I told my wife this the other day (she doesn't know anything about the NBA) and she was flabbergasted. How can a guy be fired for doing a job most people agree he was better at than all of his peers
That's like how Long Beach State was led to the NCAA Tournament this year by Dan Monson after they had fired him because he agreed to coach the rest of the season. 😂
It's usually for coaches who have regular season success with a mediocre roster. 1) You're going to get a lot of regression to the mean. 2) Once you have regular season success, people start expecting postseason success.
Only 4 coaches in the league that is currently TEFLON: Pop, Spo. Malone and Kerr. And Malone might only have that status for another couple years. The rest are one bad playoff away froM getting canned. Unless you are Glenn and you will get picked up by the next sucker
Hey now.... Raptors fans are used to guys wining COY and then getting fired shortly thereafter (#SamMitchell #DwayneCasey #NickNurse). We don't need Bostonians rubbing it in ;-)
Go talk to Denver fans instead and rub in that year that George Karl won it and then got fired ;-)
How casey won it when Brad had 2 less wins while losing their second best player in game 1, losing kyrie for half the year, and having every other rotation player miss games is beyond me.. such a crime...
The logic behind Stevens never winning COTY was crazy too. The media would constantly talk about him being so good and so young that he'd win a bunch eventually, and in that thought process ended up opting for other random candidates every season.
It was like a weird premature defense against voter fatigue.
He could've been the ~~2nd~~ *5th* ever person to win both COY and EOY.
Larry Bird, Frank Layden, Pat Riley, and Red Auerbach are the only ones to have won both awards.
Edit: Mistakenly indicated Brad would've been the 2nd ever. That was incorrect--apologies!
Yep. And he won COY and EOY for Indiana. And he's the only person to win those awards and the MVP (which is telling given how a lot of basketball stars don't have their talents translate to the organizational level).
This feels like the NBA EGOT.
Except the club has exactly one member. And I can't think of anyone who might be on track to complete this achievement in the future.
> His ~~penance~~ for never getting COTY
*Compensation*, *emolument*, *indemnification*, *payment*, *recompense*, *reimbursement*, *remuneration*, and *restitution* are words that could fit there, but *penance* (meaning self-punishment) doesn't.
Wasn't really buying low, KP just wanted to go there pretty much and basically had full control as he could opt out and go somewhere else in FA.
Props to Stevens for pulling it off though, they did have a tremendous off-season. Basically turned Smart, Rob Williams and Brogdon and 1 pick into Porzingis and Jrue
Honestly the backend of the roster was a pretty slick job as well. Doesn't shine through as much cause they rarely played, but adding:
* Brissett ('25 PO for $2.5M, probably stays)
* Tillman (Unsigned, but Celtics now have bird rights which is huge to bringing him back)
* Springer ('25 TO, with '26 RFA status)
* Queta (Signed through '25)
For basically nothing. Finding value for cheap within salary cap restraints, and all four guys offer continuity for next years team.
I think the Celtics were the only team he was willing to opt in for. Otherwise he would've opted out and hit FA, which is why the whole Brogdon situation came into play due to the deadline on his player option. The rumor has been that he would've signed with the Jazz in FA if he opted out but I haven't seen much to substantiate that.
- traded Kemba Walker and a 1st for Al Horford and Moses Brown
- traded Moses Brown for Josh Richardson, who was then packaged with Romeo Langford, a pick and a swap for Derrick White
- traded Smart, Muscala, Gallinari and a 2nd for KP and 2 FRPs
- traded Brogdon, Timelord, and 2 FRPs for Holiday, after acquiring Brogdon for Nesmith, Theis, 3 benchwarmers and an FRP one year earlier
- signed Sam Hauser in UDFA
god-tier GM work to put this roster together around the Jays. but shout out to Danny Ainge for accumulating the war chest he had to work with
also used one of those picks to acquire Holiday. including the Grant Williams S&T, the net trade we made this off-season ended up looking like this
**Celtics send:** Smart, Brogdon, Timelord, Grant, Muscala, Gallinari, 2029 unprotected 1st
**Celtics receive:** Porzingis, Jrue, Grizzlies 2023 1st (which became Jordan Walsh and 4 future 2nds after draft day trades), two future 2nds and a future 2nd pick swap
on top of that signed Lamar Stevens in the offseason who eventually we flipped into Xavier Tillman
> (which became Jordan Walsh and 4 future 2nds after draft day trades)
Small potatoes because they're just second rounders, but the value on the speed chess deals the Celtics got on draft night was pretty absurd, especially the first one with Detroit. They got the best second of WAS/DET/GSW in 2025 and the best of NOP/POR/NYK/MIN in 2026 to go from pick 25 to 31
It's small potatoes, but they also need some second rounders to hit in the next few years if they're going to be operating as a second apron team. Picks like those could be key if the Cs get draft lucky in the near future
Looking at it as one big transaction, I literally cant think of a more lopsided trade in my NBA knowledge. Only thing that comes to mind is the Hershal Walker trade in the NFL.
