On Monday, Kristaps Porzingis made his return to the court which many thought was the significant news of the day. However, President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens appearing on the NBC Sports broadcast is what everyone was talking about.
“I figured that I was coming on tonight. We almost pushed Porzingis back a couple days because this was gonna be such a big deal,” Stevens joked with Drew Carter and Brian Scalabrine. “Did you guys think you were gonna need something to talk about on the second night of a back-to-back?”
When asked about when he knew that Porzingis returning in late November was a possibility, Stevens replied, “I don’t think we realized it until we really got into camp and then you started seeing him work.”
“When you saw him in Abu Dhabi, the way he was moving and the way that he felt, it was a pretty good indication that he was gonna be at the front end of that timeline.”
Stevens also revealed that Porzingis had played 32 minutes last Monday and 32 minutes last Thursday in scrimmages with the Maine Celtics. Before confirming what Joe Mazzulla has already said, that the team knew he would be returning on Monday for a week.
Stevens was also nothing but complimentary of Jeff Van Gundy, who is now a Clippers assistant coach after spending last year as a consultant with the Celtics.
“It was super to have him around last year,” Stevens said. “He was everybody’s favorite for sure.”
“Last year he watched the games back in the back room with some of our player enhancement coaches,” Stevens added. “It was like having that ESPN broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy without any, like, time constraints or filter.”
Brad was also very complimentary of both Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser. Saying of Pritchard, “he just improves everyday. This guy just loves basketball so much. He works as hard as anyone I’ve ever been around.”
After Scal said that the Celtics had gotten hot from three after a slow start, Stevens said, “well, Payton and Sam don’t know they started off slow. They weren’t in there. Those guys come in firing regardless. That’s one of their many great attributes, but certainly at the top of every scouting report of teams we play has to be their shooting off the bench.”
“And it’s every day,” Stevens added when Drew Carter mentioned how they warm up. “It’s very purposeful, it’s very organized, well thought out… they work, they are big time workers.”
As Jayson Tatum re-entered the game, Scal asked Brad how proud he was of the development of Tatum and Brown’s ability to pass. “Obviously the game slows down the longer you’re in it,” Stevens said. “But just seeing the reads, the vision. They get a lot of attention, there is a lot that comes good with being those two guys and to have the trust and to make the right play every time, it’s not easy because they can to it on their own. They’ve done that well. It’s a big reason we’re where we are.”
As Stevens was finishing up about the Jays, Ivica Zubac put in a layup and Brad grumbled, “another layup,” it was the second time Brad had said ‘another layup’ while he was on the broadcast.
In fact, when Terrence Mann hit a three with 7:20 to go in the quarter, leading to a Joe Mazzulla timeout, Steven expressed frustration with the Celtics defense. “Good timeout by Joe. Our defense let go a little bit there,” he said.
“That’s our issue, man. I don’t think we’ve really played at the level we hopefully will play as we go on,” Stevens added. “We’ve had spurts of it, you see it game to game, you see it spurt to spurt, but we have a few things we’ve got to clean up, for sure.”
When Carter asked him what his biggest concern was, Brad said it was the difference in paint points. The Celtics are -13.5 in points in the paint per game this season. “I’m not as concerned about the offensive end,” Stevens said. “We just gotta do a better job of making it tough on the defensive end, especially in the paint.”
We then got to hear Brad’s thoughts on how important cutting in the NBA has become after a Derrick Jones Jr. cut to the basket led to a foul.
“Instead of staying in the corner and Jones shooting, Jones is cutting behind the help and they’re getting these dump off passes. It’s always been a thing, Wade was probably the best at it… now it seems like it’s a big part of everyone’s system,” Stevens explained. “It’s a big factor in offensive rebounding, too… it’s just another body moving towards the paint as a shot either goes up or that allows you to get an advantage for a wide-open look as people are scrambling.”
When Carter asked how can you get guys to cut when they won’t get the ball Stevens said, “I think there a lot of reasons to cut and I know our guys do.” As Brad was explaining, Jrue Holiday made a great cut to kick it out to Jaylen for a 4-point play.
“There’s a cut by Jrue that got us an open three,” Stevens remarked as Brown nailed the triple.
“We talk all the time about, you know, it’s a team game. Sometimes its gotta be a sacrificial cut but eventually, it rewards you.”
Scal then asked Stevens about the Celtics taking 50 threes per game and if he ever thought that as a coach.
“You know what,” Steven replied. “I don’t know that I ever kept track of volume like that. I was more focused on are we getting good shots or not. I don’t know that I ever really looked at how many threes we got.”
“I was obviously concerned about our percentage. I was concerned about getting good shots.”
Scal then asked about Stevens’ Butler teams and their three-point shooting. “Oh my gosh,” Stevens remembered. “It was so hard for us to score in the paint at Butler. We needed to shoot (the three ball).”
Brad then shifted back to shot selection saying, “obviously everyone wants dunks and layups, if you can get to the free throw line like JB does a great job of, it’s great. And then the next best shot is a wide-open kick kick three.”
Then Porzingis had an awesome block.
To which Stevens said, he should not get credit for because the shot clock was expiring, “I’m going shot clock violation, let’s make him earn it a little bit.” After Scalabrine said that KP deserved a block and rebound and Carter confirmed they were giving him a block, Stevens thought the score keeper was being too generous saying, “block, rebound and they took one field goal attempt he missed, whatever.”
As Stevens was departing the broadcast,after another Jaylen 3, he made sure everyone knew there was a lot of time left in the game saying, “but as you know, and as we’ve seen over and over, this game is not over.”
Stevens may be out of coaching, but the coach will always live inside of him.
