Brad Stevens was once hailed as the ‘Greg Popovich of the East’. But people now call Kyrie Irving a scapegoat and blame him for the Celtics’ struggles.
Advertisement
Brad Stevens stock is at an all-time low at the moment. The former Butler head coach was given a long extension by Danny Ainge back in 2018-19. But Stevens now seems to have plateaued, as do the Celtics.
Boston is one of the more in-shape franchises from the 2010s. They’ve made the Conference Finals 3 times in the last 4 years. The only time they failed to get to that stage was in Kyrie’s second year with the Celtics.
Stevens has been on the receiving end of a fair amount of flak for the Celtics’ stop-start form this year. The 44-year-old is being burdened with the blame for their struggles on the court despite not having a competent roster.
Jay Williams piles it on Brad Stevens, claims Kyrie Irving was scapegoated in Boston
Jay Williams has never shied away from a hot take when it comes to the Celtics. The former Duke point guard has made it a point to bring up Stevens every time the Celtics lose.
And lose they did, in ignominous fashion, last night. Boston shouldn’t have been blown out by 20 points by a team supposed to be in the lottery right now. Williams went to his go-to Brad Stevens slander
“It’s the job of the head coach to make the talent mesh. Kyrie was scapegoated. Kyrie is no longer there. What’s the issue now? It seems like there’s always an issue in Boston to a degree. It has to be geared a little bit more towards Brad Stevens.”
Kyrie may indeed have been scapegoated for his teammates’ combined struggles in 2019. But Brad Stevens is undisputably a top-10, maybe a top-5 coach in the league. We can’t dismiss the man’s ability to organize defenses and adjust to playoff opponents with little to no talent at his hand.
