Jaylen Brown is serious about Brad Stevens’ deservingness of the NBA Coach of the Year award.
Less than a week after initially asserting that Stevens is worthy of the honor, the Boston Celtics second-year swingman doubled down on his claims Monday. He gave Stevens some more high praise, laying out a pretty convincing case for why his coach should win the award.
His endorsement came about after being asked about the slew of injuries and changes to the lineup that the Celtics have had to cope with this year.
“Yeah,” Brown said, via The Boston Herald. “But Brad, I think he’s the Coach of the Year. He’ll figure out a scheme to make everything flow the way it normally flows. Terry (Rozier)’s questionable. In Brad we trust, so he’ll figure it out.”
Stevens certainly has been adaptable this season, but for Brown, it goes far beyond that.
“We’ve got four returning guys from the Eastern Conference Finals team from last year, 11 new teammates, and our record will be even better,” Brown said. “I don’t think that’s ever been done; correct me if I’m wrong. But that’s really difficult to do, take a brand new team, especially with everything we’ve battled through this year, to possibly a better record than we had last year.
“Tremendous credit to the team we have and Danny Ainge for putting it together, but Brad also leading us out with the scheme and the plan that we want to execute each and every day. And the combination of those two has led to the season.”
Tough to argue with that logic.
In addition to Stevens, there are plenty of coaches deserving of the honors. And Dwane Casey, boss of the C’s Atlantic Division rival Toronto Raptors, arguably represents Stevens’ stiffest competition.
