BRAD STEVENS NEWS CONFERENCE

ESPNBOSTON.COM

Watch: Brad Stevens' news conference

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4705869/watch-brad-stevens-news-conference

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BOSTON.COM

Brad Stevens looked around at the 17 NBA championship banners hung around him Friday at the Celtics’ training facility in Waltham.


“In awe,” he said of his reaction.

Why? Well, for starters, he’s now the man charged with adding an 18th banner to those rafters after being announced as the 17th head coach in franchise history.

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge welcomed Stevens, who at 36 now becomes the youngest coach in the NBA, two days after formally announcing that he had hired Stevens away from Butler University.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled for the opportunity,” Stevens said, wearing a green tie and white shirt under a dark suit.

Ainge said Stevens was his “first choice” to be Celtics coach and that he’s confident Stevens can smoothly make the shift from the NCAA to the NBA.

“Yes there will be transition from college game to the NBA, but we will give him the support he needs,” Ainge said after bestowing a 6-year, $22 million contract upon his new coach.

Stevens will lead the Celtics into a new era that will likely look much different from the final years of his predecessor, Doc Rivers. The Celtics, having traded icons Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, are entering a rebuilding phase that will test Stevens’ ability as a basketball teacher.

Stevens said while he’s aware of the high-profile failures of previous college coaches in the NBA (such as former Celtics coach Rick Pitino and John Calipari), he’s not deterred by their performances.

Instead, Stevens said the Celtics’ approach as they recruited him—which he called professional and process-driven—impressed him and made him confident he can succeed in Boston the same way he did at Butler.

Ainge noted that the history of college coaches flaming out in the NBA seemed to loom over the hiring of Stevens, and made it necessary for the Celtics to prove to their new coach they’re arming him to succeed. “He had to take a leap of faith in us as an organization,” Ainge said.

One of his first challenges may be developing rapport with Rajon Rondo, the team’s mercurial All-Star point guard. As an established star, Rondo may be skeptical about buying into the vision of a 36-year-old coach of a rebuilding team.

But Stevens said he talked with Rondo on Thursday and the two had a fruitful opening conversation.

“There is no bigger fan of Rajon Rondo than me,” Stevens said. “The way he plays, his instincts, his ability to make other people better.

Stevens said Rondo gave him “really good” feedback.

“I have so much respect for how he sees the court,” coach said. “I’m looking forward to sitting down and learning from him.”

On Thursday, a source close to Rondo who has talked with the guard since the Stevens hiring told the Globe that Rondo is looking at the move with a “completely open mind.”

Stevens came on Ainge’s radar as an NBA candidate within the past few years—and he even called him the “best coach in college basketball” during Butler’s 2010 championship loss to Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke team. (That was the first of back-to-back appearances in the national championship game that Stevens led Butler to from the small-conference Horizon League.)

“I have watched and admired his poise, his intelligence,” Ainge said.

Another quality stuck out for Ainge.

“The difference is his humility,” the Celtics boss said, in comparing Stevens to past college coaches who have made the jump to the NBA.

An NBA source said Thursday that Stevens’ personality may make him a good candidate to succeed where previous NCAA coaches failed in the pros.

“He’s the anti-[John] Calipari, the anti-[Rick] Pitino. Those guys, they think it’s about them,” the source said. “He’s going to learn that it’s about the players and that’s going to help.

“Everything is a risk, but this is a good risk.”

And the Celtics, since they are entering a rebuilding phase, have the luxury of being able to take a chance on a coach like Stevens if they believe his style will translate to the NBA.

Ainge said he was almost instantly comfortable with Stevens and the decision to hire him. So much so that he wanted to make Stevens’ contract reflect the Celtics’ confidence in him.

“I don’t think there’s any other coach in the NBA with a 6-year commitment,” Ainge said. “We’re investing in him.”

Stevens, while noting that “winning championships” is his goal, also tried to display some of that humility.

“I won’t be right in every decision. I’m going to make a lot of mistakes,” he said.

“But we will bust it to make sure we won’t make that same mistake again.”

Gary Washburn and Baxter Holmes from the Globe staff contributed

Ok, Raise your hands…………….Who felt warm and fuzzy watching the Celtics news conference and the introduction of Brad Stevens as new Celtic coach………..Anyone, come on now…………Don’t be bashful…………………Hmmmmmmmmmm………..Got to be someone…………….Anyone????????????

