The TD Garden, home to the Boston Celtics, still harks back to the reminiscence of the franchise’s historic NBA win in 2008. The team was in its prime as the likes of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul “The Truth” Pierce took the rest of the NBA by storm.
Today, the ‘Big Three’, as they were affectionately nicknamed by the city, ply their trades elsewhere. In a span of two years – and what was to be a final shot for them at another NBA title – the franchise has traded its entire core that brought home the elusive 17th NBA Championship.
Eyebrows were raised when Danny Ainge, the Celtics General Manager, lined one trade after another. He first let go of Ray Allen to the Miami Heat in 2012. To follow that, Coach Doc Rivers left this summer to pursue a glitzier opportunity at the Los Angeles Clippers, while the duo of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pearce traded jerseys with the Brooklyn Nets.
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Reports have begun to surface that the Celtics might let go off Rajon Rondo as well. While debates still ensue if the team can recuperate without their All-Star point guard, there is a halcyon that the Celtics are building a whole new unit.
After witnessing Rivers sign a contract to govern another team’s roster, the Celtics decided to sign an unheralded NBA coaching talent by the name of Brad Stevens; an unexpected choice. On other hand, irrespective of the criticism, we can level at the Celtics management; the hiring of Stevens is a decision that was astutely made.
Stevens, the outgoing Butler University coach, is a proven candidate amongst college ranks. He led his team to two consecutive NCAA finals. By no means should Stevens be remarked as a poor choice to coach an NBA team. He may not have been the favourite to take on the hot seat at Boston but he sure does have the right stature to exemplify.
Stevens, now 36, has 166 wins in the NCAA as a head coach at an average of 28 wins per season. If he were to continue winning at that rate, he would have eclipsed Mike Krzyzewski’s record that stands at 957. Although it might be a lot to expect the Indiana native to surmount the feat achieved by Coach K (college game’s greatest and best active coach), he indubitably has the potential to.
His strength lies within transforming a mediocre group of young guys to phenomenal draft picks. Stevens also adheres to strong coach-player relationships and many who played under him, described him as a fatherly figure. He could be just 36 but given his repertoire, Stevens in many ways, was what the Celtics needed.
Critics could pan out the hire of Stevens as a poor decision, relating him with the dilemma that the Celtics suffered when they last brought in someone from college. Any coach emerging from the college sector to employ his skills at Boston is inevitably compared to the debacle of Rick Pitino – Celtics’ coach from 97-01.
But the difference to the team that Stevens is taking over than the one Pitino was handed with is the age and potential. Despite the prowess that Pitino authenticated during his stint at Boston, the players who played under him had nowhere near the potential that Stevens’s team will.
In addition, Pitino’s group was aging out of the NBA – just when other teams began to rebuild around a corpus of young talent. When Stevens sits at the desk where legends such as Red Auerbach have, he knows that not only is his team young and emanating, but the chemistry prevailing in this team is fleckless.
There is another aspect of Stevens’s personality which shouldn’t be shooed off. While coaching at Butler, he made every decision having thought over it a million times. That is precisely what he must have done by agreeing to coach in the NBA.
The transition from the NCAA to the NBA is harder than many expect it to, and Stevens was well varying of it. The most alluring opportunity for any young basketball mentor is to don the suit and tie as an NBA head coach. Stevens was no different but he took his chance after numerous calculations.
At Butler, he was sure to be venerated and more than that, he had job security guaranteed till 2022. But the Celtics offered more. He would be earning a lot more money for his family of two daughters and a lovely wife to survive amicably.
But money wasn’t just it. It was the pressure that would be heaped upon him once he takes to the courts of the NBA and play against not only the best of talents of America – but the entire world. Can Stevens handle that?
It won’t be easy. But he is more than capable.
The Celtics – by choosing to not keep their magma of players from the past few years – have accepted to the fate of the draft lottery in the next two years. If Stevens can guide the Celtics to the playoffs in 2014 or ’15, he should well be in contention for “Coach of the Year”.
But like his analytics will tell him, Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics are going to mould their talents from the upcoming drafts for the years to come. In 2013-14 and 2014-15, the NBA Championship might be far from the Celtics’ fetch.
But the team can assure itself a warranty that a new brigade of stars will rise in the esteemed white and green jerseys of the NBA’s most decorated franchise. This wasn’t a surety under Rivers or any of those senescent players that just departed.
But under Stevens, there is already a sparkle of rejuvenation – to become not only an Eastern Conference contender in the future, but to tyrannise the rest of the NBA, just like the good old Celtics of the 70s and 80s.
The rest of the NBA can rebuke what the Celtics just did this off-season. But ultimately, the city of Boston will always have the final laugh. And so will Brad Stevens.
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