knickerbocker2k2 wrote:Throwback24 wrote:Brad Stevens is the twice the coach Casey will ever be. I Actually think he's a top 3 coach righ tnow.
Please tell us how you view a 2nd year coach with 37% winning percentage as top 3 coach. What exactly does he do that makes you make this bold statement?
Stevens is the most overrated coach in this league. Somehow he is brilliant coach who's brilliance doesn't translate to wins.
In the notoriously unstable world of NBA coaching, Boston’s Brad Stevens is one of precious few with unambiguous job security. He was hired by the Celtics prior to last season on a six-year, $22 million deal despite having only coached on the collegiate level. Both the length and terms of that contract spoke to the Celtics’ confidence in Stevens. To that point, most first-time NBA head coaches had received deals around three years in length worth roughly half as much as Stevens’ contract.
Thus far he’s been worth every penny and well more. Stevens is every bit the kind of cornerstone coach that Boston hoped he might be: A calming presence, a consistent motivator, and a canny tactician. Stevens has seen 22 players come through his huddle over the course of the season, fewer only than the Sixers and Wolves. He seems to have siphoned the best basketball from most of those 22—from Evan Turner to Avery Bradley to Tayshaun Prince.
“One of the responsibilities that I feel like I have is that we’ve got to get some of these young guys, whether they are ready for it or not, to be the guy that is making a play, not only to make a big basket late in the game but to stop a run,” Stevens explains, according to RealGM. “Just having the toughness or desire to want to make that play and I got to do a better job of making those guys believe it.”
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Stevens knows personnel. He’s put an overmatched squad in such great position that Boston has won far more games than it had any right to. Nearly half of his opening night rotation has since been traded away or downed by injury, and yet Stevens can’t help but have his team prepared and competitive.
This—along with an unimpeachable run at Butler which included back-to-back NCAA title games—is why Stevens will be linked indefintiely to any and every head coaching job that opens up, plausibility be damned. To be this young and this successful as an NBA coach is exceptionally rare. In that, Stevens is the dream candidate. He says all the right things and pushes teams beyond their reasonable limits. The only catch is that he isn’t even remotely close to being available, no matter how many times the rumor mill spins ‘round.
Stevens isn’t just a good, young coach. He’s already one of the best in the league when it comes to managing games and manipulating X’s and O’s. Boston doesn’t have the firepower to keep up with the league’s better offenses, yet when coming out of timeouts this season, the Celtics rank No. 9 in points per play, according to Synergy Sports. The rotating cast of Celtics players deserve credit for cutting hard, screening solidly, and making quick decisions. There can be no mistaking, though, that their choreography comes from the bench. Let’s poke around in Stevens’ ever-evolving playbook:
http://www.si.com/nba/2015/04/02/the-fundamentals-brad-stevens-boston-celtics
