Another Brad Stevens Appreciation Thread

[CelticD]

I'm not sure if anyone else heard Stevens coaching last night, but the mic was picking up on his voice a lot throughout the game. It was cool hearing him call out defensive rotations and praising the players when they got a stop, or contested shots. It was really cool to see (hear?).

I took a gander around the other blogs this morning, and Stevens came up quite a bit.

This was from the Thunder's blog:

Man if they were gonna get a college coach
wish it could have been Brad Stevens
Presti should have headed over to Butler as soon as or right before Brooks got the X
Heck I almost feel like Fred Hoiberg may have been a better choice ( however you spell his name) at least he made a name for himself in the pros so our offense would maybe be better? Although truthfully I think Fred is terrible too

Posted by Nature Man on Nov 25, 2017 | 11:04 PM  reply rec flag

From the Pacers blog:

Kyrie plays D now?
I know Stevens is a great coach but I didn’t see that one coming.

by squidbilly on Nov 25, 2017 | 4:42 PM reply  rec  flag

This was from the Wizards blog:

I've long thought Horford was one of the most under-rated plaers in the NBA
And while his addition would have certainly been a positive for the Wiz, I don’t think he would have been "the missing piece" simply because the Wizards lack the true "missing piece" that Boston has . . . Brad Stevens.

Posted by kalorama on Nov 25, 2017 | 11:07 PM up reply rec (5) flag

The Wizards in particular are interesting because 16 games into the season, Stevens was talking about how the then 14-game winning streak was invalid.

This was Scott Brooks 16 games into the Wiz season:

There’s a lot of teams that wouldn’t mind being 9-7 right now," said head coach Scott Brooks, after the loss to the Raptors. "We know we could have played better to start the season. But it’s nothing that I’m disappointed in."

What a stark difference in approach considering that the Wiz were a shoe-in to be a top 3 team in the East coming into the year especially after Hayward going down, and the C's were doomed for the same reason.

Things can certainly change when it's all said and done come playoff time, but man the C's really lucked out with Stevens.

[RodyTur10]

Stevens is brilliant. Being a basketball coach is a very tough job. Compare it to a football coach who just sits in the dug out and like the only thing he has to worry about is giving a motivation speech at half time and maybe replace a striker for another in the second half because of fatigue.

In basketball a coach has so many things to consider with his rotations and coaching. Like match-ups, balance, minutes etc. And you have to be able to adjust your gameplan on the spot. I think it's amazing how good a job he's doing. And the record speaks for itself.

[Emmette Bryant]

https://twitter.com/daadvaims/status/958192760988884992

[estendius]

Steven is a very good coach. But he needs more successful in postseason for proving himself as a elite coach.

[azzenfrost]

He is certainly proving himself better than Doc.