery pick. Kinda like nobody remembers the James Youngs and RJ Hunters when you have a Rajon Rondo on the ledger. But some posters don't seem to grasp that fact.

[redslastlaugh]

Interesting data here:

Read on Twitter

Brad is not listed. Why? Because it's only for GM's who have made at least 10 draft picks.

Brad has made 8 picks..and 3 of them haven't even started their rookie season yet (Amari, Hugo, Shulga).

What's my point?

1) I think some folks on here have been unfairly critical of Brad's drafting, saying he can't draft. Well, we don't even have a large enough sample size to judge his drafting. Seems like at least 10 picks is probably a fair minimum threshold before any strong judgement.

Also, out of his 8 picks, only 2 of them were 1st round picks..those 2 picks were very late 1st rounders (28 and 30)..The 28 has not started his rookie year and the 30 has only played 1 season so far and it was a season where we were title or bust so naturally a rookie isn't gonna play much on that type of a team.

2) Someone on here mentioned memphis recently, pointing to the success they have had with late 1st round picks and 2nd round picks and said "Oh, why can't Brad be more like Memphis..he's not memphis, so he must be bad at drafting". Well, according to this data, Memphis is an outlier. Memphis has been outlier good at draft, wayyy better than every other team. So it's unfair criticism..especially since Brad hasn't even made 10 picks..

Plus, Memphis has had like more injuries than any other team in the league over the past few years which means more opportunity for young draft picks to get playing time..especially in comparison to a team like Boston who hasn't had nearly as many injuries and has had far more talent and more depth..

What metrics were used?

I ask in particular because Sam Presti was listed as being particularly unsuccessful at drafting.

The graph lists multiple executives that have been out of the league for years as active so I'm not too sure how much stock we should put in it. I think we can assume the cutoff point doesn't include Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins which are pretty significant data points. The thing with Presti is that he understands the key is volume. Nobody remembers the Ousmane Diengs and Aleksej Pokuševskis if you really hit on one late lottery pick. Kinda like nobody remembers the James Youngs and RJ Hunters when you have a Rajon Rondo on the ledger. But some posters don't seem to grasp that fact.

Presti coming out so low honestly invalidates this analyst's entire methodology. Presti is the best drafter since, I dont know, Jerry West? He's been very, very good.

One thing about judging drafting is portioning out who gets the credit. In Presti's case, he is credited by the Spurs organization for the Tony Parker pick, but Presti wasnt the final decision maker who would get the credit in a broad meta analysis, RC Buford and greg Popovich would get that credit. Same with Jerry West consulting with the Warriors on the Klay Thompson pick in 2011. So it helps to actually have an understanding of the reporting around the picks.

The same is true in the reverse too. Everybody knows the story that Chris Wallace was ready to select Tony Parker but, at that last minute, was overruled by an elderly Red Auberach who canceled the Parker order and submitted Joe Forte as the Celtics pick. Nobody with knowledge of the Celtics blames Chris Wallace for that pick.

Obviously with Zach Kleiman, it is clear that Memphis's office has been outstanding in the draft. Brad Stevens, compared to Kleiman and Presti, doesn't make many picks, trades out usually, trades back frequently, and doesn't roster the picks he does make. The only draftees Brad has signed to standard roster deals are Hugo, Baylor and Jordan Walsh. The Grizzlies current roster includes Santi Aldama, Zach Edey, Cedric Coward, Cam Spencer, Vince Williams, GG jackson, & Jaylen Wells who were drafted by the Griz over the same time frame Brad Stevens has run the Celtics.

I agree with Hal, volume is important. No GM bats 100% in the draft and everyone has misses, so a component of success is simply taking a lot of swings.

edit: for anyone who doesn't know Tony Parker tells the whole story of his draft night, including the NBA rep handing him a Celtics hat and then coming and taking it back after Red intervened https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mWp4n7nBQB8

[phincsfan]

Until Stevens gets his first crack at a top 14 pick to select I'll hold back criticism.

IMO, DA was set in his way with his picks. I'm sure Stevens had his input, but in the end it was DA's call.

[ConstableGeneva]

The Celtics have yet to miss the conference finals since Brad Stevens took over Danny Ainge's job as POBO. That must be one of the more successful starts to an executive's career in the NBA. Usually, when you take on this role, there's some turmoil that caused the personnel change or you're in for some rebuilding or at the very least an adjustment/transition period.

If we don't **** it up, the Cs are poised to make their 4th consecutive conference finals appearance.

Narrator: They did indeed, **** it up

Yup. More on coach/players than on Brad. In any case, that would've been their last conference finals in a while. Breaking up the team was inevitable, JT injury or not. New CBA blindsided Brad and that's on him. I'm glad we got one, post-KG/PP.

[redslastlaugh]

The Celtics have yet to miss the conference finals since Brad Stevens took over Danny Ainge's job as POBO. That must be one of the more successful starts to an executive's career in the NBA. Usually, when you take on this role, there's some turmoil that caused the personnel change or you're in for some rebuilding or at the very least an adjustment/transition period.

If we don't **** it up, the Cs are poised to make their 4th consecutive conference finals appearance.

Narrator: They did indeed, **** it up

Yup. More on coach/players than on Brad. In any case, that would've been their last conference finals in a while. Breaking up the team was inevitable, JT injury or not. New CBA blindsided Brad and that's on him. I'm glad we got one, post-KG/PP.

Honestly, Wyc kind of screwed Brad by authorizing him to extend all the guys without telling him once he did the team would be sold and Brad would then be tasked with undoing everything he just did, lol

At the end of year presser when Brad was asked about the new ownership transition and what are Brad's expectations, Brad just said, "Listen, I just want to be kept in the loop pertaining to the big going-ons." And I remembered to the summer when Wyc dropped the press release that the team was going up for auction and Brad was asked, "when did you know that the team was going to be sold," and Brad said he found out when everyone else did

When you also factor in JB's knee, Jrue's hammy, KP's mystery viral illness, the Knicks games 1&2 and then ultimately JTs horrific injury, Brad Stevens is probably the least guy on the blame totem pole