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Daniel Donabedian: I asked Brad Stevens how he weighed putting the Celtics’ interests first (by trading Jaylen Brown) against potentially making a rival better following the LeBron James signing: “Yeah, our focus is on us…And obviously, you know we will look forward to any challenges. And obviously there's a lot of good teams all around the league, but we have to do what's best, what we think is in the best interest of us, both in the short and long term. And so that was the decision, and we went through that in July. And today is about Mike, Paul, and Mitch, who's not here, and making sure that we are ready to put our best foot forward.”
Celtics on CLNS: Mike Conley on why he choose to sign with the Boston Celtics: “It was fairly quick honestly but you know the main reason you know, you look around the league there's very few organizations and teams that yu look at that honestly are trying to win every year…Have an opportunity to play for such a storied you know franchise Joe and you know Brad and all the team.”
Bobby Krivitsky: Brad Stevens: "I really like this group. I really think this group can be good."
Noa Dalzell: The Celtics will introduce Paul George, Mitchell Robinson, and Mike Conley on Tuesday afternoon at the Auerbach Center, per team. Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla will both be in attendance.
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Winderman thinks that 2028 would be a perfect moment for the legendary coach to move to the front office like Brad Stevens did with the Boston Celtics: "When you talk about the Heat turnaround, after the 2028 Los Angeles games, to me, would be the natural time for Spo to maybe move to the front office to step back," Winderman said for SiriusXM. "Right now, I know he loved it. It would make sense. But who knows? Maybe he's one of those coaching lifers. Maybe he's Hubie, and he's going to come back, you know, in a different way and keep doing that, just like I think Pat Riley will never fade away," he concluded.
Honaker, who is Butler University’s associate athletic director for development, was sure to pick Stevens’s brain on it, even if not directly. He asked how Stevens, who is the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, can trust his instincts when making unpopular decisions. “Well, obviously, I’m sure a lot of people immediately got to Jaylen Brown, right, or immediately go to [Marcus Smart] a couple years ago, and that’s a really hard part of the job,” Stevens said. “And, you, again, try to be as upfront and honest as you can, but there are a lot of factors when you end up making a decision and you’re leaning on a lot of people, leaning on a lot of information.”
Though Brown wasn’t specifically mentioned Tuesday, Stevens — a noted “numbers guy” — even discussed his mind-set on analytics, which many speculated became a factor into the decision to move the five-time All-Star. “Data is an important part of learning about what you’re capable of, and learning about your team, but it is a part of it. Not all of it,” Stevens said. “I do think that there’s a lot of room for eyes, feel, preparing for curveballs so you’re ready for that in any scenario.”
Bob Myers: "I think Brad Stevens is one of the most straight shooters in the league. So when you, when you work in the NBA as an executive, you usually have at least one or two, I don't want to say transactions with every other GM. So you know, if I call Tracy, I go, hey, you want to make a deal? He might be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then he does, I mean, that's like, I know not you're not this way. But I, you have to understand like he's honest, or he, he might tell me what I want to hear, or he might lie to me. This dude just might just lie. He lied to me two years ago, he's going to lie to me again. That's not Brad Stevens. So when Brad Stevens, um, responded with, what are you offering? Then you knew that there was a shot. Yeah. And so then it becomes 50 conversations, um, towards one, both organizations did a great job not leaking that, which is impossible. That's literally impossible."
Bob Myers on Jaylen Brown Trade: [The] Jaylen Brown [trade] was not [something] like "We lost to the Knicks and we’re going to go get Jaylen Brown." Like, that’s not what happened. It just that’s not what happened. You start hearing there was a possibility, and the job then became, "Is this a real thing with Jaylen Brown? Is it a real thing?" And you know, I think Brad Stevens is one of the most straight shooters in the league. So when you work in the NBA as an executive, you ultimately usually have at least one or two I don’t want to say transactions with every other GM. So, you know, if I call, "Hey, you want to make a deal?" He might be like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” And then he doesn’t I mean, it’s like I know you’re not this way, but you have to understand like, he’s honest, or he might tell me what I want to hear, or he might lie to me. This dude just might lie. He lied to me two years ago. He’s going to lie to me again. That’s not Brad Stevens. So, when Brad Stevens responded with, “What are you offering?” Then you knew that there was a shot.”
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On draft night, when teams Cenac had worked out for such as the 76ers, Raptors, and Knicks passed on him, Cenac seemed discouraged to Sampson. But the coach told him the night had a favorable result. “I said, ‘Chris, I’m glad those teams didn’t take you,’ ” he said. “Then when Boston took him, I said, ‘They believe in you, Chris. You went to the right team.’ Brad Stevens is one of the best basketball people in the world, and I’ve been so impressed with [coach] Joe Mazzulla.”
"When the league adopted the apron rules four or five years ago, but they eased them in over time, we knew that our window was going to be those first couple years to be exceeding that," Stevens explained. The Celtics enjoyed their time in the aprons and brought home that aforementioned championship while over budget. However, it's difficult for any team to stay in that spending zone, and the Celtics had to lose several parts of their championship team last offseason in order to shed salary. "Last summer, when we made the moves we made, we knew we would ultimately have to do that with the new apron rules, the thresholds, and the challenges of trying to operate in that neighborhood," Stevens said. "And those challenges are not the financial part; it's the limitation on trades, the future draft pick issues, et cetera."
"You need a bench that's deep," Stevens described of the NBA's current competitive climate. "You have to be under a threshold and you need as many good players as humanly possible. So, you have to really be good around the role players. The guys that you think can continue to develop and grow, guys that are willing to play a role that might be older and more accomplished."
Daniel Donabedian: Brad Stevens on trading Jaylen Brown: “It’s something that you have to just say, do you think where we currently are…will get us to where we ultimately want to go?” “If not, does it make sense to explore other pathways, even if that could be very tough in the near term?”