It's been nearly a full year since Danny Ainge stepped down as Boston Celtics president of basketball operations as part of an organizational shakeup.
And although Ainge now holds a job in the Utah Jazz front office, he still follows his former team and can't help but admire the work of his successor, Brad Stevens, who moved upstairs last June after eight seasons as Boston's head coach.
"I'm really impressed by what Brad has done in his first year. I think he's done an excellent job," Ainge recently told Heavy.com's Steve Bulpett. "Going into the season, I didn't think he was certain of what he had for depth on the bench, and getting Josh Richardson and even (Dennis) Schröder were good acquisitions. You know, getting Al (Horford) so you could play a bigger brand of basketball while adding a solid veteran player around their core four players was something that's had a big impact on this season."
The Celtics entered the offseason in need of change, as they stumbled to a 36-36 finish last season, which culminated with a first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets. That change came in the form of Stevens replacing Ainge and Ime Udoka later being hired as Boston's new head coach.
Success didn't follow overnight, as the Celtics were inconsistent in the first half of the 2021-22 season. But they soon righted the ship, with Stevens' front-office maneuvering and Udoka's locker-room handling being instrumental in Boston's remarkable turnaround.
Stevens, who brought back Al Horford over the offseason in a deal involving Kemba Walker, clearly saw both potential and flaws in the Celtics' roster as the Feb. 10 NBA trade deadline approached. As such, he resisted a large-scale rebuild and instead acquired pieces that better accentuated Boston's core, sending out Josh Richardson, Dennis Schröder and Romeo Langford while adding Derrick White and another old friend in Daniel Theis.
"I know that Al wanted to come back to Boston, so that was good, too," Ainge continued while praising Stevens, per Bulpett. "And then to make the changes during the season, to see that there were opportunities to improve, was also important. It wasn't like Schröder wasn't playing well; Schröder was playing well, but it probably wasn't a great fit to finish games with Marcus (Smart) and Schröder. And, you know, Schröder came with the idea that he was going to play a really big role. So I think that Brad recognized the challenge that the coach may have had, and the move freed up playing time for other guys -- and (Payton) Pritchard has played really well since the trade of Schröder, so that was good, too."
Ultimately, everything clicked for the Celtics, who entered the Eastern Conference playoffs as the No. 2 seed and eliminated the Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat en route to the NBA Finals.
There's no telling how the journey will end -- the Golden State Warriors are favored to beat Boston with the Larry O'Brien Trophy hanging in the balance -- but the Celtics certainly feel like a championship team, which is something that couldn't be said one year ago.
