Brad Stevens isn’t one for getting ahead of himself.
Stevens has the Boston Celtics positioned for, at the very least, a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Back-to-back losses have made the No. 3 seed unattainable, but the Celtics still have a chance at the No. 4 seed if they beat the Miami Heat in their regular season finale Wednesday night.
Yet at the team’s practice Tuesday in Waltham, Mass., Stevens didn’t want to hear any of that.
One of Stevens’ hallmarks is steady focus on the present, and it’s one of the biggest reasons Boston continues to enjoy unexpected success. Inheriting a depleted roster in the wake of the Big Three’s departure, Stevens has guided the Celtics from 25-win misery in the 2013-14 season to 40 wins and a playoff berth in 2014-15 to a shot at 48 wins and home-court advantage in this season’s playoffs..
Above all, the 2015-16 campaign is proof of what Stevens can do with a stable roster. With the exception of losing David Lee, the C’s have remained essentially unchanged since last summer. That’s allowed the 39-year-old head coach to use his impressive knowledge of the game to get the most out of a roster that boasts just one All-Star — and an underrated one at that — in 5-foot-9 point guard Isaiah Thomas.
A telltale sign of a good coach is the improvement of his players, and Stevens certainly can check off that box. Despite a recent dip in production after a late-season injury, Jae Crowder is averaging career-highs across the board, a scoring average of 14.2 points per game in addition to his already tenacious defense. Evan Turner is a legitimate candidate for Sixth Man of the Year, having embraced his role as the go-to player on Boston’s second unit while averaging 10.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. And Thomas has taken his game to new heights, joining the ranks of the NBA elite during his All-Star campaign.
Stevens’ work with this unit even has drawn notice from some of the NBA’s coaching greats.
“I’ll still watch his Butler tape trying to learn some stuff he did there, to be honest with you,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in November when the two teams met at TD Garden. “I really respect the hell out of him.”
So, are Stevens’ accomplishments enough to win him NBA Coach of the Year in just his third season? He has a compelling case, and in another year, the former Butler coach probably would be a favorite. But Stevens has the unenviable task of going up against history.
With a win Wednesday, the Golden State Warriors can move to 73-9 and secure the best regular-season record in NBA history. Yes, Warriors coach Steve Kerr missed a solid chunk of the 2015-16 campaign, but he’s still integral to this team’s success and has guided his players through a pressure-filled stretch as they push toward history. If Golden State finishes with literally the best record ever, it’d be foolish not to dub him Coach of the Year.
Stevens has greatly exceeded expectations since coming to Boston, and Coach of the Year honors could come sooner rather than later. But given this year’s stacked competition — we haven’t even mentioned Popovich or Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts — it looks like Stevens will have to wait.
Thumbnail photo via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images
