Does Boston Celtics’ Odds to Win Championship Change After Brad Stevens Hire?
By Brian Spaen
As the Boston Celtics grew older, they remained a championship contender. But no one saw them as a major threat like the San Antonio Spurs continue to be. Now that they’ve hired one of the best college basketball coaches in the business, do their odds move a little higher?
According to RJ Bell, Las Vegas insider, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Reportedly, hiring Brad Stevens didn’t do anything to their odds.
Stevens Effect: NO MOVE in #Celtics odds, still 100/1 to win Title. Butler downgraded from 60/1 to 100/1 - via @LVSuperbook
— RJ Bell (@RJinVegas) July 3, 2013
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Coach value is dramatically different in the collegiate and professional levels. Sure, many people can name players like Gordon Hayward and Rotnei Clarke, but everyone knew who Brad Stevens was at Butler. He created a constant championship contender with very limited resources, and increased their value to get them from the Horizon League to the new Big East.
That’s going to be hard to do no matter who replaces Stevens.
The NBA is a completely different animal that’s ran by superstars. We can debate all day how much Erik Spoelstra really matters to the Miami Heat, but there’s no denying that LeBron James is one of the best athletes to ever play the game and Ray Allen continues to be clutch from the perimeter.
What’s good in this for the Celtics is that in a process with rebuilding, Stevens will feel comfortable diving into the league with less attitude and ego from superstars and has a potential to build something great. The rebuilding process just got a whole lot more interesting in Boston.