Brad Stevens went from being on the hot seat to being in a front office suite.
In a surprising turn of events, the Boston Celtics announced on Wednesday that Stevens, the team's head coach of eight years, is leaving the sideline to replace the retiring Danny Ainge as president of basketball operations.
During Wednesday's edition of the JR SportBrief show, JR discussed the unexpected news, and whether the Celtics made a smart decision.
"The one thing that the Boston Celtics can hang their hat on: they'll be an attractive destination for someone who wants to win," JR said. "This is a team that still has [Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown -- two young players who haven't even reached their peak. They have them locked-up into deals that take them into the 2024 and 2025 seasons... I think the next step is to figure out that point guard situation, as Kemba Walker has two years left on his deal, $71 million. Who's going to be your next ball handler? Who's going to be that energy off the bench? How do you find complementary big men?
"That's Brad Stevens' job. And then you figure who the coach is. I don't know if I'd necessarily hire Jason Kidd. Do you want that energy? First-time president of an organization, Jason Kidd looks like a nomad to me. Jason Kidd looks like someone who just will go anywhere he feels he can win a ring. And he's a big personality, regardless of what you think about him... I think you want to hire someone to continue the continuity that you had with Brad Stevens, that you had with Danny Ainge.
"And Brad Stevens is going to be running the show. I think this is good for the Celtics. I think Brad Stevens is the right man for the job, because he's basically been in the organization for eight years now. And I think this is an excellent plan to have continuity with the Boston Celtics for hopefully the next 20 years, or whenever Brad Stevens decides to retire... Are they going to be competitive right out of the gate? No. But when you have two stars like Brown and Tatum, I don't think it's going to be long until the Celtics are back in championship contention. I'm not mad at the move. I like Brad Stevens taking over."
Stevens took the Celtics to the playoffs in seven of eight seasons, but the franchise hasn't won an NBA championship since 2008. That year, Stevens was a rookie college basketball head coach for the Butler Bulldogs.
JR's complete thoughts on Stevens and the Celtics can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the JR SportBrief show on Twitter @JRSportBrief and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.