Boston Celtics never tanked, per Brad Stevens' request

[slightly biased bias fan]

According to a new article by Tom Westerholm of Massive, when Brad Stevens was offered the Celtics head coaching position he only had one request, we don't tank.

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2018/05/boston_celtics_never_tanked_pe.html

[cman88]

we kind of did that first year though....

[perks-a-beast]

no need to when you have another team doing it for you. Thanks again, Billy King!

[Green-18]

we kind of did that first year though....

This is not true at all.  We needed to take on the salaries of Humphries, Wallace, and Bogans for the Brooklyn trade to be cap compliant.  Brooklyn and Boston were above the cap prior to the trade.  Tanking implies that the Celtics neglected to make moves in free agency to improve the team. 

Danny simply received an offer that he couldn't refuse.  Tanking would have been moving KG + Pierce for minimal assets in order to become a bad team for a few years.

[Fafnir]

I mean that tank was built in with the roster he was coming into.

It makes sense that he didn't want to run what Philly did and strip mine the entire roster, that sort of thing makes coaches very nervous even if its the "plan". Most get fired before the tank is over, Brett Brown is the one exception that I really remember.

[Green-18]

I mean that tank was built in with the roster he was coming into.

It makes sense that he didn't want to run what Philly did and strip mine the entire roster, that sort of thing makes coaches very nervous even if its the "plan". Most get fired before the tank is over, Brett Brown is the one exception that I really remember.

Agreed.  What Danny did is not in the spirit of "tanking".  Sometimes you need to turn the page on an era in order to move forward as a franchise.  It's safe to say that Danny allowed the KG and Pierce era to extend as far as possible.  None of us expected the return we received from Brooklyn.

The Philly tank job involved moving ALL competent players in order to be the worst team in the league.  They got rid of talented players who were either entering or already in their prime.

[celts10]

we kind of did that first year though....

People usually forget that the Celtics had a 12-14 record in mid-December during Brad's first season in 2013-14. For a team which everyone expected to tank, we were leading the division while the heavily-favored Nets (and the soon-to-be emerging Raptors) were floundering.

[Big333223]

Danny tanked. There's no question. He traded away all of his best players in hopes to lose games. He never instructed Brad to lose games and I think there was a real effort from top to bottom to keep the players always focused on winning but there is no question that Danny was trying to tank the team for 2 years after the '13 season.

[cman88]

we kind of did that first year though....

This is not true at all.  We needed to take on the salaries of Humphries, Wallace, and Bogans for the Brooklyn trade to be cap compliant.  Brooklyn and Boston were above the cap prior to the trade.  Tanking implies that the Celtics neglected to make moves in free agency to improve the team. 

Danny simply received an offer that he couldn't refuse.  Tanking would have been moving KG + Pierce for minimal assets in order to become a bad team for a few years.

Okay, he did it differently than Philly if you want to look at it that way. He never instructed Brad to intentionally throw games/season. and never gave away prized assets for nothing to just get worse. But that team the first year was pretty bad.

While Philly put their faith soley in the ping pong balls, Ainge was more into acquiring assets for future moves...Whether it was taking on expiring contracts to create capspace(which allowed us to sign horford/hayward) or trading for guys like Isaiah Thomas/Crowder and turning them eventually into Kyrie Irving.  And a little luck was involved that Brooklyn could do the tanking for them..

its partially why I believe the celtics "process" is farther along than Philly's.

[Ogaju]

Danny tanked. There's no question. He traded away all of his best players in hopes to lose games. He never instructed Brad to lose games and I think there was a real effort from top to bottom to keep the players always focused on winning but there is no question that Danny was trying to tank the team for 2 years after the '13 season.

No he didnt