"I'm Pissed. I Wish We Were Playing New York Tonight" - Brad Stevens Did Not Hold Back In His End Of Season Press Conference Which Is A Great Sign Heading Into A Very Crucial Offseason

Winslow Townson. Getty Images.

In all the years we've had Brad Stevens in charge of the Celtics roster, I can't think of a more highly anticipated end-of-season presser than what we had this morning. Not that there hadn't been tough playoff losses in previous years, but losing in the first round up 3-1 is an entirely different ballgame. Fans are pissed, it's a stain that will never be removed, and at the end of the day the ONLY thing that matters is how Brad Stevens feels about it and what he plans to do/thinks is best to do to fix what we all just lived through.

And while I'd say the majority of the time these pressers are filled with boiler plate answers that don't really tell you all that much, that was very much NOT the case with Brad Stevens today. I've watched a lot of Brad pressers in my day, and I'm not sure we've ever had an appearance like today. He's pissed, he said as much, and some of the things he alluded to during the presser were very interesting as we approach a very important offseason. 

Let's take it from the top

This right here might be the most important component in all of this. While you may look at that and say "uhhhhhhh ya think?", I looked at it as a guy who had the completely correct reaction to what transpired. He should be pissed. We're all pissed. In my opinion, this is the only takeaway/reaction Brad Stevens should be having following that first round series collapse. Losing in the first round is unacceptable, and it was good to see/hear that the man running things clearly knows that. 

It also set the stage for what he would go on to say in terms of their issues/roster, which I think is all related. 

The Jaylen Brown Drama

This is obviously one of the bigger stories surrounding this team right now after T-Mac threw some gasoline on the fire declaring Jaylen has deep frustrations within the organization. The vagueness of T-Macs quotes don't help matters much, and when asked about this issue Brad did what I think most would expect in this spot. He deflected/shut it down, but at the end of the day it's hard to know what to believe or who to trust

I think you have to pretty insane to think that even if there were frustrations and that was communicated to Brad on Monday that he would go up to the podium and be like 

"Yep, that's all true and we now basically have to trade him!"

Remember, leverage is a real thing. But there's also a chance here that Brad is telling the truth. Perhaps their convo was positive, but that doesn't mean that Jaylen couldn't be having conversations outside of Brad Stevens that are not so positive. To deny that possibility is just burying your head in the sand. My guess is it's probably somewhere in the middle. To his inner circle, there was some airing of frustration, and to his boss, it was a little different of a convo. I feel like that's how things go in normal life, so unfortunately we'll probably never know the full story/what T-Mac was actually referencing.

Advertisement

Unless Jaylen hops on his stream and explains it of course.

Tatum's health/Game 7

One of the more idiotic things we've had to deal with is how braindead people were/are when it comes to Tatum sitting Game 7. after hearing Brad talk about what he saw in Tatum's workout, I don't know how anyone could now be opposed to him sitting out

Attacks on his character, calling him soft, telling him he should have risked any potential injury for Game 7, it was nothing but bad take after bad take. 

I actually was encouraged to hear that the second Brad and the team saw that things didn't look/feel right that they wasted no time shutting Tatum down. I will go to my grave believing this was 1000000000% the right move. You cannot be shortsighted when it comes to this injury and this player. It's clear he wasn't right, so you shut him down. Simple as that.

Honesty about their season

This part was something I found especially interesting. Essentially, Brad went as far as to say the Celts chain was pretty fake. That while successful, there was context around their regular season success

This to me was very telling, especially ahead of an offseason many expect roster changes and it's why you should feel confident in Brad. He very clearly told us that the roster as we see it currently is not good enough. It's important that he now only knows that but believes it. I don't think I've ever heard Brad be this honest about his roster and their issues, so I found this to be extremely encouraging when you put the pieces together

Pissed + knows the roster wasn't good enough + didn't buy into the regular season success = necessary steps for improvement

It'd be one thing if he came out and was like "well we didn't have Tatum for a lot of those games etc", which he could have easily done and partially been right.

Instead, he pretty much told us that he didn't feel the roster was as good as their on the court success and is not currently good enough to compete at the level they need to be at.

Playstyle

Ah yes, the 3pt shooting. You knew this was going to come up, and Brad didn't deflect

When it came to the Celts playstyle and their issues, Brad could not have been more open about two main problems

1. Shot creation/generating good looks

2. Rim pressure

He probably said those two things a billion times during this presser. It really reminded me of 2023 and how open he was talking about beating switches once they traded for KP. Brad was telling us not only what their main problems were, but most likely where he's going to be looking over the summer, and that is music to my ears. 

Given all the rumors flying around, it's hard not to think he may have been alluding to a certain someone who thrives in both rim pressure, and dunks. I can't imagine it was an accident in terms of how many times Brad said the word "dunk"

Also listen to where he talks about generating dunks and 2 on 1s. You know who helps you with that? Someone like Giannis. Again, who knows if any of that happens, but I don't think you can ignore the fact that Brad was VERY open about two main issues the roster has, that in theory are solved by a player like Giannis. 

Joe Mazzulla

While there are some fans out there who may want Joe fired, but the only thing that matters is what Brad thinks about him and his ability to lead this team moving forward.

While normally Brad is much more adamant in his support of Joe, I do think that deep down if we were to give him truth serum, he would tell us he's pretty pissed with the Celts approach in the series against the Sixers, and to me that falls on Mazzulla. Not in terms of the 3pt volume, but how they operated within the series. Rotations, lineups etc. It was not lost on me that when asked about the young guys, Brad talked about how it's on the front office to give the roster, and the coaches to decide how to use it. I thought that was pretty telling. 

All in all, I walk away from today's presser feeling optimistic. It'd be one thing if Brad went up there and everything we heard was deflection or denial etc, but it was the complete opposite. He let us behind the curtain to get a sense of how he really feels, about how he views the roster and their limitations, and then the areas he knows he has to target to improve. Now, how he does those things? That's what we don't know, and it's what we have to trust he'll be able to do. But it was refreshing to see him with this type of pissed-off mindset, in my opinion. Brad has never been complacent, and he's now armed with the roster-building tools/flexibility to make the necessary changes to get this team back to contention. 

It's going to be a wild summer, but this is the price you pay when you choke a 3-1 series lead and lose in the first round. If you didn't want this reality, you close out Game 5 and you're still playing actual basketball.