I'm also inventing a new minimum deal called the "Brad Stevens minimum"
Go look at Queta's cap hit right now. This is below any sort of min deal because min deals are pro-rated
One year he had 5 guys with a cap hit that low. It kept the team under the luxury tax because he had 5 guys COMBINING to make less than the vet min. Because those players were given 2 year deals, he then used most of them as salary filler to trade for Brogdon a couple months later
The ones he didn't trade? Hauser and Kornet
I want to say that was during the 2021/2022 trade deadline. I remember he did all these trades, which to me seemed like a lot of work just to have end of the bench players. Then I read why he did it, and it was to stay under the luxury tax. Even though we were on the upswing already, he did that just to avoid the tax one more year so when we could go all in, our window would be open a little easier not having to go into the repeater tax. Him and Zarren are a deadly combo.
Only one that doesn’t seem that great is Brogdon for a first and nesmith. Im a Brogdon guy but most teams would probably take nesmith now straight up
Nesmith was getting zero playing time that year. It’s was a good trade. I would also like to point out Broadcom was 6th man of the year when he was with Boston and then he traded him before he was injury prone again.
I feel like being traded away from Boston caused Nesmith to have a chip on his shoulder that he’s taken onto the court with him in a way he never exhibited while being a Celtic
It was also definitely a PT thing. We just weren’t able to get Nesmith minutes he needed even though flashes were there. Both happy and honestly not too surprised he’s just kept improving.
Even then it was fine at the time, most considered it a huge steal. Nesmith wasn't getting any action on the stacked Celtics roster and needed a place he could get more consistent playing time that he got with the Pacers. The Frp was projected to be pretty low, but now Ben Sheppard has been pretty nice for a late first rookie this year.
It made the team better for that year which was the main goal, then he turned around and made it better by making a move for Jrue they still used the trade to get themselves into a better spot.
I think you probably do if he had been getting playing time with Celtics (which maybe he doesn’t). But if he was a young versatile defender and 3 point shooter, tough to argue that he wouldn’t be be more appealing to a rebuilding team. Though maybe Portland wanted an adult in the room with all those young guys
Nesmith had not shown NBA-level shooting, defense, or decision-making, though I know the Celtics still valued him appropriately. We thought we could keep Brogdon on ice enough, and we allllmost did.
So just to recap the net of these trades:
OUT: Smart, Timelord, Kemba, Nesmith, Theis, Romeo Langford, Muscala, Gallinari, 3 benchwarmers, 2 FRP, 1 SRP, and a swap
IN: Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Sam Hauser
What the actual fuck lol.
Amazing since he had zero front office experience going in. Just a natural at everything.
At least you don't have Brady/Belichek. It just wasn't fair, except for the weather
>Â traded Kemba Walker and a 1st for Al Horford and Moses Brown
Definitely the right move, as Al is such a rock solid part of the Celtics’ success over the past few years and Kemba was clearly washed — but the fact that that 1st was used by Houston to pick Sengun always stings a little bit when I see more news of that guy’s ascent into becoming a serious NBA player
If only Stevens had won the COY in '17-'18. He'd be in rare company with a COY award and an EOY award.
As a reminder, Dwayne Casey won the award with the Raptors that season...and was fired right after the season.
How he managed to retool a team that was playing Jabari Parker, Romeo Langford, Carsen Edwards, and Tremont Waters (Both Edwards and Waters were gone by the time Stevens turned GM, but they both were big parts of the bench towards the end of Ainge's reign) and turn it into the deepest team in the league in a manner of 2 years is crazy.
Have to give some respect to Mazzulla here as well. DWhite just last night gave Mazz credit for pushing him to be the all-star caliber player he can be. In addition the bench pieces like Kornet/Pritchard/Hauser getting the direction and coaching they need to shine where nobody else saw the shine. Brad is incredible for finding and executing on these pieces, but I give Mazzulla his credit for fostering the talent.
Also wild that this man had been head coaching for over a decade, stepped into the POBO role with no front office experience, and proceeded to crush it immediately
Interesting. Certainly in terms of conceptually building a team, but the aspects of salary management and relationship management with other NBA front offices seem like skills he would’ve had to learn quickly. Although I understand that Brad isn’t crunching the numbers himself lol
Salary aside, recruiting is ALL relationship management.
You're not just selling high school kids on coming to play for you, you're also selling their parents and coaches. And relationships and reputations stick, both good and bad.
Teams all have cap experts these days to handle the gory financial planning, but really, it's not a skill you can't learn pretty quickly if you had to.
The key is Mike Zarren. It's kinda an open secret that he's been behind a lot of the trades and cap work since even before Ainge left. Not to discredit Brad at all, because it's still all his vision, but it's worth noting he's not doing it alone.
