Brad Stevens’ The genius is about to be tested.
In the midst of the devastation of Jayson Tatum’s injury and disappointment to How badly played Boston against the Knicks, The biggest cause of optimism around Boston is the unmatched belief Celts President of basketball operations Ability to make smart movements.
The way in which the 2024-25 season ended up reducing the pressure on Stevens in the short term.
If the Celtics had experienced expectations and win the second direct title of the NBA, there would have been enormous pressure to keep the band’s band to try a three.
But Tatum’s expected absence, if not all, of the 2025-26 season, combined with the shameful loss in New York, should allow Stevens to make decisions without the same fear of immediate reaction.
But the grace period will not last long. Banner no. 19 will become a goal, and then an expectation very quickly, especially with a new owner who does not yet have his own ring.
Stevens’s challenge is complicated. Through operations, you must obtain at least the team’s salary commitments under the second apron of 2025-26 to prevent large penalties for luxury tax and ranking restrictions in the future. At the same time, he will try to create a younger list, but still equipped to fight when he returns Tatum. This is not an easy mining field to do it.
The dynastic history of the Celtics has been based on smart operations.
In 1956, Red Auerbach exchanged Ed Maccauley in the St. Louis Hawks for the project number 2 of the project, which Bill Russell used to write. This agreement caused 11 titles of Celtics, while St. Louis no longer has a NBA franchise.
Auerbach hit again in 1980 when he exchanged the Global Selection number 1 at the Warriors, who charged Joe Barry Carroll, for Robert Parish’s rights and a selection of the project that became Kevin Mchale. This led to three more Celtics and Consecration titles for Parish and Mchale, while Carroll has to pay $ 25 (with a discount for the elderly) to visit Naismith’s Fame Hall.
Danny Ainge made two huge trades in 2007 to get Ray Allen from Seattle and Kevin Garnett in Minnesota directly led to the 2008 championship.
AINGE exchanged Paul Pierce and Garnett in Brooklyn in a 2013 Agree Jaylen Brown and Tatum. This agreement and Stevens’s trades to get Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis last year helped achieve the 2024 title.
But these successes should not be an urgent indication to make movements. Last year’s championship was also built with the good fortune of AINGE that no one brought him to his 2015 attempt to trade four elections in the first round to move forward to get Justise Winslow, who was the third scorer of the G-League Herd Wisconsin last year.
Stevens has to decide if his best way is to try to work the edges to keep this championship window open or be aggressive in the hope of opening the next window. Tatum does not celebrate 28 years until March, making it young enough to be a pillar in either plain.
However, they are both risky and require Stevens to make many educated ideas.
If you try to keep most of the current list intact possible while you put under the second apron, Tatum could return to a team that is not good enough to fight and it is not bad enough to write stars. This would seem very much what the Milwaukee Bucks is currently facing.
But if Tatum returns to the middle of a slowly developing reconstruction, this has not produced new stars, the Celtics would be re -established.
Stevens must guess the best answer to many questions, including the following: The following:
- Celtics count/hope that Jayson Tatum will again have significant contributions by 2025-26 or not?
- Do they keep Derrick White? It would be his second best player to come in next season. A team focused on Brown and White is probably enough to fight for a Playoff site next year. But it will turn 31 in July. This is not old, old, But their skills and their commercial value are likely to decline, or at least begin to, when he returns to Tatum.
- Jaylen Brown will still be at its peak when he returns to Tatum?
- Celtics can get someone – or a package of some – better than Brown will be as long as he returns to Tatum?
If Stevens guesses well and leads the Celtics to Banner 19, he will probably go to the Fama Hall.
But the difference between being a genius and an expiatory goat can be just a bad play.