Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens will lead his team in the second quarter against Denver … [+]
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In the middle of March Madness, at that time every year when college basketball takes over the headlines, Brad Stevens desperately wanted people to know that he had no plans for Boston and the United Kingdom. Leaving NBA to coach Indiana. “I’m a 44-year-old Ma-poll,” he said in response to the latest rumor. “I move around other people while driving, I eat Dunkin Donuts and I root for the Patriots. “It seems that despite profiteering on Twitter and elsewhere, Stevens plans to stay on as head coach of the Boston Celtics at this point. Stevens ’brief indication of Boston, however, comes after a growing subdivision of Celtics fans began publicly campaigning for coaching change.
Let’s start with what’s obvious: Stevens signed a contract extension with the Celtics just last year, a clear sign that – at the time at least – both sides were on the same page. And why wouldn’t they? While he hasn’t resisted criticism – he’s not a head coach, and they shouldn’t be – the Stevens Celtics teams have tended to perform far more often than not. Stevens has had incredible performances out of unreported players – famously helping turn Isaiah Thomas into an All-Star MVP candidate and finisher – many of whom have made the most of the success under surveillance Stevens.
In addition, Stevens has also been a major factor in the Celtics build-up of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart have gradually evolved into key players in the team. Robert Williams, drafted as something of a project, has recently started putting things together. .
This season, however, has been Steven ‘s biggest challenge yet and he looks a long way from giving it up. The Celtics are struggling and this time neither Gordon Hayward nor Kyrie Irving’s Locker Room injury is to blame. Boston has just struggled. Every time this team seems to find a rhythm, they lose it again. The Celtics have progressed only a handful of steady climbs and have come out smooth as they go against the best teams in the league. With a loss of time last night for the Memphis Grizzlies, the Celtics have once again fallen below the .500 mark and are now in eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Boston’s struggles have fueled the notion that Stevens, who led Butler on their historic 2010 run to the NCAA Men’s Championship Game, may be interested in returning to his college roots. Indiana, one of the worst programs in the country, moved on from Archie Miller and is hunting for a new coach. This is the kind of work that can attract even someone who has proven more than he earned his spot in the benefits. There is certainly a section of Indiana fans who would be thrilled to see his NCAA return. In fact, someone recently erected a shrine to Stevens outside the IU Assembly Hall.
In contrast, some Celtics fans who have been openly hoping Stevens will change employer or for the franchise to come to a decision for him. Fans calling for a head coach are an inevitable result of a talented roster sports team failing to come together. In this particular case, there are clear issues with the effort to play while the defense – as highlighted in last night ‘s game where they were outscored 76-48 in the paint at a time governance – has been a disappointment at best. While they continue to get results from Brown and Tatum (both legit All-Stars) the bench is full of inexperienced players who have not yet made a difference.
Not all of this on the head coach, but it definitely deserves a slice of the “pie pie”. With Stevens’ overall reputation lying in putting his players in the best position to win, it’s impossible to forget the lack of a “Stevens touch” this year. It’s been sad enough that a particular group of fans don’t see Stevens as the one who will take the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals but as the one who has yet to advance to the finals of the Eastern Conference. NBA.
It’s not a completely unfair thing but it leads to a follow-up question: who exactly will you replace Stevens with? Is there a real coach available who could be like this team to take over the croft. Should the Celtics blow up their long-term plan, which certainly includes Stevens, just because their young team has taken a step back while are they experiencing pain that becomes inevitable? There is a unique element of “the grass is always green” at play here.
Stevens deserves criticism and there will not be as many “we all have to be better” speeches, and there have been too many this season, to make up for that. Moreover, the idea that the Celtics would move away from him so soon after signing him to an extension would be a clear break to a very frustrating season. The future is not certain in professional sports but, at this point, Stevens is not certain that he is going anywhere.