Losses in the first round of the playoffs in consecutive years could fall heavily on the head coach’s inability to make it over the proverbial “hump”. It happened to three teams in these playoffs alone (Indiana, Houston, Memphis). Much in the same way, a general manager can be the fall man for putting together a team of lackluster talent. While not as likely, these changes in upper management do happen, as more than half of the league’s general managers were hired just four seasons ago. For the Boston Celtics front office, however, the marginal improvement from last year’s sweep, winning two games against the Atlanta Hawks this year, was enough to secure both Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens as general manager and head coach, respectively, for the foreseeable future. The terms of the extension were not initially released.
Achieving Success Behind Stevens and Ainge
It takes a great deal of talent, success, and confidence in your own system to maintain the level of security Stevens has had while the head coach of the Celtics. At only 39 years old and facing his fourth season, Stevens is the 6th most tenured head coach in the NBA. In today’s world of social media, an insistent pressure rests on the front office of basketball organizations to constantly find ways to improve and make a finals run. More often than not, though, the head coach is ultimately held accountable for his team’s failure (somewhere Billy King is nodding with a smirk).
Initially seen as a shocking, aggressive investment, the former Butler Bulldogs coach has impressed critics and fans alike with his ability to have players buy into his system and execute masterful defensive game plans with the help of new-age analytics and through his cool demeanor. Under Stevens, the Celtics have improved their win total in each of his three years going from 25 wins to 40 to 48, while making the playoffs in two of his three seasons.
Stevens makes the best use of his team. These Celtics won forty-eight games with Amir Johnson being the highest paid player on the roster. Coach Stevens utilizes a team-oriented offense; six players averaged double-digit points per game, and nine players saw at least fifteen minutes of action per game. In many ways, this team has overachieved these past three seasons, and while some of that can be attributed to better-than-expected production from point guard Isaiah Thomas, much of the C’s success is due to a coach that was given much job security immediately (6 years/22 million dollars) and that has been a constant form of motivation for an averagely talented Boston team ever since.
Considering that a coaching savant is at the helm, Danny Ainge’s job may seem as simple as a Steph Curry 25 foot jump shot. Acquire the necessary talent to make Stevens’s job easier, right? Oddly enough, since hiring Stevens, Ainge has followed a similar path to the one he took after the Celtics made him general manager and he hired Doc Rivers.
It was around the 2003 season that Ainge made trades sacrificing those early Doc seasons for assets leading to future success. Giving Rivers time to build a system around a known scorer in Paul Pierce, Ainge added the right pieces to fortify that culture, culminating in the 2008 championship led by the Big Three.
Now the fourth most-tenured general manager in the league and one of only five current general managers to have won a championship, Ainge gets another chance to assemble a dynasty centered now on Thomas but led by Professor Stevens. With enough cap room for two max contracts (after cutting Johnson and Jonas Jerebko), the Celtics can immediately add impact talent to an up-and-coming group. There are rumors swirling that Thomas acquired Kevin Durant‘s phone number, and will be tenaciously pursuing the elite scorer as he does a loose ball.1 On the other hand, they also hold eight picks in this upcoming draft, including the third and sixteenth. If they choose to belabor the process another year, the Celtics could have even more room for what could be the most talented free agent class ever in 2017.
Nevertheless, the league should start taking notice at the moves being made in Beantown. With 17 banners hanging, success always creeps its way back into the TD Garden. Now, with Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens locked up for the conceivable future, free agents and future draftees are assured of stability and continuity for the Celtics’ organizational leaders.
1: Quick aside – While it may seem unlikely that Durant would head to Boston following his crushing loss to the Warriors, try telling me that he isn’t watching these first two Finals games and realizing that the easiest path to the Finals is through the East. Cleveland went 12-2 before showing up to Golden State, and now they look as dysfunctional as the city’s football team. Durant should at least consider a move to an upstart contender in the East.
