Brad Stevens takes blame for issue that's plagued Celtics all season

Brad Stevens takes blame for issue that's plagued Celtics all season

NBC SPORTS BOSTON By Darren Hartwell May 08, 2019 2:30 PM

If you've followed the Boston Celtics this season, the past three games have featured a familiar refrain: One minute, they're locked in a competitive contest; the next, they're down by double digits.

The Celtics have been the victims of several huge Milwaukee Bucks runs in this second-round series, the latest a third-quarter collapse at home in Game 4 that pushed them to the playoff brink.

In an interview Wednesday on 98.5 The Sports Hub's "Zolak & Bertrand," Celtics coach Brad Stevens shouldered the blame for those temporary but harmful lapses.

"I do not think I've done a good job of settling us down when we need to be settled down," Stevens said. "That's one of the things that I really need to do a better job of in helping put all these guys -- Gordon Hayward included -- in better spots with calls."

The Celtics also have been plagued by misses early in their offensive sets, leading to ballooning deficits as the Bucks get buckets on the other end. That's a credit to Milwaukee's long, athletic defense shutting off other options, but Stevens thinks he can draw up a better game plan.

"From my standpoint, I've got to help us more when we don't have those early attacks," he said. "I think that'll help everybody hopefully play a little bit better."

With season on line, C's hope play speaks louder than words

Simply put, the Celtics need players like Kyrie Irving (19 for 62 in his last three games) and Hayward to shoot far better if they have any hope of making it past Game 5.

Still, Stevens wants to see more resiliency from his squad when adversity hits.

"I think it's been one of our things we've struggled with all year," he added. "Not responding to runs by other teams and really trying to hit home runs and becoming a little bit less solid on both ends of the court."

If the C's aren't "solid" in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, their summer vacation will start early.

112288

Thanks Brad and if you were reading my post all year on this forum about this subject matter, ya could have fixed it early on!

Wow, the light bulb just goes on now...........pathetic!

112288

Brad, listen up. In the 8 playoff games so far Jaylen has had a total of 78 fga's - way too few considering that he has made 41 of them. That's a rate of 52.56%. Why have you not featured Jaylen in the offense?
Disgruntled from Worcester

Regular season Jaylen only had 792 fga's. That's 9.66/game. Not enough. Jaylen's fault? I don't think so.

Stevens doing what one would expect here, and taking responsibility. Any decent coach would do the same; show leadership and deflect blame from the players, while shouldering it yourself. Stevens time in Boston has been good.

NYCelt wrote:Stevens doing what one would expect here, and taking responsibility. Any decent coach would do the same; show leadership and deflect blame from the players, while shouldering it yourself. Stevens time in Boston has been good.

I agree, and bet he would tell us he has learned more this year than any other year.

Next year will be better.

The way we were getting hammered all 2nd half and Giannis was just wearing out Al, we were already losing big with a lot of time left, why not put Williams on Giannis. Their 2 starting forwards were bigger than our starting center.

not sure if it was something I read here or somewhere else, but someone made a point about Brad has never had to coach an elite group of players.

Butler was/is a small school who never gets elite HS players (name one player Brad had at Butler that's an NBA player, besides Hayward).

OK there is Shelvin Mack.

When he came to Boston, he was taking over a team that had been gutted. Like at Butler they had to over achieve to be competitive.

I think the over all point was, that Brad will need to LEARN how to coach/handle STAR players (ala; Irving, etc) and that is a whole new world for him.

I think there may be something to that.

Certainly, a head coach always needs to identify himself as part of a disappointing team's season.

From my perspective, Stevens and his staff did not have their best season, and I also wonder about the situation that KDP mentioned as their are different things to do when you have the talent opposed to when you are trying to develop the talent.

With that being said there is a lot to be said about players not fitting in with each other and also that player leadership on a team is very, very important.

I listened to Brad's post game comments and I appreciate his leadership as far as knowing he has to do a better job coaching. He is very protective of his players.

Unfortunately the one thing this team lacks is accountability. Players are not held accountable for not playing the right way.

Brad has yet to learn that he is the one who must doll out discipline. You can still be a player's coach and at the same time be a demanding coach. But this team lacks the level of discipline to needed to be a legit contender. It is the coaches responsibility to instill discipline. I am not 100% convinced that his soft like grapes personality can produce a disciplined team.

That was at least me, kdp.  Underdog Coach mentality.  

db

I think people these days have overused the "I'll take responsibilty" phrase. I'm always now leary of people that used those words. Now it is used to get someone, in this case the media, off your back and diverted onto another topic and redirecting the spotlight. In the end, no one steps up and you're left with the same POS by just kicking the can down the road a bit. In the end, it's Danny. Brad is his hire and his fire. He can't run and hide.

db

By any measure, Brad Stevens is one of the best young basketball minds in the sport. If Danny believes in him, he needs to build AROUND his philosophy. Interchangeable pieces, positionless basketball, less hero ball and more ball movement.

This season he was given a team with a prima donna superstar, something Brad hasn't had to deal with before - and something he clearly cannot manage at this point in his career. In this case of THIS TEAM, Doc Rivers would have been a better coach. But in the long term growth of Tatum, Brown, Smart, Robert Williams and any of the boatload of draft picks coming - Brad is the right guy. But ultimately that comes down to Danny and how he builds the team he hands to Brad.

I think we see the answer in the team standing put at the trade deadline. Danny knew in his heart this team was not the team that gets the Celtics over the top - and so he didnt have a fire sale (like Philly) and stood pat with his assets fully intact. I retrospect, the only move he probably should have made was in getting rid of Rozier. He proved to be unable to perform as a professional and was a net negative when he was on the court more often than not.

I think Brad is the man for the job -but only if the team is full of scrappy, hard working, players willing to sacrifice.