Making The Coach Of The Year Case For Brad Stevens

Let me begin by saying that this Coach Of The Year race could go in a ton of directions. I can’t remember the last time there were this many worthy candidates. Whether you think it’s Brad or Dwayne Casey, Quinn Snyder, Mike D’Antoni, Terry Stotts, Brett Brown, Nate McMillan, there are a ton of guys you can make a case for. Casey reinvented a team and got them to the top of its conference. Synder, Stotts, Brown and McMillian all have their teams in way better positions than anyone predicted to start the year. D’Atoni has the best team in the league. I just wanted to take some time and look at the whole body of work and show why personally, I think this award should go to Brad Stevens. I know I know the Celtics blogger picking the Celtics coach what a fucking surprise. But if any other coach had been doing what Brad has done I would say they deserved it too. That’s why to explain my reasoning I am going to leave it simply to the facts. Now emotion involved, just raw production.

For starters, the record (52-23) is the second best in his conference as we head into April. They also have the second best point differential in the East and fourth best in the NBA. His team is still alive for the top seed. Pretty impressive when you consider the roster challenges he’s had to overcome in order to get there. Our first example of this came 6 minutes into the season once Gordon Hayward snapped his ankle. That 16 win in a row streak saved the season. Mind you this was the first time his team had played together and it consisted of a rookie and a guy in Jaylen who was being thrown to the fire in a new role.

Then January came around and Marcus Smart punched a glass or whatever. Brad being forced to make adjustments won 6 out of the next 7 games. But then right before the All Star Break the Celtics looked tired, and limped into vacation. All they’ve done since is go 12-4. Then Smart, Theis, and Kyrie went down, and this team kept on winning. Sinc that time (March 11th), the Celtics have the 6th best defensive rating in the league. They’ve maintained their ball movement and have the 12th best AST% at 60.4% and the 12th best net rating. This is all happening with essentially their Maine Red Claws roster. That’s where Brad really has a case over the other candidates. None of those guys have had this sort of success with this combination of injuries.

If anything, this recent run just confirms what we saw right after Hayward went down. People want to talk about Casey reinventing the culture in TOR, well what exactly would you say Brad is doing in that locker room? He’s instilling a culture in rookies and beating some of the best teams in the NBA while he’s at it.

The proof is in the pudding. The Celtics not only have the most road wins in the East and the second most in the NBA, but they also lead the East in wins against teams that are .500 or better (24-18) which is 4th in the league. In three point games the Celtics are 11-8, which just happens to be the most wins in the league. Some might say coaching is important in those situations.

On the season, the Celtics own the 5th best overall net rating while playing the NBA’s best defense. Offensively they’ve been average at best, currently ranked 18th in the NBA, but given everything stated above that’s actually pretty impressive. Remember, the Celtics have the 5th youngest roster in the league with an average age of 25.1. A big part to me when looking at the COY is how has he helped guys improve? Well, this team currently has four guys experiencing a career year in some way or another. There’s Terry Rozier’s career year across the board, Jaylen’s career year scoring and shooting the ball, Kyrie’s career year shooting, same goes for Horford. We saw the impact he’s had on Theis and Shane Larkin, giving these former cast offs and unknowns the Evan Turner/Marshon Brooks/Jordan Crawford treatment of suddenly making them legit basketball players. A good portion of this is on the players for putting in the work, but it’s also due in part to Brad figuring out how to get the best out of this roster.

This is no way is meant to discredit some of the other fantastic coaching jobs and year to year improvements of some of the other teams and coaches that are also in this conversation. But what we’re seeing Brad accomplish in terms of team success and roster talent availability is truly something unheard of. This team could be flirting with 55+ wins, something none of us thought was possible 6 minutes into the season. The body of work has shown enough, Brad Stevens has earned the Coach Of The Year.