Bill Belichick is quite possibly the greatest coach in the history of sports and I am officially ready to start comparing Brad Stevens to Belichick. This is the ultimate compliment to Stevens and what he does for the Boston Celtics. Belichick has always found a way to get the maximum production out of everyone on his roster. He has brought in hundreds of players via free agency and trades and got them to be far more production in his system than they were for any team they were on previous or after. Tom Brady got hurt in 2008 and Matt Cassel started 15 games for the Patriots and went 10-5 as the starter. Belichick knew Cassel wasn't as great as his record so he traded him to Kansas City for the 34th pick in the draft and Belichick drafted Patrick Chung and Cassel went 4-11 with the Chiefs. This is just one of many examples of Belichicks greatness. He has a knack for taking struggling players and turning them into house hold names. Guys like Chris Hogan, Wes Welker, Corey Dillion, Dion Lewis and Danny Amendola. He has also taken star talent type players in a bad situation and returned them to greatness like Randy Moss, Darrelle Revis, Mike Vrabel and Rodney Harrison.
I'm starting to see the same things out of Brad Stevens and it's remarkable to watch. First of all, much like Belichick, every single player who Brad Stevens coaches gives the Celtics their absolute best effort. That alone is an accomplishment in a league full of egos and guys who are just playing for the money. This demonstrates how much respect players have for Stevens. Lets start by taking a look at the career of Isaiah Thomas. He's a 5'9" point guard who began his career in Sacramento. In his three seasons as a King, he was nothing special. He averaged about 15 points, 4.5 assists and had some of the worst shot attempts I've ever seen. The Kings sent him to Phoenix for the 57th pick in the draft. The Suns couldn't get rid of him fast enough and sent him to Boston at the trade deadline after just one season. Over the next two seasons as Celtic under Stevens, Isaiah averaged 22.2 points, 6.2 assists and 28.9 points, 5.9 assists respectively. Not only did he score a career high number of points per game in back to back seasons, he also was doing it more efficiently with career highs in FG%. The Celtics claimed the #1 Seed in the East and Isaiah Thomas received MVP votes!!! Much like Belichick did with Matt Cassel, the Celtics then immediately used Thomas as the key piece in the trade that landed them Kyrie Irving. The Cavs have since traded him to the Lakers for virtually nothing and the Lakers now don't want him either. Well done Brad! The Celtics also included Jae Crowder in that trade, another product of Stevens. Remember Avery Bradley in Boston? He was another special talent in Boston and played a key role under Stevens. They traded him to Detroit and now you hardly ever hear about him. Then theres Jayson Tatum, the rookie out of Duke. He couldn't have been drafted to a better coach to start his career. Stevens has started him all season long and he has been one of the Celtics two quickly growing stars in this league as he is averaging 17 points per game in the playoffs! Their other young star under Stevens is second year player our of Cal Berkeley, Jaylen Brown. I am a Cal Bears fan and watched this kid in college and he could not shoot the ball. He was athletic and played hard but I didn't see him turning into the player he is becoming under Stevens. After just two seasons as a Celtic, he has become and all-star caliber player and Stevens has turned him into a pure shooter! This season he shot 47% from the field and 40% on his three-point attempts, simply an incredible transformation right before our eyes.
The list of players goes on and on and Stevens is just beginning his career! Look what he's done for guys like Al Horford, who is averaging a playoff career high 19 points per game, Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris and I cannot go any further without mentioning another emerging talent Terry Rozier. This kid has absolutely flourished under Stevens after being drafted 16th overall in 2015, especially this season after the loss of Kyrie. He has posted career highs in everything this season and has saved his very best for the post season where he has started at point guard all 8 games and is averaging 19 points, nearly 7 assists and is shooting an eye popping 44% from behind the arc! Stevens is so good that I find myself wondering if Rozier is actually this good or if he's the next Isaiah Thomas? I can see Boston using him as a key trade piece this off season to land them another big name player. The Celtics will have Kyrie back running point and Rozier will be off to a new city and his flame will be snuffed out.
I have been really high on Philadelphia in the next coming years but I really think the Celtics are going to own the eastern conference for the next decade. If Kyrie and Hayward were healthy this season, they would have a legitimate shot at the title this season and I expect they will be duking it out with the Warriors in the finals for the next three to five years. Once the Warriors reign comes to an end, the Celtics, led by Stevens, will be right there to claim the throne.