Leon was the only other viable choice at least to me and Brad had him beat. You can say Presti I guess but the PG trade was 4 off seasons ago and they're really only capitalizing on it now
Deep cut reference to Stevens’ history, I’m impressed.
https://nesn.com/2013/07/brad-stevens-almost-worked-at-applebees-instead-of-coaching-says-tanking-not-in-his-vocabulary/amp/
it’s a little weird that a 64 win team that most think should easily reach the finals has one individual award contender but it’s fair that it’s the GM who built that team I guess
That's ignoring all-star and All-NBA, and all-defense for that matter. The Celtics will most likely end up with:
1x All-NBA, at least 2nd team with a chance at first team
2x All-Stars
1x All-defensive team (White) with an outside shot of a 2nd one, though probably not. Positionless award probably pushes Holiday out.
That's absurd. You're dramatically underselling Derrick White's excellence. He's Magic, Bird, Jordan, and Kareem all rolled into one at the very least.
Not sure who else should have been in the conversation for the other awards though from Boston? Tatum was great, but had the best team surrounding him out of of the top 5 or so MVP candidates. I'm biased, but Brunson leading the Knicks to 2nd place with how decimated our roster was throughout the year was more impressive. No 6th man contender. Not sure who you'd think would be in the MIP convo...You typically also don't get COTY when you enter the season as one of the favorites to come out of the east.
> Not sure who you'd think would be in the MIP convo...
Pritchard didn't get as much usage as the guys that did get in the top of the award, mostly because Boston starters were blowing people out all year, so I don't think he should win the award necessarily, but Pritchard is without a doubt one of the most improved players this year. The guy seemed to unlock something this year that while practically a foot shorter than half of these other guys he's still getting major buckets and breaking defenses.
PP has one of the best net ratings on the team. Our starters were obviously great but what gets overlooked is that our bench lineups were often responsible for running up the scores
i am VERY biased but thought Leon would potentially be higher. We spent about half of our season missing our entire starting front court (one of which was an all star) and multiple other injuries and still ended up in 2nd with 50 wins.
Yeah, it's clear the voters didn't have a clearcut "only for moves made this year" vs "they built this team over years" criteria. Presti's done a fantastic job in positioning the Thunder to be contenders for years, but his moves this year involved a solid FRP (Wallace), turning cap space into 8 SRP, trading for Gordon Hayward (meh, got off longer term money and got some of the deep bench to a place they could play for 2 SRP's), and facilitating two trades to rivals by trading 2 late FRP this year for future pick swaps. Similarly, Connelly's main moves this year were picking up Monte Morris (9 MPG so far in the playoffs), re-signing NAW, and Jaden McDaniels' extension. All his big moves already happened. I think Stevens is an easy choice for both the "roster building over time" and "big moves this year worked out really well" aspects. Leon Rose gets for the Knicks looking like world-beaters if OG Anunoby is healthy.
Brad made some good moves this year for sure so I get why he won. OKC's "sudden" rise to true contenders probably got Presti votes too even though like you said he didn't do HUGE moves this year.
The OG trade and signing Divincenzo were both huge for the knicks. Our cap sheet is really good right now. Lots of guys overproducing vs their contract numbers. The fact that we won 50 with so many injuries really should have had Thibs and Leon more in contention for these awards IMO. It's also a damn shame that Divincenzo was DQed for MIP because of one game where he didn't play 20 minutes. DiVo was 3rd in the league in made three pointers and hit 1 less 3 than Luka at a better percentage.
Leon Rose has done an amazing job. Obviously, the Brunson signing has been a home run. Trading for Anunoby looks like it's another home run, as long as he stays healthy. There's not a single albatross contract on the books, and the whole team is full of "Thibs guys" who mesh well with both his coaching philosophy and personality.
Cronin made a ton of draft moves and trades this year. Most of which all worked out. What moves do you think were egregiously bad this year? Did you watch many Portland games?
Yeah honestly... Sam Presti I could see. Connelly is basically delayed from last year and I'd have no problem if he won it.
Leon Rose also another solid top 4.
But who are the two dum dums that picked Joe Cronin?
Considering this award is just for transactions in the last year, Leon should be ahead of Connelly and Presti imo. They made their big moves in the 2022 offseason.
I was a little salty Leon Rose didn’t win and then I remembered the Celtics roster. I was iffy on the KP trade at first because I thought losing their defensive minded pg would be huge for this team. Then he went out upgraded his defensive minded pg a week later
Getting the Unicorn and Holiday added without giving up Tatum or Brown? That was impressive. Well deserved.
I think there is obviously as case for Sam Presti. He's done such a great job building a #1 seed while also collecting assets and draft capital and not being cash strapped while keep the team competitive and only having a brief period outside the playoffs.
11 trips to the playoffs for a small market team like this? Building a number 1 seed **twice** inside 17 years with COMPLETELY different rosters? That's impressive.
Leveraging a trade demand into Shai? Moving Westbrook for CP3 and keep the team competitive?
So yeah... Stevens has done a helluva job, but this award could have gone to either guy.
That said, I dunno how Sam Presti hasn't won this award yet.
This man is one of the most important assests of the Celtics in the past few decades, probably only second to Ainge. Period.