Yep, that is the way I felt………….I thought the introduction was flat as warm soda on a hot summer day. It felt to me that all the Celtic management and hierarchy who were on the podium were very tentative……….Very subdued………….How about NOT UP BEAT!

Maybe I’m just the loan voice in the wilderness but it sure looked and sounded reserved to me.
That being said……………..Here is my take on this whole hiring of Brad Stevens.

1) This is all about Danny now and his reputation…………….This is not Brad’s team, it is Danny’s. He is putting his signature on it through the players he selects in the draft, players he lets go or trades, players that he trades for, and of course, the coach he selects.  The only people he has to answer or confer with are Steve and Wyc. Not Doc like before.

2) It was smart move by Danny selecting Brad Stevens. Here is why.
During your life, did anyone ever do something that advanced you in life……….. Someone special that you looked up to……………A mentor perhaps. I’ll now ask you a question……….Would you not follow that person’s advice and be loyal?  Be open to their ideas more so then your own in the beginning?

That is why Danny selected Brad Stevens. Danny needs a YES MAN or at least a person who will be more readily agreeable to follow Danny’s advice and strategy in the rebuild then a proven veteran NBA coach.  In this case, Brad’s mentor………..the person who gave him his shot in the NBA is Danny so the loyalty runs deep. Make no doubt about it, the team being built ……… IS DANNY’S TEAM!

Brad was an easy sell to ownership. He has been touted as one of the great new minds in the basketball world…….An up and comer. Stevens is very analytical  in his approach to the game, and in the way he prepares.  That in it self was an easy sell by Danny to Steve and Wyc to select Stevens as their coach. Both Steve and Wyc come from the finance/hedge fund/private equity world where they must rely heavily on analytics. It was an easy relate and sell to get them to agree.

3) Danny is crafty. Could this spell the end of Danny with the Celtics if this does not work out?   Maybe…………….But maybe not, here is why.

Stevens experience is working with young men. That is exactly who the Celtics are and will be for some time. Players and coach alike, it will be easier to relate to each other, so maybe some bonding comes about and the team can grow together.

What if Rondo is Rondo and gives Stevens the cold shoulder and does his own thing? It could happen, but do not look for that scenario to possibly begin to happen until after the All Star Game…………And guess what………..that is very near the NBA trading deadline. Not as if Danny did not want to trade Rondo before………….he just could not get what he wanted in return. The excuse is there to justify the trade. Besides, Danny may be a little more flexible because Rondo’s contract is shorter in length.

What if Stevens fails……………We will not know that for at least the next 2.5 years, so by the end of the 3rd year could be the make or break for Stevens. Let say he fails. Ownership would be too entwined with Danny in the rebuilding process that it would be difficult to start the rebuilding again with a new GM.

So what happens Danny is told to hire a new coach……………..Management eats $11M on the remaining contract ……………..They get a veteran coach………..The Celtics have a young team with some great talent…………. Danny wheels and deals and acquires a couple of All Stars………………..does 2008 ring a bell.

Is this a gamble by Danny………You bet! Could this take longer then expected with a possible disaster in year 3 because Stevens is way over his head………….You bet!

Could this make Danny a living legend in Boston in the likes of Red Auerbach……….You bet!!!!!!

112288

11,

This has been Danny's team since they hired him...

Contract extension to mark blunt- Danny

Drafting Gerald green- Danny

Sheed, 2 Oneils and darko- Danny

Hiring doc- Danny

Trading perk for green- Danny

Trading doc- Danny

Trading pp & kg- Danny

Anyone who would come to Boston would know the sort of gm we have and would have to on board with that, o'brian couldn't so we got doc.. When doc couldn't do it any more... We got the new kid.

This is Danny ainge we're talking about, a guy who would trade Red Auerbach if it would help the team.. Whoever comes has to know that.

