Brad Stevens: President of Basketball Ops
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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Yeah, they worked closely together here for a long time and I'm sure Danny has trusted him for a while now not to give it out to just anyone.
Haven't gotten through the entire thread but if the team (or any substantial part thereof) tuned out Brad this year, it will be interesting to see their reaction to him running the franchise.
Here's hoping that really didn't happen.
Here's hoping that really didn't happen.
If he’s going somewhere else as an “advisor” why wouldn’t it be with the organization and the team he’s out his heart and soul into? I didn’t see Red going to Detroit to advise the Pistons when he was retiring. It just doesn’t pass my smell test. By camouflaging it everyone wins and there is no drama during this transition.
Didn't he basically answer that? It sounds like the Cs offered that to him but he turned it down so there would be a clear chain of command without any murkiness about how much power an "Advisor Danny" would have.
He didn’t say he was going anywhere or would look to do so, he suggested that he was done as a GM and that being over the shoulder of/in the room with Brad would be a bad idea and he has seen that fail in other places.
And, to me, he looked and sounded burned out and relieved to be stepping back.
I don’t detect some elaborate ploy here.
I don't think Danny definitively has any plans to ever go anywhere else and it really doesn't sound like he was fired. But I also don't think Danny's feelings right now have much to say about what Danny will feel like/want to do in the coming years. How many times have we seen Urban Meyer "retire" for health reasons only to pop up somewhere else a few years later? And Brett Favre "retired" like 4 times. And we of course know Gronk "retired" and came back. So did Jordan. Etc.
Which isn't to say Danny necessarily will do the same, but it's entirely plausible that after a year or two of time off, Danny will feel reinvigorated, antsy, etc. and want to get back into a front office in some capacity or another somewhere.
Which isn't to say Danny necessarily will do the same, but it's entirely plausible that after a year or two of time off, Danny will feel reinvigorated, antsy, etc. and want to get back into a front office in some capacity or another somewhere.
Yeah, I don't see a ploy either. that said... I wouldn't be that surprised if a year or two into retirement his buddy with the Jazz asks him to be involved on some level and he says yes because he's bored.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBGwB9d41c
Pretty early on in this interview Danny says he'll be helping with the draft and the coaching search if Wyc and Brad want.
Pretty early on in this interview Danny says he'll be helping with the draft and the coaching search if Wyc and Brad want.
I didn't say you did, I was just adding context for anyone else who might have been reading along here and didn't have time to listen to the podcast.
I was just listening and what he says was “that entire team except for maybe Tatum and maybe Brown look dramatically different”
It wasn’t just Tatum.
EDIT: maybe there’s another comment later. This was about 16:30 in.
I think later he says something about how Brown might go for a star, around when they debate if you trade Brown for Beal (general consensus seemed to be no you don't, which I agree with)
Like I said, I’m not saying this is what happened. And I probably didn’t frame my post very well.
But I do wonder if ownership wanted Brad back as coach next season. It sounded to me like a Brad would have been happy to stay as coach, which begs the question.... who was pushing for this change?
I don’t think it’s crazy to think the Celtics value Stevens a lot in a general sense, think he has a good shot to succeed in the FO, know they are paying him anyway, but think the team needs a new head coach.
I certainly don’t think they would do this only to save money if they didn’t have high hopes for him as president of basketball OPs. But it’s also possible this “promotion” was not entirely Brad’s idea.
If Stevens wanted to continue coaching, he could have declined the promotion, let Wyc fire him, and collect a paycheck from the Celtics while he looks for a new job, which wouldn't take long at all as his reputation in the league is much better than it is on this subforum.
Stevens willingly took the job. I guess we don't know if Stevens would have been fired if he didn't, but he wouldn't have accepted the job if he didn't want it.
Wyc wouldn't just hand the PoBO job just for "continuity". He knows what's at stake, and that a mistake in the PoBO hire would cost a lot more to his bottom line than the remaining money on Stevens' coaching contract.
According to the presser, Brad and Danny started discussing Danny's retirement a few months back (before Wyc even knew). Maybe Danny posed the question, do you want to be the Boss or work for a new President? Brad can now be closer to home with his teenage kids and that may be more attractive than being on the road/hotels over 100 days of the year.
It shouldn't be anyone from LA,NY or Phoenix- those are places players want to go to. Boston, not so much. Throw Miami in there too even though the Heat are eliminated.
I'm happy Coach K is hanging it up; too many situations in the past few years where a great coach has hung on too long (Boeheim is Exhibit A for that; Jim Larranaga's another one). I have a feeling Cobra kept him from having already done it.
It definitely makes sense in a lot of ways for Brad, perhaps this is exactly how it went.
I’m just saying from the presser I got the sense Brad has a lot of loyalty to the Celtics, the front office wanted this to happen, and he is willing to give it a shot (rather than his preference is to leave coaching right now).
He explicitly repeated how much he loves coaching and admitted he would have been happy to stay as coach for a new head of basketball ops.
So it at least makes you wonder how much of this is his preference or just him willing to try it out for a year or two, knowing the coaching jobs will always be there for him waiting if he wants to go back.
