What a hiring by the Boston Celtics. The last few days and weeks have made it clear that GM Danny Ainge is intent on starting the rebuilding process immediately and a young coach yet experienced coach like Stevens is perfect for the job. Stevens is only 36 years old yet he has already led the NCAA's Butler Bulldogs to two consecutive national championship games. If a Gordon Hayward half-court prayer in the closing seconds of the final game of the 2010 tourney against the mighty Duke Blue Devils had just a little less on it, Stevens would have a National Championship under his belt. He spent six years as the head coach of that program and he has an astounding 166 wins to show for it. And let's not forget that the talent level on Stevens' Butler teams was mediocre at the least and decent at best. His best players were the aforementioned Hayward, who now helps comprise one of the weakest starting backcourts in the game with the Utah Jazz, and Matt Howard, who now plays in Europe. Brad Stevens was really the reason why those Butler teams were able to go that far. His emphasis on defense and team unity (ideals desperately needed on an already discombobulated 2013 Celtics squad) is what pushed his teams over the top and brought out the best in every guy on that roster year in and year out. However, Stevens' love for advanced statistics when combined with these ideals show that he knows how to effectively parallel the old and new schools of thought in the NBA. Stevens is a calm and patient coach with a keen sense of direction who is perfect for a rebuilding effort such as this.
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It's also a great hiring in terms of name value and generating excitement. While Division I boasts coaching heavyweights like North Carolina's Roy Williams, Kentucky's John Calipari, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, and Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Stevens' name has been tossed around right up there with these giants as one of, if not the best head coaches on the Division I level. And nobody would ever have expected this hiring in a million years! Stevens had recently given every indication that he planned to stay with Butler for as long as they wanted him there. This offseason, he even turned down the vacant UCLA Bruins coaching position, arguably the most prestigious coaching job in the entire world of college basketball. So you have to give Danny Ainge credit on this one because there were absolutely no indications that Stevens had aspirations to make the leap into the NBA. Let's just hope that it turns out better for the Celtics than the last time they tried out a successful former college coach to be their head coach (that being Louisville's Rick Pitino who had ONE good idea as Celtics' head coach, that being the "Murderous Press." Over 4 seasons with the C's, Pitino piled up a 102-146 record with exactly ZERO playoff appearances. Yikes.)
Sly, shrewd, genius, exciting, fantastic, perfect. I'm running out of adjectives to describe this Stevens hiring for the Celtics. That's how good it is. And while the Celtics will almost certainly stink it up at least for the foreseeable future, a young, focused coach like Stevens who has his priorities straight and possesses the tools and strategies of a winner will help this franchise to, in the long run, get back to the winning ways that is characteristic of this esteemed organization. Looking forward to seeing what Stevens can do in the NBA.
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