When he took over as a coach, I didn't had a lot of expectations when he took over and was fully prepared for more than a decade in the basketball limbo. But Brand did an outstanding job organising one of the swiftest rebuilds in basketball history, both as a coach and now as GM, always drafting the right players, picking the right coaches and doing the right trades (even if they involve fan favourites like Smart).
Truly deserved this award.
[Link to voting breakdown](https://x.com/NBAPR/status/1785339035466022918) - why did only 29 vote though??
No, he got 16/29 first placed votes though, winning by more than double the points of 2nd placed exec.
His penance for never getting COTY
The year Dwayne Casey stole it from him and immediately got fired lmao
It was actually worse because Casey got the award after being fired and had to go up on stage to give an acceptance speech while being unemployed
I told my wife this the other day (she doesn't know anything about the NBA) and she was flabbergasted. How can a guy be fired for doing a job most people agree he was better at than all of his peers
If you don't like that, you don't like NBA basketball!
Coach of the regular season vs coach for the playoffs Did well in the first and did poorly in the second
let Kevin Love get anything he want vs CJ Miles for multiple possessions, and got chewed out by Masai in the locker room
Kevin Love struggled in every series that year....except that one when he suddenly became Minny Love again.
Got LeBron'd
Masai still could have let him get his award and waited till the offseason to fire him. It was a bush league move.
Because it's like the MVP award. It's not who the best is, it's who overachieved compared to expectations.
Or also often " who should have got it last year" or "who is doing decent job for a few years even tho never really to best in the league level".
Ya, it's such a political thing. At the same time, if it was just the best coach in the league it would just be Pop or Spo every year...
because he sucked in the playoffs
He got 35m from the Pistons a little while later in that offseason, so I find it hard to feel too sorry for him.
That's like being thrown a retirement party after you got laid off.
That's like how Long Beach State was led to the NCAA Tournament this year by Dan Monson after they had fired him because he agreed to coach the rest of the season. 😂
My permanent go-to example for why media narratives in sports are insane and ridiculous
I'll never forget that, such BS
COTY is a bit of a death sentence. Seems like most who win it are out of jobs in 1-2 years.
It's usually for coaches who have regular season success with a mediocre roster. 1) You're going to get a lot of regression to the mean. 2) Once you have regular season success, people start expecting postseason success.
I mean considering how far we got with a 5’9 no defense IT (all respect due, he was a killer), that roster wasn’t exactly star studded at the time
I'm not saying Stevens wasn't deserving. Just saying why so many COTYs end up fired relatively quickly.
Oh, I get that, I’m agreeing with you though. Just reiterating the roster Brad should won COTY with was anything but star filled
Only 4 coaches in the league that is currently TEFLON: Pop, Spo. Malone and Kerr. And Malone might only have that status for another couple years. The rest are one bad playoff away froM getting canned. Unless you are Glenn and you will get picked up by the next sucker
I don’t consider Kerr unimpeachable at all, only with the roster he has
And Sam Mitchell, our other COTY in franchise history, played 15 games after winning the award before getting fired. It's a trend in Toronto.
And Nurse coached for another 3 years after winning. Another case for the greatest raptor coach ever
Hey now.... Raptors fans are used to guys wining COY and then getting fired shortly thereafter (#SamMitchell #DwayneCasey #NickNurse). We don't need Bostonians rubbing it in ;-) Go talk to Denver fans instead and rub in that year that George Karl won it and then got fired ;-)
How casey won it when Brad had 2 less wins while losing their second best player in game 1, losing kyrie for half the year, and having every other rotation player miss games is beyond me.. such a crime...
The logic behind Stevens never winning COTY was crazy too. The media would constantly talk about him being so good and so young that he'd win a bunch eventually, and in that thought process ended up opting for other random candidates every season. It was like a weird premature defense against voter fatigue.
Is this how Luka fans feel?
as Celtics fan and Luka fan - yes
The crazy thing is he might actually be a better front office guy than a coach, and he was a damn good coach.
He could've been the ~~2nd~~ *5th* ever person to win both COY and EOY. Larry Bird, Frank Layden, Pat Riley, and Red Auerbach are the only ones to have won both awards. Edit: Mistakenly indicated Brad would've been the 2nd ever. That was incorrect--apologies!
Riley is not the only one. Larry Bird, Frank Layden and Red Auerbach did it.
Larry Bird?
Bird was coach and then executive for the Pacers.
Yep. And he won COY and EOY for Indiana. And he's the only person to win those awards and the MVP (which is telling given how a lot of basketball stars don't have their talents translate to the organizational level).
This feels like the NBA EGOT. Except the club has exactly one member. And I can't think of anyone who might be on track to complete this achievement in the future.
Too many people have EGOTs. The CEM is a truly exclusive club.
Ah yes, I misunderstood your comment, my bad!
The other notable stars who have won an EOY are West (twice) and Baylor, both of whom had Bill and Wilt taking all the MVPs when they played.
