Danny Ainge stepping down from his role as Celtics president of basketball operations was surprising enough. Brad Stevens leaving his role as head coach to take over Ainge’s vacated job was probably even more surprising.
Stevens has only ever been a coach -- six years as an assistant at Butler, six as the head coach at Butler, and now eight as Boston’s head coach. Now he’ll have completely different responsibilities as he moves away from day-to-day game management and into big-picture team planning and building.
Stadium’s Jeff Goodman joined The Greg Hill Show Thursday morning and provided some insight on the shakeup and how it all came about. He doesn’t believe Stevens succeeding Ainge as director of basketball operations was the plan all along, but rather one that came about as it became clearer that Stevens as coach wasn’t quite working anymore.
“I don’t know if they looked at other candidates, but I don’t think he [Stevens] was the heir apparent at all,” Goodman said. “I think this was kind of, hey, it’s not working as head coach. What else can we figure out here? Danny Ainge puts the stamp of approval on it to ownership, and they say, alright, you know what, it won’t cost us any money. I think that’s part of it. The financial aspect played in here from what I was told.
“They knew they had to make a major move. Obviously Jayson Tatum’s untouchable, we know that. I’ve said they should look at trading Jaylen Brown for Bradley Beal. But I’ve said you have to make a major move, and a major move isn’t Marcus Smart. A major move is looking at trading Jaylen Brown for somebody, another All-Star, or making a move with your coach. Well, they made a move with their coach here, and didn’t have to pay the 30 million that Brad Stevens is owed. You gave him another gig.”
Goodman then raised another interesting point, which is that this may not be a long-term solution. In fact, he said he could see this arrangement lasting just one year.
“Now the big question is for me, and nobody asked it yesterday, is, how long, Brad? How long do you want to do this?,” Goodman said. “Can you really deal with not coaching long-term? I could see this being a one-year deal for Brad. And then after a year, it’s like, I miss coaching. That’s all he’s done for the last 15 years, 20 years, is be around players.
“It’s very different being a GM. Obviously the pressure is not quite the same on a daily basis, and the schedule is not nearly as taxing. He’s got two kids who are in their early teenage years, so he’ll be able to see his family more, and I think that’s very important to Brad Stevens. But ultimately, I don’t think this is a long-term deal for Brad Stevens as a GM in the front office. I think he’ll want to coach again.”
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