How do these playoffs fit in Celtics' timeline for success?

How do these playoffs fit in Celtics' timeline for success?



Saturday, April 25, 2015
By:  Mark Murphy


Brad Stevens admits to an unusual love for video. The Celtics coach uses another phrase to describe the obsession.

“It’s part of the sick-mindedness of that, you enjoy watching that film over and over again,” he said of playoff coaching, and the opportunity to study one team.

“You might watch it two or three times, but eventually you’re seeing the same things over and over. You just go out and do something about it,” said Stevens.

Or you’re unable to solve the problem. That’s where the Celtics lie right now, trailing Cleveland 3-0 in their best-of-seven first-round NBA playoff series. Everyone agrees that Stevens shouldn’t be anywhere else if he is to continue adapting his significant ability to the NBA.

That said, the Celtics have sacrificed a place or two in the NBA draft order because of this unexpected playoff visit. Stevens said prior to Thursday’s Game 3 loss that he never included a timeline in his plans after taking over the Celtics two seasons ago.

Danny Ainge said yesterday that like Stevens, he never mapped out an expected time for making the playoffs. That’s why the Celtics president doesn’t consider Stevens’ first playoff appearance to be ahead of schedule.

According to Ainge, the team that made the playoffs isn’t any different from the one that could just as easily have been in the low lottery.

“If we had just missed the playoffs instead of making them, I don’t see any difference,” he said. “We’re down, 3-0, to a very talented team. It’s clear we’re not where we want to be.

“There’s no timetable to anything,” said Ainge. “The idea has been to be smart and patient.”

But Ainge’s most important time has no end, with a trove of draft picks and cap space set to spread his biggest decisions over the next three years.

His biggest to date in the post Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce era was the hiring of Stevens. And Stevens admittedly has handled much of his NBA transition on the fly.

“I can sit up here and act like I know, but I didn’t know anything. I was clueless,” Stevens said of his initial plan to attack the NBA.

“I knew I was intrigued by the NBA and I knew the history and tradition of the Boston Celtics,” he said. “I watched a ton of it, I knew I was enthralled by the basketball side of things. I knew this ownership and this management team were as supportive to the people in their organization as anybody around.

“That’s what I knew coming here, but as far as a timeline, we didn’t put a timeline on ourselves because I’m not sure I would have known how long it’s supposed to take. We just coached every day, and coached whoever was in the building.”

“Whoever was in the building,” refers to one of the most expansive roster flips in the league this season.

Thinking back to last October is almost pointless now for Stevens, because his offense was predicated on Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green.

But Stevens sensed something better was at hand.

“I thought we were better. I didn’t know what that would mean, but being naïve is probably a good thing,” he said. “One of our assistants said do you know how hard it is to improve by eight games? It’s really a difficult thing to do.”

Instead, the Celtics improved by 15 wins and took advantage of a weak Eastern Conference to earn a playoff seed.

“I thought we would be better structurally, offensively and defensively,” said Stevens. “We played really well Opening Night, but even when we were 13-26 and going through all of our roster changes, I just felt so much better structurally than last year at any point and time.”

In a playoff appearance that has benefitted everyone from Stevens to the player who may be the future leader of this team, rookie Marcus Smart, that’s the point.

“It’s just good for our team,” said Ainge. “I never worry about Brad. I know who he is and I’m not worried about that. But it’s good for us to find some things out. Everybody who is involved in the playoffs, that kind of environment, will learn from it.”




bob
MY NOTE:  If we ended up with the 30 wins most pundits predicted for us, we'd still only be in 7th place in the lottery.  If we had a track record like Cleveland or NOP with moving up in the lottery I might feel a little better about that, but we don't.  7th would give us a damn good shot at Porzingis, who is projected to go 8th.  Given the choice between Porzingis and making the playoffs, I would still choose the playoffs.  Once you get past Okafur and Towns, both of whom will go 1 & 2 or 2 & 1, the quality of the type of big men we want falls off precipitously.



.

I hope that, instead of just producing articles on whether the playoffs or (wink wink) losing would have been preferable, some bright media type will interview Brad and some other Celtics on what they feel they gained from being in the playoffs.

What happened to Lee Lauderdale anyway?

Sam