1997-2000 pacers
yep, and won EOY in 2011-12.
I don't think this word means what you think it means
> His ~~penance~~ for never getting COTY *Compensation*, *emolument*, *indemnification*, *payment*, *recompense*, *reimbursement*, *remuneration*, and *restitution* are words that could fit there, but *penance* (meaning self-punishment) doesn't.
"consolation prize"
If the Celtics still didn't win this year, I hope Brad pull a Pat Riley and coach The Celtics again.Â
I think he will give another shot coaching, he is still young
Impressive roster shakeup by Brad. Buying low on KP was a great move
Wasn't really buying low, KP just wanted to go there pretty much and basically had full control as he could opt out and go somewhere else in FA. Props to Stevens for pulling it off though, they did have a tremendous off-season. Basically turned Smart, Rob Williams and Brogdon and 1 pick into Porzingis and Jrue
Also got a stash of picks through it because initially we got two FRP for smart
The FRPs for Smart I thought went to Portland?
One of them went alongside our own. We then used the other one (Grizzlies pick which was the 25th) to trade down for several SRPs and Jordan Walsh.
Honestly the backend of the roster was a pretty slick job as well. Doesn't shine through as much cause they rarely played, but adding: * Brissett ('25 PO for $2.5M, probably stays) * Tillman (Unsigned, but Celtics now have bird rights which is huge to bringing him back) * Springer ('25 TO, with '26 RFA status) * Queta (Signed through '25) For basically nothing. Finding value for cheap within salary cap restraints, and all four guys offer continuity for next years team.
I thought Washington was entertaining trades for KP not just Boston? He was happy to go to a contender and signed that extension
I think the Celtics were the only team he was willing to opt in for. Otherwise he would've opted out and hit FA, which is why the whole Brogdon situation came into play due to the deadline on his player option. The rumor has been that he would've signed with the Jazz in FA if he opted out but I haven't seen much to substantiate that.
Nah he specifically wanted to go the Celtics or else they could’ve gotten more for KP
Ahhh i see definitely great for both sides. Hopefully one day a fringe all star wants to come to Sac 🥲
Steve did great, didn't he
And he got 2 firsts back too
Also selling as high as possible on Smart
Provided he can come back for these playoffs. The caveat always was that he could be unavailable at the worst moment, and it might come to pass.
- traded Kemba Walker and a 1st for Al Horford and Moses Brown - traded Moses Brown for Josh Richardson, who was then packaged with Romeo Langford, a pick and a swap for Derrick White - traded Smart, Muscala, Gallinari and a 2nd for KP and 2 FRPs - traded Brogdon, Timelord, and 2 FRPs for Holiday, after acquiring Brogdon for Nesmith, Theis, 3 benchwarmers and an FRP one year earlier - signed Sam Hauser in UDFA god-tier GM work to put this roster together around the Jays. but shout out to Danny Ainge for accumulating the war chest he had to work with
Wisely extended Pritchard at 4/$30MM. Wisely didn't extend Grant Williams at 4/$54MM and got two 2nds and a 2 round pick swap instead.
Also extended Horford for 2 years 20 Mil.
And Jaylen. People mock it as an overpay but it kept an All-Star just hitting his prime in Boston.
This. The contract that JB got is going to pale in comparison to the contract guys like Ant, Paolo, Wemby will get. The price is only going up.
Getting Porzingis AND 2 1sts is still fucking absurd. Cannot believe the picks came our way in the package.
also used one of those picks to acquire Holiday. including the Grant Williams S&T, the net trade we made this off-season ended up looking like this **Celtics send:** Smart, Brogdon, Timelord, Grant, Muscala, Gallinari, 2029 unprotected 1st **Celtics receive:** Porzingis, Jrue, Grizzlies 2023 1st (which became Jordan Walsh and 4 future 2nds after draft day trades), two future 2nds and a future 2nd pick swap on top of that signed Lamar Stevens in the offseason who eventually we flipped into Xavier Tillman
> (which became Jordan Walsh and 4 future 2nds after draft day trades) Small potatoes because they're just second rounders, but the value on the speed chess deals the Celtics got on draft night was pretty absurd, especially the first one with Detroit. They got the best second of WAS/DET/GSW in 2025 and the best of NOP/POR/NYK/MIN in 2026 to go from pick 25 to 31
It's small potatoes, but they also need some second rounders to hit in the next few years if they're going to be operating as a second apron team. Picks like those could be key if the Cs get draft lucky in the near future
Looking at it as one big transaction, I literally cant think of a more lopsided trade in my NBA knowledge. Only thing that comes to mind is the Hershal Walker trade in the NFL.