Watching the news conference two things struck me almost immediately and were only reinforced throughout. First was how young he looks. Second was how mature he sounds. He clearly has a vision on how things should be done and with his obvious integrity, he will be no one's yes man. We are witnessing something really special with this hiring. Danny isn't padding his legacy, he is risking it on a vision of how things should be, not on what has worked before. Yet, he is doing exactly that, doing what has worked before. The most revealing graphic was the one that showed the ages of the truly great Celtics coaches from the past. All in their 30s, with Stevens being the oldest of the lot. Make no mistake about it. Stevens will be the coach of this team, not Danny nor Rondo. This will not be a mistake because the talent coupled with the humility of Coach Stevens will not allow it. Rondo is going to blossom under Stevens and show us just how good he really is, and why will he do so? Because he will be playing the way he wants to, the way he excels, the way his coach wants him to, and with the players who will make him look great when he makes them better, as he always does. Get ready for TEAM basketball sans the big three/four or whatever. Oh, let me check...yep, nearing 100 here in Tucson, feeling all warm and fuzzy, yep.

mulcogi

One short, the media forgot to ask was, What type of ball does he like to play/run? We have no idea what he is thinking, at least initially, defense, run and gun....what? No one asked him about the talent existing and what he would like to do.

Strange news conference.........even yet strange and subdued management & ownership. Does not give me warm and fuzzy feelings.

112288

Hey, it's only an introductory news conference. At this stage in Brad's day as Celtics' head coach, he has a load of work and priorities to deal with before it's appropriate to try to get a fix on what kind of a coach he'll be. If, at this press conference, he had given indications of the style he'd employ, i'd have been very disappointed. And it would have been a totally inappropriate question to present to him. Quite obviously, he doesn't intend to grapple with that kind of decision alone. He wants the players' input too, as well as Danny's, his assistant coaches, his stats guru, etc.. He wants to know what the players' strengths, weaknesses and propensities are so he can tailor strategy to take advantages of the good things and minimize the impact of the bad things. If a guy has "alligator arms," Brad's going to try to employ him in roles in which the comparatively short arms aren't so much of a drawback. Brad's obviously going to rely on a lot of metrics, and I strongly suspect that he doesn't yet have metric one on this team, whose roster composition is still far from finalized.

I certainly don't expect warm, fuzzy feelings at this stage. The press conference certainly wasn't choreographed as much as a press conference in L.A. might be. The occasional awkwardness of it translated to sincerity in my book, as Brad and Danny were sometimes put to the test of trying to find different ways to say the same things.

We've read elsewhere that he gravitates to a motion offense and a defensive system that isn't too far removed from that introduced by Thibs. Just those two little glimmers of information already make me feel good. I'm impressed with Brad's earnestness, his team philosophy, his emphasis on a day-to-day, type orientation, his openness to making adjustments. I'm looking forward to seeing him apply those and other great qualities to his decision-making over the next few months. He has earned my trust to dig in and do the best possible job he can for the team, and that's sufficient for me at this juncture.

Sam

Dboss,

I was wondering the same thing, especially when he mumbled something about the Celtics playing that great game in the eighties. Actually, they played quite a few great games in the eighties. That was the only part of the press conference when I had the feeling that we were getting contrived answers.

Sam

Quote from Sam:
"I'm impressed with Brad's earnestness, his team philosophy, his emphasis on a day-to-day, type orientation, his openness to making adjustments."

Not that would be something new, wouldn't it?

Berlin,

When he had the horses to do the job, I thought Doc was very good at halftime adjustments. Longer-term adjustments, not so much. Like injecting more life into the offense almost every season. Like deviating from a Pierce iso at the end of quarters (which Doc actually did start late in his stay). Like parlaying the same kind of tenacious defense Bradley could mount in the open court into similar tenacity in their perimeter defense and guarding against threes in the corner.

As you know, I'm probably more interested in the rhythms, pace, nuances, interactions, clues to behind-the-scenes stuff, and insights into the minds of coaches and players than in any other aspect of the game. I'm going to be particularly interested in the Brad-Rondo partnership, which will obviously have to take place big time for the celtics to make headway as a Rondo-led group. I've always felt that, if I coached the Celtics (a 10-year deal worth a cool ice cream cone per year), the first thing I would do would be to sit down with each player, discuss his roles (both past roles and the roles in which he believes he excels), talk with holdovers about where the team is coming from and their perception of where it should be headed, and just generally getting a feel for the inner workings of the team. It sounds to me as though Brad's going to do that, and being open-minded seems to be one of his strongest traits. (Of course, I'd be open-minded too but more in the sense of a vacuum.)

In a way, both Brad and Rondo share something—being at crossroads of sorts. I'm hoping they'll form a very strong and symbiotic relationship going forward, starting with a clean slate.

Sam

bobheckler wrote:Here are some quotes from Brad Stevens, from the news conference:

"As far as Rondo, I will say this. There is no bigger fan of Rajon Rondo than me."