What leaps out from the RR Ringer podcast today is how little actual information these NBA insiders actually have. On the one hand, its not great in terms of understanding what is going on but the flip side is that the C's organization is pretty well run if this news did catch every single one - and they all presumably have different sources around the team - flat footed.
Hopefully Brad will be hands off when it comes to a new coach. It might be awkward for the new coach to have too much involvement from their predecessor.
Like that a lot. If I had a real concern above others on Brad as GM it's that he doesn't even have his own agent, he's not plugged into agent relationships (and while word is he's liked among players, he doesn't have a ton of direct player pull). Danny if he had a flaw recently it was he didn't have great relationships with the newer agents (Klutch notably) and while players might have respected his honesty he wasn't that tied in on the player relationship side
It would bring me happiness to learn that the Port Cellar was a superior resource for NBA inside information.
It's not. Jackie Mac has a lot of sources in BOS and around the league, the others know some.
What it really is to be honest is that nobody has much until they are told it by someone who is looking for it to get out.... also filling a podcast or radio show is all about speculation, especially on this, where they're basically reacting and making predictions.
The bolded sounds familiar. I’m sure you are right. The idea that these particular podcast characters don’t know what they are talking about struck me. I think it primarily speaks to DeJesus’s comment that the Celtics kept a tight lid on things which is to their credit.
Maybe, though I can’t believe he’d have come to work under Stevens or without the ability to fire the coach. So I expect they picked Stevens over Presti.
I get why one can prefer Presti, but not insane to stick with Stevens and continuity either
To me Ujiri is more appealing than Presti anyway
Some behind the scenes stuff: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/02/sports/how-danny-ainge-came-decision-step-down-with-celtics/
Ooooooh I’m intrigued by this one. It’s the type of young ex-player who can easily connect with today’s 20-somethings.
it’s clear from this article and from the interview with Brad that this plan was in place well before the end of the season
I already responded to this and I want to add, I listened to the Russillo pod....and he clearly has no inside information or really anything of substance about Ainge.
He just said that “apparently he’s friends with the Jazz owner and could get a promotion and bring Austin with him”...or basically bullshit.
Mannix is normally plugged in so maybe he does go to the Jazz but I am now even more convinced that Ainge left in his own accord
I'm glad that this seems to have been planned for some time and not a quick reaction. That said, the timing is excellent given the damage Irving recently inflicted on the franchise with his comments on racism in Boston. Those comments unleashed an old narrative that could negatively affect their ability to sign future FA's. Replacing an old white guy at the top with a much younger ex-coach well-known to the league's players gives the organization some fresh air. I hope they hire a minority HC next. It's time. It's been a long while since ML Carr was the coach and that situation wasn't pretty then. If you're going to counter a perception that's been given voice, then doing it as quickly as possible is your best attack.
I think DA was a smart GM who had some great luck and some horrific luck. Red was right - Danny is lucky.
EDIT: Forgot Doc - oof. Thanks Humphrey.
I think DA was a smart GM who had some great luck and some horrific luck. Red was right - Danny is lucky.
EDIT: Forgot Doc - oof. Thanks Humphrey.
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Knicks then Raps. He was one of that stretch of 2nd rounders who got weird offer sheets right at the end of the Linsanity era.
Retired early due to hip Labrum tear.. was a scout for the Spurs then worked his way up to GM of their G-League affiliate, then Hawks Asst GM.
You're forgetting Doc Rivers!
I'd say ML was one of the weaker coaches in my 60 years watching the team. But, it's pretty apparent three of their better ones were Doc, KC and Russell.
Wow, massive overlook on my part - thanks. Still think they need to push back on the turmoil created by KI and it's a perfect time to do the right thing.
Yes, the paradox of the perception of the Boston Celtics. The team that broke the color barrier in the NBA. The league's first Black coach in Bill Russell. KC being the head coach of those white Celtics teams was a fact neglected by the haters, strange during a period when he was only one of 2 Black head coaches in the league. And Doc delivering the team's 17th banner and getting his suit ruined in the process. And, yes, ML Carr does not belong anywhere near the same category as those 3; Satch Sanders didn't succeed either, but he had zero chance. And the team has had good white coaches as well: Stevens, Chris Ford, Jim O'Brien, even Bill Fitch, and, of course, Tommy Heinsohn and Red.
I personally question whether Kyrie is speaking for the players; I need solid proof to believe he didn't play the card for his own selfish purposes. Utah and Philly were recently the sites of far worse incidents involving white fans and Black players.
Still, hiring a Black head coach would be a good step to make at this particular time; there is certainly no shortage of qualified candidates that would jump at the opportunity.
Before or after trading Shae Gilgeous-Alexander to Boston for Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith?
The major problem with the idea that Ainge planned this for months and left of his own accord (and was succeeded by Stevens) is that people want H3adz!
1) Are they really kicking Zarren out? The guy's been touted as the next great GM for years.
2) You do not want your GM "easily connecting" with players. As already outlined above, a GM needs to be able to cut and trade guys ruthlessly. You can't do that if you've got close personal relationships with the players. Coaches are the ones who need to have those player relationships, not GMs.
This is the internet in a nutshell. Issue a hot take that is the opposite of factual. When presented with information that proves the hot take was nonsense, the hot taker doubles down and is like, “ok, I am clearly wrong but if you really think about it, I was actually right.”