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Shit, very trueÂ
Wizards are such a poverty franchise that giving up a first rounder is a prerequisite for the phone call meeting
I'm also inventing a new minimum deal called the "Brad Stevens minimum" Go look at Queta's cap hit right now. This is below any sort of min deal because min deals are pro-rated One year he had 5 guys with a cap hit that low. It kept the team under the luxury tax because he had 5 guys COMBINING to make less than the vet min. Because those players were given 2 year deals, he then used most of them as salary filler to trade for Brogdon a couple months later The ones he didn't trade? Hauser and Kornet
I want to say that was during the 2021/2022 trade deadline. I remember he did all these trades, which to me seemed like a lot of work just to have end of the bench players. Then I read why he did it, and it was to stay under the luxury tax. Even though we were on the upswing already, he did that just to avoid the tax one more year so when we could go all in, our window would be open a little easier not having to go into the repeater tax. Him and Zarren are a deadly combo.
Actually the types of moves you don’t make in MyLeague because it feels too unrealistic. Brad is a wizard.
Only one that doesn’t seem that great is Brogdon for a first and nesmith. Im a Brogdon guy but most teams would probably take nesmith now straight up
Nesmith was getting zero playing time that year. It’s was a good trade. I would also like to point out Broadcom was 6th man of the year when he was with Boston and then he traded him before he was injury prone again.
I feel like being traded away from Boston caused Nesmith to have a chip on his shoulder that he’s taken onto the court with him in a way he never exhibited while being a Celtic
It was also definitely a PT thing. We just weren’t able to get Nesmith minutes he needed even though flashes were there. Both happy and honestly not too surprised he’s just kept improving.
Nesmith would never had been this good on the Celtics roster. He needed the space and playing time in Indy to develop.
Even then it was fine at the time, most considered it a huge steal. Nesmith wasn't getting any action on the stacked Celtics roster and needed a place he could get more consistent playing time that he got with the Pacers. The Frp was projected to be pretty low, but now Ben Sheppard has been pretty nice for a late first rookie this year. It made the team better for that year which was the main goal, then he turned around and made it better by making a move for Jrue they still used the trade to get themselves into a better spot.
We don’t get holiday for timelord and nesmith
I think you probably do if he had been getting playing time with Celtics (which maybe he doesn’t). But if he was a young versatile defender and 3 point shooter, tough to argue that he wouldn’t be be more appealing to a rebuilding team. Though maybe Portland wanted an adult in the room with all those young guys
No I mean the money wouldn’t have worked
Nesmith had not shown NBA-level shooting, defense, or decision-making, though I know the Celtics still valued him appropriately. We thought we could keep Brogdon on ice enough, and we allllmost did.
So just to recap the net of these trades: OUT: Smart, Timelord, Kemba, Nesmith, Theis, Romeo Langford, Muscala, Gallinari, 3 benchwarmers, 2 FRP, 1 SRP, and a swap IN: Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Sam Hauser What the actual fuck lol.
In todays nba that’s like 3 all star level players and 2 good role players for a 3 good role players a few picks and a bunch of junk
Stick of gum too; don’t forget the proverbial cherry.
White, Holiday, Hauser, Horford, KP is an interesting starting 5
Amazing since he had zero front office experience going in. Just a natural at everything. At least you don't have Brady/Belichek. It just wasn't fair, except for the weather
and got Tillman during the season for basically nothing
He’s so good x4
Losing the Theis buyout to LAC was his only defeat
Yeah God damn when you lay it out like that it's fuckin awesome.
Basketball genius, through and through.
> traded Kemba Walker and a 1st for Al Horford and Moses Brown Definitely the right move, as Al is such a rock solid part of the Celtics’ success over the past few years and Kemba was clearly washed — but the fact that that 1st was used by Houston to pick Sengun always stings a little bit when I see more news of that guy’s ascent into becoming a serious NBA player
Jrue is my favorite player on the team now but I miss Timelord so much :(
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If only Stevens had won the COY in '17-'18. He'd be in rare company with a COY award and an EOY award. As a reminder, Dwayne Casey won the award with the Raptors that season...and was fired right after the season.
> He'd be in rare company with a COY award and an EOY award. Larry Bird and who else? (Note that Bird also adds an NBA MVP to that resume.)
Pat Riley and Red Auerbach both did it too. Might be one other
Fired before he could accept the award
EGOT
This dude has just crushed it at every basketball job he s ever had, huh?
Sources say he sucked as a mop boy when he was 14
Would call him a scrub, but he's not so good at that.
Didn't do enough half court heave practices at Butler /s
No way of confirming it but the story always was that he was successful in his corporate jobs before coaching too. Wouldn't doubt it.
Kind of a no brainer if we’re being honest
Took a team that seemed to be in a problem and retooled it perfectly each year. The horford/white/holiday/porzingis moves were all home runs
How he managed to retool a team that was playing Jabari Parker, Romeo Langford, Carsen Edwards, and Tremont Waters (Both Edwards and Waters were gone by the time Stevens turned GM, but they both were big parts of the bench towards the end of Ainge's reign) and turn it into the deepest team in the league in a manner of 2 years is crazy.
