Last season, the Boston Celtics were evidently in rebuild mode. They were set under rookie Head Coach Brad Stevens by ways of Butler University. Not much was expected of Stevens at first, as Steven’s had built a well established program at Butler and seemed to be the right fit for the young Boston Celtics who were equipped with numerous amounts of draft picks thanks to General Manager Danny Ainge. To sum the first season under Steven’s up short, the Celtics only won 25 games. The Celtics were a poor shooting and slow basketball team on offense. While a learning and improving team on the defensive end. They were out scored by a near four points per game and ranked 27th in ORtg. The Celtics ranked 18th in pace. During that offseason, Brad Stevens made it clear that the Celtics would become a more proficient team from beyond the arc as well as play much faster.
As for this season, the Celtics are much improved. They are also In contention for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics are playing much faster (4th in pace) and are 12th in the league in points per game. And that’s not all, crazier things are happening. Tyler Zeller has evolved to become one of the league’s best finishing big men at the rim, Marcus Smart is becoming the model of a three-and-D wing (who expected that?), and Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger are becoming more consistent from beyond the arc. Who’s the mastermind behind all of this you may ask, his name would be no other than, Brad Stevens.
Earlier in the season, I wrote an article on why former Celtic’s point guard Rajon Rondo will be offered the “Max” this offseason (highly questionable now). In that article, I happened to criticize the Boston Celtic’s offense and what they were doing from the year before. Not only were they not creating good looks for themselves beyond the arc, they were also very stagnant at times with a lack of off-ball movement. The main purpose of the offense, in Steven’s philosophy, was to get the ball-handler to the middle of the floor to create opportunities (forcing weak-side rotations, making defenders help one pass away etc). A problem the Celtics faces with this philosophy is when they went against teams that liked to “Ice” (blue) the pick-and-roll. As a result, the Celtics only averaged 84.6 points per game against teams that used “ice” as their main defensive strategy for ball-screens. I went out on a reach (I said reach), declaring Steven’s offense as not creative and rudimentary since it took a simple defensive strategy to stagnate it. And while that was not completely true, especially since the Celtics were working with counter a to “ice” such as pick-and-pops, wedge ball-screens, and pivot-screens, they were simply not that effective at employing them. However, I did manage to praise Steven’s for his creativity in SLOBs, BLOBs, ATOs, and EOGs. As for this season, Steven’s has taken a vast leap in displaying his knowledge and creativity on the court. The Celtics are creating more quality, open looks around the perimeter and moving off the ball more effectively. Their purpose is still the same; get the ball-handler to the middle of the floor to create advantage opportunities. The Celtics now have more decoys. With more effective shooters paced around the floor-credit Steven’s for turning Olynyk into a quality stretch big-teams are not as willing to sit lane protected and help one pass away on drives. Avery Bradley and Marcus Thornton are still carrying their ways behind the arc and even Marcus Smart (who shot 29% from 3pt range in his last season as Oklahoma St) is bricking more reliable from long range as well. Not only has Steven’s made improvements to the flow of his offense, he has also made improvements to the skill sets of his players. Which in some, he had helped develop more versatility for them on the offensive end.
According to NBA Synergy Stats, the Boston Celtics are 7th in the league in total assist. They are also 4th in the league in points create by assists per 48 minutes. This combines well with their pace as the Celtics are getting out into the open court as well as moving the ball around to create efficient looks from the field. The scariest part about this is that the Celtics possess (arguably) the worst combination of secondary playmakers in the league in Avery Bradley and Marcus Thornton, both whom never have had a rep as a quality playmaker. Despite that, the Celtics still manage to promote ball-movement as a key part of their integral success in their newly revamped offense. As the players begin to develop and buy more into the system as the years progress-combined with the stockpile of draft picks Danny Ainge has amassed on- the future of the Boston franchise looks bright. With eight first round picks in the next two years along with the addition of point guard Isaiah Thomas, the Celtics seem as if try are on their way. A playoff appearance seems inevitable if improvements are to continue.
As for Stevens, he has proved to us all his great intellect of basketball IQ. Stevens has drawn up some of the best ATOs seen this season. Especially the one he drew up the other day against the Utah Jazz in which he telegraphed the Jazz switching all screening actions and took complete advantage of it. He has also drawn up nifty set plays to free up Avery Bradley for open three-point looks. Plays such as Jungle Hoya Fence (pictured below) and Flare Pindown. Stevens has also added counters to such sets such as his Post-up sets and Hammer sets. The list can go on and on about how Stevens has manage to draw up ways to create efficient looks for his players while keeping them in a comfortable role. If there was a time to jump on the Brad Steven’s bandwagon, it would be now. With all of the improvements and progressions already in a two-year stint, one can only imagine what holds in the future for the Boston Celtic’s under Ainge and Steven’s command. If not a playoff team this year, you can surely expect to see the Celtics in the playoffs in the next few years. They have the pieces (draft picks), a great leader (Ainge), and one of the best young coaches in the league. In all, the time to fear Brad Stevens…is now.
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