The Boston Celtics have decided to blow it up.
After another controversial incident in Boston involving Kyrie Irving (go figure) put an exclamation point on one of the most disappointing seasons in recent Celtics history in game 4, and eventually losing to the Brooklyn Nets in 5 games, the Celtics decided to make wholesale changes to their organization.
Danny Ainge is out as President of Basketball Operations. Brad Stevens is stepping into his role and will hire a Head Coach to replace him.
Insert Mr Krabs head spinning meme
Um, okay.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the potential for a shake-up in the Celtics organization. Ainge has been in charge of the Celtics since 2004. Jayson Tatum was 6 years old. I was 8 years old. That is a LONG time for anyone to be in charge of an organization.
But Ainge stepping down was not the surprising part. His teams have exceeded expectations in recent years, but failed to ever get over the hump and make it to the NBA Finals. The Hayward and Kyrie acquisitions both failed, albeit for wildly different reasons.
Maybe Ainge truly never recovered his rep with players across the league after trading Isaiah Thomas, and was unable to truly trade or sign for impact players who would help this roster. He certainly hasn’t drafted all that well. While Tatum and Brown both developed into all-stars, and Ainge had the foresight to trade out of the #1 overall pick to acquire Tatum, that credit can be given to Stevens as much as it can Ainge.
The fact is the rest of his drafts weren’t good enough. They aren’t brimming with young talented role players who are outsized in their minimal roles next to stars. They are trying to maximize players with limited upside who haven’t proven they can be NBA level contributors yet.
Does that mean that Brad Stevens is more capable of this? Time will tell. But coaching any NBA team for 7 years is a long time, and the Celtics must have felt that this group could use a new voice, while understanding the value that Stevens can still bring to the organization.
Yes, he has never been an executive before. But I doubt Celtics ownership will let Stevens go at it alone. I expect them to insulate the front office with an experienced staff who can help guide Stevens through the minutiae of the job while he focuses on building a championship roster around Tatum and Brown.
The Celtics will have tough decisions to make on players such as Evan Fournier and Marcus Smart this summer. Will Stevens be willing to move a franchise cornerstone after coaching him for so long? What about the young guys? Was Stevens excited about Pritchard, Grand Williams, or Romeo Langford when they drafted them? Or was that Ainge’s choice and Stevens has had to coach around the limitations of missed first rounders?
Time will tell. But the Boston Celtics are clearly in win-now mode with two budding Super Duper Stars under the age of 25. And they have a lot of things to fix to become a championship caliber team again.
It’s going to be a wild offseason in Boston.
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