Philadelphia 76ers: Brad Stevens could swing the Boston Celtics’ future
In 2020, the Philadelphia 76ers were a mess.
They were just swept in the first round of the playoffs by a clearly better foe, had an ill-conceived, uncomplimentary roster filled with mismatching pieces, and were rapidly approaching the end of a head coach that rapidly turned sour.
After oh so many trips to the lottery and possessing one of the deepest asset pools in the NBA, were the Sixers destined to become a .500 team once more? Isn’t that why Sam Hinkie undertook one of the most radical roster rebuilds in NBA history to guarantee that would never happen again?
Well, as it turns out, all of that worrying was for nothing. The team’s ownership group hired the best head coach and general manager on the open market – even if Daryl Morey‘s exit from Houston was a tad shady – bounced back in spectacular fashion, and now look primed for extended success as a result, even if Joel Embiid’s right meniscus could cause trouble down the line.
But why, you may ask, is this particular walk down memory lane relevant today? Well, because longtime Celtics GM Danny Ainge just announced his retirement and Boston’s current head coach, Brad Stevens, has been promoted to take on his duties. After suffering through a similarly bad season, could Boston take a page from the Philadelphia 76ers’ book and glow up in one offseason?
A better Boston would be bad news for the Philadelphia 76ers.
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Brad Stevens was not set up for success in 2020-21.
After having one of the best and deepest teams in the East for the better part of his tenure, Stevens found himself coaching a B-tier roster that lacked good young depth after a few straight years of bad drafting.
Factor in a series of midseason trades that actually hurt the team, and a late season-ending injury to All-Star wing Jaylen Brown, and the Celtics’ eventual 4-1 series loss to the number two Brooklyn Nets was woefully predictable.
With that being said, the Boston Celtics still have the pieces in place to be a good team.
Sure, they don’t have a sound center, are over the cap, and have a max-level contract player in Kemba Walker that some suggest has negative trade value after an ugly run in Boston, but the team has a pair of young star wing players who can match up with the best of them, and in the NBA that’s all that really matters.
If Stevens can settle on the correct successor, it’s entirely possible he can provide him with the right ingredients to complement those players.
Though the Celtics have finally spent all the assets they acquired from the Brooklyn Nets trade a decade ago, Boston still has plenty of draft picks on the books for the foreseeable future, including one in a roundabout way from trading Matisse Thybulle to the Philadelphia 76ers. If Stevens wants to upgrade his roster with better-fitting players, he could easily pull a Daryl Morey and exchange current contracts and future picks for Danny Green/Seth Curry-style role players.
Because of Stevens’ hands-on time with the team, he knows firsthand why the Celtics were so bad at covering the paint and just how high his players’ ceilings are heading into the offseason. This experience is invaluable and unique to most first-time general managers, as they don’t often go from the bench to the front office on the same team.
Then again, Stevens had a history of being a bit too loyal to his former players, as he was a big proponent of adding Gordon Hayward a few years ago, and that worked out horribly, which could backfire, but as a general rule, knowing if Carsen Edwards is a legit player or a no-brainer trade throw on could help to qualify each player’s value and get the right package together moving forward.
The same goes for re-signing the team’s current crop of free agents, which is a bit deeper and more interesting than some may think. After flipping a small army of second-rounders for Evan Fournier at the deadline, does Stevens see a future for the French swingman on a long-term deal via his Bird Rights, or could he be a valuable piece in a sign-and-trade?
Oh goodness, what if Stevens goes out and re-acquires Al Horford from the Thunder? Or, ya know, actually uses his first-round picks to select a player who can contribute to the rotation right away? Could you even imagine?
Next. Doc Rivers is mostly right about Ben Simmons. dark
Any time a team swaps out both their head coach and general manager in the same offseason, it’s a pretty safe bet that big changes are just over the horizon. While only time will tell what moves are to be made and who will lead the team onto the court for opening night of the 2021-22 season, it’s clear Brad Stevens holds the future of the Boston Celtics in the palm of his hands and could make the Philadelphia 76ers’ lives a whole lot harder if he can actually build Beantown a contender.