"Everyone I've talked to has raved about how intellectual (Rondo) is. . looking forward to sitting down with him and talking ball."

"I'm looking forward to sitting down and learning from him."


One must take everything that is said at an intro news conference with a grain of salt, both the stuff that knocks your socks off as well as the "where's the beef?" feeling when you come away feeling like it was all mush.  I can't say, however, that I am displeased by these statements.  He's not coming in and trying to assert himself right off the bat.  He's not pissing people off by saying "it's my way or the highway" without exhibiting at least a modicum of prudence, patience or comity.  He's being deferential to his starting point guard's well-known basketball IQ, and that can't possibly start their relationship off on the wrong foot.  If first impressions are lasting impressions then Brad Stevens probably made a good first impression on Rondo.  In the longer run the reality might be very different, but it cannot hurt to start off on the good foot.

That would be very different than the beginning of Rondo's relationship with Doc, which was confrontational right from the get-go.


bob


.

This is a great read of the situation. I liked what I heard. He seems like a nice guy, with a very analytical basketball mind. He will need to learn from the mistakes of people like Rick Pitino and John Calapari - who came to the NBA and tried to control their players as if they were 18 year old teenagers. You need to treat NBA players as the men they are, with respect.

When some foolish reporter asked Brad Stevens how he would "...handle Rondo", what came to mind is a famous Red Auerbach quote: “You don’t handle people. You handle animals. You deal with people.”

I think that was the crux of the conversion with Stevens. He is both a good coach and a good communicator, who gets the most from his players by showing a real respect and care for them and their families. I like this guy.

sam wrote:Dboss,

I was wondering the same thing, especially when he mumbled something about the Celtics playing that great game in the eighties.  Actually, they played quite a few great games in the eighties.  That was the only part of the press conference when I had the feeling that we were getting contrived answers.

Sam,

I watched the press conference specifically looking for that comment, and I didn't hear it. He did mention the great Celtics teams of the eighties, but I didn't hear any reference to a particular game.

Not that I know everything about Stevens, but I have been aware of him for some time. He's known for getting the most out of his talent, valuing character in his players and exhibiting it himself, emphasizing team play over systems tailored around stars, and being deeply loyal. About the only downsides I can think of are his youth, which translates to relative inexperience, and shyness, which may be what left some people here less than enthused by his performance at the news conference.

His biggest challenges will be handling the bright lights of the NBA, especially with such a high-profile team; establishing authority with players who are willing to challenge it and aren't much younger than him; adjusting to the length and travel of the NBA season; and getting used to the esoteric nature of the NBA game, from both a game and a practice perspective. He will absolutely rely on assistants with NBA experience to help him with the transition.

His biggest challenge on a personal level will be dealing with the heightened level of scrutiny and the media demands. He's the opposite of guys like Pitino and Calipari, who reveled in the attention. Those guys had issues at the other end of the spectrum because they were control freaks who obsessed over their image, which contributed greatly to their failures in the NBA by destroying credibility with players, management, and the media. Stevens will likely shun the attention as much as possible and may cultivate disfavor among certain media people who like being catered to and treat him like a rube out of his league. Ainge will be instrumental in helping him through those challenges.

Hopefully he can work through those issues. If so, fans may come to appreciate his nature, especially his loyalty. Loyalty is a two-way street and has to be earned over time, but once it's ingrained in his system, it will be a prime asset. The team made a big step toward establishing it from their side with the length of his contract. He's not a flashy, polished guy; he's an honest, earnest, rock-solid foundation guy, and he's a bright, confident coach, even if he's low-key. He's not without risk, but I think he's a great hire.

Outside,

I was struck by Brad's use of the singular form, and—relying on memory—I accidentally mentioned the word "game" rather than the word "year," which was actually the case. Whether games or years, I'm of the belief that the Celtics had multiple great ones in the 1980s. But, since he was only age nine when they won their last championship in the 80s, I suppose it's entirely possible that his memory extended back only to 1986. Age nine is pretty young to have such vivid memories of a team from another part of the country. But, since he grew up in Indiana (a noted basketball hotbed), and since Larry obviously attracted lots of attention from that state, it's certainly within the realm of possibility. I agree that he's a great choice for the Celtics, and I'm not concerned that he will take the wrong approach in relating to NBA veterans or the league in general. He's too smart, too open-minded, and to unfettered by ego for that.

Sam