Why Brad Stevens should have won Coach of the Year

Brad Stevens didn’t win Coach of the Year, and he should have.

The Boston Celtics were supposed to be bad this season.

Boston is still very much in the midst of a “rebuilding” phase in terms of the roster even as they participate in the 2015 NBA Playoffs, but coming into the year, expectations were incredibly low. For context, the Celtics were issued an over-under win total of just 26.5 games by most major handicapping outlets, meaning that Boston was expected to win fewer than 30 games in 2014-2015.

Beyond that, that projection was put forth before Boston elected to trade its two most established veterans in Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green. By now, you likely know that the Celtics outperformed that 26.5-win number, and Boston’s performance in winning 38 games has been lauded in a number of places. However, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens is still underrated, to the point where he just might be the Coach of the Year in the NBA.

In the interest of full disclosure (and because Google exists), I “voted” for both Golden State’s Steve Kerr and Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer ahead of Stevens in published form just a week ago. With that on the table, Stevens had a legitimate case to finish above both coaches (and any other candidate) by nature of the transformation he has facilitated in Boston.

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The central argument for Brad Stevens as the Coach of the Year is maximization of available talent. Boston does have some young players who any team would covet, most notably rookie guard Marcus Smart, but there is no “alpha dog” to be seen. In addition, Boston finished 12th in the NBA in defensive rating this season, and while that may not seem like a “dominant” coaching performance, the Celtics produced that highly respectable performance with the likes of Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger as primary rim protectors.

On an X’s and O’s basis, Stevens is already in the elite class. It seems crazy that a 38-year-old NBA coach could already have a full grasp on the minutiae of the game, but the Celtics are very good in situations following a timeout (when Stevens can draw up a specific play) and his offensive sets are varied and intricate.

In terms of pure Coach of the Year context, the Boston Celtics violently overachieved.

There is also the portion of the game that calls for motivation. Stevens comes from a collegiate background, where he made a name for himself by taking Butler to the brink of an NCAA Championship, but coaxing NBA players to perform for a coach in the same age range is no small task. To a man, everything is positive from players when prompted (or unprompted) to talk about Stevens and his performance, and that means quite a bit for a team that didn’t always experience success.

In terms of pure Coach of the Year context, the Boston Celtics violently overachieved.

We’ve already touched on the lack of a dominant rim protector (or any rim protector at all) and the overall youth, but Stevens has also helped cast-offs like Evan Turner to find real and meaningful roles, and his tutelage somehow allowed the Celtics to improve without Rondo and Green on the available roster.

Coach of the Year isn’t quite as subjective as the MVP award, which provides endless debate on an annual basis, but it is all about criteria. Steve Kerr led the league’s best team as a rookie head coach, but he was also blessed with arguably the most talented roster and the game’s best defensive assistant in Ron Adams. Mike Budenholzer did yeoman’s work in zooming to 60 wins for Atlanta, but the Hawks had the benefit of a healthy top-20 player in Al Horford and a disastrous season from some faux contenders in the East.

Brad Stevens didn’t win Coach of the Year honors. But he may showed up on more ballots than we thought and he is likely going to build on that credibility in the future.

The whispers of his coaching development have turned into solid statements of his high-end ability, and the fact that the former Butler head coach led this group to the playoffs is a feat that can be argued on the level of any coaching performance during the 2014-2015 NBA season.

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