Brad Stevens discusses Celtics offseason moves, second apron impact | NBA Summer League

Brad Stevens discusses Celtics offseason moves, second apron impact | NBA Summer League

president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens. And let’s get right to it. Um, tough to see some of the guys that helped to win a championship with you, gone from the roster, Drew Holiday, Chriszingis, and potentially Al Horford. Can you just speak to what those guys meant to your franchise? Yeah, and Luke, too. Um, you know, it’s part, as I said the other day in a in a press conference, it’s part of this new CBA and and obviously the second apron that um, you know, we’ve been above the last couple of years and um, you know, it’s an unfortunate part. We’re lucky to get the guys that we got back in in those trades, specifically Simons and Nang. But, um, yeah, it’s hard to see Drew go. It’s hard to see Chris go, Luke Al. they’ve, you know, just been unbelievable people to have in our group and have added value and hopefully um, you know, I know when they come back to Boston this year, um, it’ll be pretty special the tributes to all of them. And a lot of people saying this is a gap year or whatever for the Celtics. Obviously, Tatum down, you’ve traded so many pieces, but how are you guys looking at this season and where do you think this roster’s at? We’re going to do like we always do. We’re going to try to put our best foot forward and, you know, compete to the very best of our ability and play to the strengths of our team. I think sometimes when you have guys that are as versatile and as accomplished as the guys we’ve had, um, you can be a little bit more you, everybody can take their turns or get their share and whatever the case may be. And we’ll probably have to be a little bit more um, soaring with each individual’s strengths in in this particular team. But, you know, we’ve got a good we’ve got a a really good foundation. Obviously, um when you talk about being not maybe as topheavy as we’ve been in the past, you then you think, well, we’ve got Jaylen Brown, we’ve got Derek White, we’ve got, you know, Pritchard, we’ve got obviously Hower. Those guys have been through a lot and they’ve won a lot of games. And you know, Jaylen is uh you know, Jaylen’s had such a special career and has s such an impact on winning that I’m looking forward to seeing how we all compete together. Well, I hear those guys that we know are proven at the NBA level, all of them. But for your summer league team, for your G-League team, the past couple of years, we’ve seen guys like Jordan Walsh develop. Uh JD Davidson, another guy that has stood out, Baylor Shyman. when you’re here evaluating these guys today, is it different this year thinking, well, we may need them a little bit more as opposed to another um maybe not for me. Maybe for the coaches it is, right? Um you know, I think that you know, last year when Shyman was playing, you’re preparing him for the reality that he’s probably not going to play a lot um just because of how, you know, deep we were um you know, in our rotation. But, uh, he played really well at the end of this regular season. And, um, the biggest challenge then as you now stack another summer league on top of this is is don’t try to do too much. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not and just do what you would do within the confines of, you know, our team when we all get back together um, in September. Now, something you spoke to a little bit earlier about the decision making that you have to kind of put down in this off season is the second apron and how that makes things different. Uh, can you break down especially, you know, for a team like he’s laughing like Boston Celtics? He’s like, “No, it’s how how much did that change how you approach the off season as McCull continues to have a good first half?” us in the last we knew as you know even 3 years ago right that we were when the new CDA was kicking in and it was going to be slowly um slowly become fully operational I guess um we knew that in the first couple years we were going to be over the second apron and those are the years that we really had to go all in and really make a run at it and um obviously we did that we were fortunate enough to win one but um and we’ve had really good teams but you know the reality is is that that’s not going to be doable forever. Other teams are going to run into that and um and so yeah, this is part of it. It’s, you know, I don’t look at it as um anything, but we’ve got to retool and we’ve got to uh make sure that we are are building the right group around our core and our core is very strong. and talking about the right group and building and building around those guys. One piece that you guys were able to bring in Anthony Simons. Talk to us about what he brings to this uh this Boston Celtics new look Boston Celtics team and what do you expect out of him? Well, he’s 26 years old and he’s averaged 20 a game three straight years which uh you know people that maybe people in in New England or people in the East Coast don’t see as many Portland games late at night, right, that aren’t on League Pass. But I think that um he’s a guy that can really score the ball. I think he’s one of the best shooters in the league. is one of the best tough shot makers in the league. Uh just a really good player. So when I hear that, what are your We know that typically every year the expectation for the team, you’re thinking championship aspirations. What are your expectations this season for you? I don’t ever put a ceiling on our team. Our expectation is to compete and try to win the next game. the whole the whole goal of being in my position in Boston or playing in Boston or coaching in Boston is to compete for championships and that’s what you always want to be and that’s ultimately going to be our northstar as we again retool this thing. Um but you know every single night we take the court we want to put our best foot forward and try to win the game. You talk about putting your best foot forward. Is there somebody specifically you have in mind that you’re saying, “Hey, listen. With this much more opportunity available to you this year, I’m expecting this player to take a jump.” You know, I don’t I don’t really want to put that on any individual player cuz I I care a lot more about the team, right? You know, let’s all take a jump. Let’s all let’s accentuate each other and and you know, obviously all of the attention is going to go to our best players. It always does. And they’ve done such a good job of handling that in the past. and and if you’re around them, you generally play well. And so I think that that’s, you know, it’s going to be um it’s going to be putting the pieces together and again making sure we’re soaring with everybody’s strengths. But if everybody can do that and play to that, you know, I think we can be a good basketball team. Can you take us to the human side of it with Jason Tatum? Because here’s a player that we’ve all seen develop from the very first time he was drafted into this league and be able to become a champion and a perennial allstar. goes down with the Achilles tear the next couple of weeks, the next month or two. What were those conversations like? How is he doing as a person? He he seems to be doing really well. It’s hard. I mean, rehabbing is hard. Anybody that’s ever been through a long injury and a long recovery is it’s just a, you know, it’s a challenge. It’s mental challenge. It’s physical challenge obviously, but he got the surgery right away. And from that point on, his mindset was we are going after this thing and trying to get better. Um, and and he’s a he’s a competitor. He’s going to compete in everything he does, including his rehab. And so, I’m I’m really encouraged. I’ve been basically seeing him every day in Boston for the last 50 days or whatever. And usually he goes away at the end of the season and then comes back, but he just stayed there and has been doing his rehab. And it’s been fun to uh it’s been fun to spend time with him every day and, you know, just try to uh catch up and see how he’s doing as we watch him make the strides he needs to make. post what I look like. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens joins the broadcast of the C’s Summer League squad against the New York Knicks. Stevens speaks about trading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, the NBA’s second apron and expectations for the upcoming season.

☑️ Subscribe to ESPN+: https://plus.espn.com/
📱 Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
🏀 Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2yxs3Og
☑️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
☑️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV