Brad Stevens Drops Hilarious Remark About Celtics’ Trade Deadline Approach

BOSTON — The NBA trade deadline brought plenty of fireworks from across the league on Thursday and in the days leading up to it.

The Boston Celtics and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens merely just sat back and watched the display unfold like it was the Fourth of July.

That was to be expected, though. The Celtics weren’t going to be major players in trades due to their lack of financial flexibility and with Boston already possessing a championship-caliber roster. The only move Stevens made came in the form of a salary dump by sending Jaden Springer and a 2030 second-round pick to the Houston Rockets.

Other than that, it was crickets for the Celtics, leading to an uneventful trade deadline day for Stevens.

“In our situation with our team this year, today was boring as hell. Like it was just nothing,” Stevens said prior to the Celtics facing the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden. “There wasn’t going to be anything going and the phones didn’t ring. We had already had any discussions that we were probably going to have and we just weren’t going to do anything major.”

Stevens said he doesn’t wait until the week of the trade deadline to starting inquiring about players on opposing teams as he will touch base with other front offices throughout the early parts of the season. But from those talks, it was widely known that Stevens wouldn’t be pulling the trigger on a deal.

Not even Boston’s recent up-and-down stretch — they went 11-10 from Dec. 19 to Jan. 27 before going on their four-game winning streak — moved Stevens off his spot. He still has full confidence in the Celtics to perform up to their championship standard and Stevens’ inactivity at the trade deadline reinforced that notion.

“At the end of the day, even through our ups and downs over the last six weeks, what gives us our best chance of having a chance to win? And that is this group playing a little bit more like itself more of the time,” Stevens said. “And I’m encouraged by where we’re headed with that and never really waivered in our belief in that.”