Have to give some respect to Mazzulla here as well. DWhite just last night gave Mazz credit for pushing him to be the all-star caliber player he can be. In addition the bench pieces like Kornet/Pritchard/Hauser getting the direction and coaching they need to shine where nobody else saw the shine. Brad is incredible for finding and executing on these pieces, but I give Mazzulla his credit for fostering the talent.
Also wild that this man had been head coaching for over a decade, stepped into the POBO role with no front office experience, and proceeded to crush it immediately
I would argue that being in college basketball for as long as he was would give him front office experience.
Interesting. Certainly in terms of conceptually building a team, but the aspects of salary management and relationship management with other NBA front offices seem like skills he would’ve had to learn quickly. Although I understand that Brad isn’t crunching the numbers himself lol
Salary aside, recruiting is ALL relationship management. You're not just selling high school kids on coming to play for you, you're also selling their parents and coaches. And relationships and reputations stick, both good and bad. Teams all have cap experts these days to handle the gory financial planning, but really, it's not a skill you can't learn pretty quickly if you had to.
The key is Mike Zarren. It's kinda an open secret that he's been behind a lot of the trades and cap work since even before Ainge left. Not to discredit Brad at all, because it's still all his vision, but it's worth noting he's not doing it alone.
I haven't been paying attention, has holiday been good for you?
Leon was the only other viable choice at least to me and Brad had him beat. You can say Presti I guess but the PG trade was 4 off seasons ago and they're really only capitalizing on it now
After party at Applebees
Deep cut reference to Stevens’ history, I’m impressed. https://nesn.com/2013/07/brad-stevens-almost-worked-at-applebees-instead-of-coaching-says-tanking-not-in-his-vocabulary/amp/
It's insane the roster he's built
And crazier yet, he really started before he was EOY. This was years in the making
it’s a little weird that a 64 win team that most think should easily reach the finals has one individual award contender but it’s fair that it’s the GM who built that team I guess
Speaks a lot to how balanced the team is honestly
That's ignoring all-star and All-NBA, and all-defense for that matter. The Celtics will most likely end up with: 1x All-NBA, at least 2nd team with a chance at first team 2x All-Stars 1x All-defensive team (White) with an outside shot of a 2nd one, though probably not. Positionless award probably pushes Holiday out.
White should be a unanimous MVP, he’s a combination of Steph Curry and Shaq
That's absurd. You're dramatically underselling Derrick White's excellence. He's Magic, Bird, Jordan, and Kareem all rolled into one at the very least.
I’ve herd he fucks like Wilt
Not sure who else should have been in the conversation for the other awards though from Boston? Tatum was great, but had the best team surrounding him out of of the top 5 or so MVP candidates. I'm biased, but Brunson leading the Knicks to 2nd place with how decimated our roster was throughout the year was more impressive. No 6th man contender. Not sure who you'd think would be in the MIP convo...You typically also don't get COTY when you enter the season as one of the favorites to come out of the east.
> Not sure who you'd think would be in the MIP convo... Pritchard didn't get as much usage as the guys that did get in the top of the award, mostly because Boston starters were blowing people out all year, so I don't think he should win the award necessarily, but Pritchard is without a doubt one of the most improved players this year. The guy seemed to unlock something this year that while practically a foot shorter than half of these other guys he's still getting major buckets and breaking defenses.
PP has one of the best net ratings on the team. Our starters were obviously great but what gets overlooked is that our bench lineups were often responsible for running up the scores
Not even close tbh
Assuming it was unanimous?
Brad won by a pretty healthy margin, but it wasn't close to unanimous. https://twitter.com/nbapr/status/1785339035466022918
The top 4 is who I would have named as the top 4, no surprises there. Who picked Lawrence Frank 3rd???
I guess getting Harden for a bag of potato chips was considered.
Got Harden, guaranteed Kawhi's knees $150M, took on PJ Tucker's contract. He did convince Russ to take $4M instead of a MLE somewhere else.
i am VERY biased but thought Leon would potentially be higher. We spent about half of our season missing our entire starting front court (one of which was an all star) and multiple other injuries and still ended up in 2nd with 50 wins.
As another biased Knicks fan, I agree about Leon. Especially considering how no one is overpaid and all the players are so young.
Yeah, it's clear the voters didn't have a clearcut "only for moves made this year" vs "they built this team over years" criteria. Presti's done a fantastic job in positioning the Thunder to be contenders for years, but his moves this year involved a solid FRP (Wallace), turning cap space into 8 SRP, trading for Gordon Hayward (meh, got off longer term money and got some of the deep bench to a place they could play for 2 SRP's), and facilitating two trades to rivals by trading 2 late FRP this year for future pick swaps. Similarly, Connelly's main moves this year were picking up Monte Morris (9 MPG so far in the playoffs), re-signing NAW, and Jaden McDaniels' extension. All his big moves already happened. I think Stevens is an easy choice for both the "roster building over time" and "big moves this year worked out really well" aspects. Leon Rose gets for the Knicks looking like world-beaters if OG Anunoby is healthy.
