Big Changes In Boston? Rival NBA Coach Very Confused By Celtics Fans

Once the Boston Celtics dropped out of the NBA playoffs, it seemed as though every Celtics fan put on their general manager hat and thought of ways to get the team over the hump.

While fans dream of the Celtics setting off fireworks either in free agency or with a trade, it remains to be seen whether president of basketball operations Brad Stevens will make wholesale changes to the roster.

One rival NBA coach certainly wouldn’t mind if Stevens dissected the Celtics roster and sent productive players away in hopes that mixing some things up would lead to better postseason results. But the anonymous coach knows that even with just minor moves, the Celtics aren’t far away from winning an NBA title no matter what the fan base thinks.

“As soon as a team gets knocked out of the playoffs — or doesn’t even make the playoffs — you start hearing about all the changes they need to make,” the anonymous coach told Steve Bulpett of Heavy Sports. “Right now, there’s a whole lot of GMs and people with my job that would LOVE to see Boston make a bunch of changes. I mean, are there fans up there actually saying they should break up (Jaylen) Brown and (Jayson) Tatum? Are you (expletive) me?

“Sure, you always hope you can tweak things here or there to try to get better, but right now just about every team in the league would trade its roster for Boston’s straight up.”

Stevens has already gotten a jumpstart on making those tweaks by overhauling the coaching staff, including making another hire Monday, behind head coach Joe Mazzulla. Stevens has more decisions to make, though, especially when it comes to restricted free agent Grant Williams, a possible supermax contract extension for Jaylen Brown and potentially dealing a guard this offseason.

But keeping the bulk of the roster together that has helped the Celtics make five conference finals appearances in the last seven seasons make sense. Boston has one of the most talented rosters in the league and it feels that more philosophical changes in the way the Celtics play could net bigger results than completely shaking things up.