The Boston Celtics were 13-11, with a great chance to move up into the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff seeds with matchups against the two teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference barrel: the Detroit Pistons and the Washington Wizards.
Three days later, the Celtics were 13-13, in fifth place in the East, and with an increasingly restless fan base. They allowed rookie Saddiq Bey of the then 6-19 Pistons to record 30 points on a perfect 7-7 night from beyond the arc. They allowed Bradley Beal of the then 6-17 Wizards to explode for 35 points — though he does that regularly — while watching Jayson Tatum finish 3-14 from the floor with 6 points.
And, understandably, head coach Brad Stevens — as well as GM Danny Ainge — has received his fair share of criticism from the fan base. The fifth longest-tenured head coach with the same team in the NBA (crazy, isn't it?) caught a lot of flack after his team's latest loss.
However, former Celtics front office executive Ryan McDonough and former Celtics writer Steve Bulpett think that it's counterproductive to even let this criticism float around without addressing it. Most importantly, the pair believes that it's largely undeserved, as they discussed on the latest episode of the RADIO.COM NBA Show.
"I think a lot of the criticism of him is unwarranted," Bulpett explained. "I think you look at coaches in a couple different ways. Number one, are they putting players in the right positions to succeed, or are they getting in the way of the players succeeding? And we've seen coaches over the years — we all have — who were there coaching for themselves, if I can put it that way. They were coaching to what's going to make me look good.
"And Brad Stevens isn't one of those guys. I think if you've got a situation where you've got a coach that... knows his stuff, he's not getting in the way, he's putting guys in correct positions, then I think it's imperative on you as an executive to ride that out."
Bulpett acknowledged that, yes, there were some questionable decisions that Stevens has made, including deep bench subs early in games, but that the bulk of the responsibility falls on the players and that using Stevens as a scapegoat could be dangerous.
"I think it is dangerous for a GM to move on a coach or even to allow questions about the coach to linger out there and linger into the dressing room," Bulpett said. "Because you don't want to give players a reason that it's not their fault and I think you know — consciously or subconsciously — having that there will really screw up a team. When you've got a coach that you believe in and you know to be the right person, then you tell the team, look, this guy's gonna be here. I'm not sure if you are, but this coach is gonna be here, and then you know you've got to solve your problems."
Besides, Bulpett sees viewing Stevens as the root of the problem as inaccurate in many cases, looking back to the 2020 playoffs as an example.
"Bad got huge criticism for how his teams played against the zone when they were done in the bubble, but you look at the games and, yeah, he was sending a guy to the middle, to the free throw line, to be the hub on that spoke," Bulpett said. "And guys were getting there, getting the ball, and making terrible decisions."
Does a head coach getting placed wrongly on the hot seat in Boston ring a bell at all?
"My strong opinion is that Danny Ainge is going to stand behind his coach and support Brad Stevens, because as you remember... in that 2006-2007 window when I was in the Celtics front office before we brought in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, there was a loud, vocal, I'd say majority of the fan base who was critical of Doc Rivers, who wanted Danny and ownership to make a move with Doc," McDonough said. "Danny stood behind Doc Rivers and supported him and my guess is he does the same thing with Brad Stevens here, because frankly Brad's won a lot more, especially when you look at three Eastern Conference Finals in the last four years."
A short time after recording this podcast, Ainge did just that, telling the Boston Herald that the recent losses and struggles aren't on Stevens.
“That’s not on Brad,” Ainge told the Boston Herald. “Brad is the opposite of that. Brad is fearful of every opponent and respects every opponent, and is as humble as there is. That is 100 percent on me, meaning that the players that we have selected to be on the team, and it’s on them individually. The last person this is on is the most humble, hard-working person in the entire organization, and that is Brad Stevens.”
Don't expect the Celtics Twitterverse to cool it regarding Stevens until the team starts seeing some results. But expect any sort of move to be made regarding the future of Boston's head coach even less.
Listen to the full episode of the RADIO.COM Sports NBA short with McDonough and Bulpett here.
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