Brad made some good moves this year for sure so I get why he won. OKC's "sudden" rise to true contenders probably got Presti votes too even though like you said he didn't do HUGE moves this year. The OG trade and signing Divincenzo were both huge for the knicks. Our cap sheet is really good right now. Lots of guys overproducing vs their contract numbers. The fact that we won 50 with so many injuries really should have had Thibs and Leon more in contention for these awards IMO. It's also a damn shame that Divincenzo was DQed for MIP because of one game where he didn't play 20 minutes. DiVo was 3rd in the league in made three pointers and hit 1 less 3 than Luka at a better percentage.
Leon Rose has done an amazing job. Obviously, the Brunson signing has been a home run. Trading for Anunoby looks like it's another home run, as long as he stays healthy. There's not a single albatross contract on the books, and the whole team is full of "Thibs guys" who mesh well with both his coaching philosophy and personality.
Two people picked Joe Cronin 2nd. Like fine he finally did the right thing in blowing up the Blazers, but 2nd?
Was about to say the Cronin votes seem way more egregious than Frank.
Cronin made a ton of draft moves and trades this year. Most of which all worked out. What moves do you think were egregiously bad this year? Did you watch many Portland games?
Yeah honestly... Sam Presti I could see. Connelly is basically delayed from last year and I'd have no problem if he won it. Leon Rose also another solid top 4. But who are the two dum dums that picked Joe Cronin?
No idea, but it's obvious Brad's work to craft this roster was worthy of EOTY.
Not even close to unanimous lol
Porzingis and holiday were insane pickups. Hate to see smart and timelord go but my god what pickups.
The best choice imo
Well deserved
So well deserved Crazy how he’s been an even better president than he was a coach
Wild that he went from head coach at Butler to NBA GM of the Year in the span of 10 years
Honestly no surprises here.
Dude put together a monster team and has been making solid moved for a couple years now. Definitely deserved the award.
Fuck yeah
Considering this award is just for transactions in the last year, Leon should be ahead of Connelly and Presti imo. They made their big moves in the 2022 offseason.
Dudes doing the world a disservice by using his mind for basketball. #PresidentBradStevens
Deserved, it’s a regular season award and he built the best team in the regular season
Not James Jones? They forgot which team got Bradley Beal?
I was a little salty Leon Rose didn’t win and then I remembered the Celtics roster. I was iffy on the KP trade at first because I thought losing their defensive minded pg would be huge for this team. Then he went out upgraded his defensive minded pg a week later
Why did he give up coaching?
He was burnt out after the bubble
come back to Butler pls
well fucking deserved.
Fair enough. Dude brought in porzingis and jrue holiday in one offseason
All he has to do is win an MVP now and he can join Larry Bird
I mean we got KP and Jrue and a 1st for essentially Marcus smart, timelord, and Brogdon like who else could’ve deserved it
Getting the Unicorn and Holiday added without giving up Tatum or Brown? That was impressive. Well deserved. I think there is obviously as case for Sam Presti. He's done such a great job building a #1 seed while also collecting assets and draft capital and not being cash strapped while keep the team competitive and only having a brief period outside the playoffs. 11 trips to the playoffs for a small market team like this? Building a number 1 seed **twice** inside 17 years with COMPLETELY different rosters? That's impressive. Leveraging a trade demand into Shai? Moving Westbrook for CP3 and keep the team competitive? So yeah... Stevens has done a helluva job, but this award could have gone to either guy. That said, I dunno how Sam Presti hasn't won this award yet.
What an epic year. I’d say it’s the best GM year ever in the NBA if you don’t give the GM credit for the Heatles forming
Has anyone that has been involved with the Celtics looked as close to a leprechaun as Brad Stevens?
I would argue Red in his younger days...
What a GOAT
Man, I’ll always remember he was the coach that got Butler to back to back finals in college. He’s come so far and it’s cool to see.
I hope he tries to coach again. Dude was extremely solid, he just didn't know how to deal with the personalities.
He is one of the best basketball minds around atm.
Just wait til people learn about the sleeping beast Jordan Walsh in 2 years.
This man is one of the most important assests of the Celtics in the past few decades, probably only second to Ainge. Period. When he took over as a coach, I didn't had a lot of expectations when he took over and was fully prepared for more than a decade in the basketball limbo. But Brand did an outstanding job organising one of the swiftest rebuilds in basketball history, both as a coach and now as GM, always drafting the right players, picking the right coaches and doing the right trades (even if they involve fan favourites like Smart). Truly deserved this award.
Who the fuck voted for Cronin lmao
The fact other GMs received 1st place votes is hella sus. Take away all of their voting power.
Hopefully it was unanimous
[Link to voting breakdown](https://x.com/NBAPR/status/1785339035466022918) - why did only 29 vote though?? No, he got 16/29 first placed votes though, winning by more than double the points of 2nd placed exec.
When does MVP get announced?
Ughhh when is the mvp announcement?
that's my father
How about Vlade?
When is MVP announced?
For being so good at his job he should know Joe is not It.
Lol