Jared Dudley: Imagine what Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens could do with a couple of All-Stars

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Jared Dudley: Imagine what Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens could do with a couple of All-Stars



Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com

on November 07, 2015 at 4:30 AM, updated November 07, 2015 at 9:40 AM




BOSTON -- Echoing comments he made this summer, Washington Wizards forward Jared Dudley said Brad Stevens has impressed players around the NBA -- not just with his ability to coach a team, but the focus he puts on giving players the proper amount of rest.

From conversations with Jerryd Bayless and other players around the league, Dudley has gathered that Stevens is "above his time when it comes to manufacturing the body, keeping it healthy."

During Stevens' tenure with the Boston Celtics, no players has averaged more than 34 minutes per game. Because of a busy schedule after the All-Star break last season, the coach held only a handful of practices over the final two months of the regular season. He has also shifted home shootarounds from their traditional morning time slot, opting instead for briefer walkthroughs a few hours before tip-off.

On top of all that is Stevens' ability to manage a team, which Dudley said is obvious to players around the league.

"With Stevens to do what he's done here (in Boston) -- I mean, imagine, give this guy a couple of All-Stars, what he could do," Dudley told MassLive.com. "But that being said, he hasn't had that. He has good players, young players, hungry. And to be able to, with a young team where guys want to get stats, and sometimes that's a little more important than winning, buying in, he's done a great job."

"Just knowing his Xs and Os, ball movement, giving players chances to play," Dudley said. "Obviously it's a lot easier when you don't have any stars, technically, on this team, but they can play 15 guys on any given night, any given day. His Xs and Os out of timeouts are great.

"They were first half of the season dead in the water. To have a young team compete, come back, make the playoffs, and we saw them improve year by year. So when it comes to the rest of the body, taking days off, knowing when to prepare, put the time in, Xs and Os. Then he's a young coach on a young team that would be hard to win. He found ways, and that puts him up there."

Over the summer, Dudley told Grantland's Zach Lowe he would put Stevens in his "top two or three" coaches to play for. Coaching isn't the only factor when players decide where to sign, of course, but Dudley estimated it's about "30 to 40 percent" of the equation.

"Obviously the big thing here is money," Dudley said. "The big thing is how good the team is, and city and coach go hand in hand. You've seen LeBron (James) go back to Cleveland and it was a rookie coach. So obviously it didn't matter to him to a certain degree. But you saw guys go to Doc Rivers. You saw LaMarcus Aldridge go to Pop (Gregg Popovich). So it does matter. And usually when you have a good coach, more times than not it's a winning situation. So it makes it a lot easier."



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