http://sports.yahoo.com/news/boston-celtics-hire-brad-stevens-next-head-coach-220000655.html
Boston Celtics Hire Brad Stevens as Next Head Coach
By Mark Evans | Yahoo! Contributor Network
COMMENTARY | There has not been much news regarding who will be the next coach for the Boston Celtics, until now. Danny Ainge has been pretty quiet about the topic, other than claiming that he had no intentions of coaching the team himself.
Now, we have found out some pretty big news that the team had somehow kept extremely quiet.
Brad Stevens, the head men's basketball coach at Butler University,will be the next coach for the Boston Celtics.
Stevens has had a great deal of success in his time at Butler, bringing them to two national championship games and giving the school's program a great reputation. He is extremely young for anNBA head coach, at only 36 years of age.
In Stevens, the Celtics are getting a very interesting coach. He is a part of the new analytics movement that many around the league have bought into as a legitimate way of analyzing performance, as this was a big part of his strategy at Butler. We saw John Hollinger, a basketball analytics nerd, have immediate success with the Memphis Grizzlies as Vice President of Basketball Operations.
With this hire, the Celtics have avoided the strategy of hiring a recycled NBA head coach, such as Vinny Del Negro. For a team that is clearly rebuilding, it is refreshing to see Danny Ainge step outside of the box a bit and grab a very good coach from the college game.
Many wondered when Brad Stevens would leave Butler. He is highly regarded, and it was believed by some that he would eventually end up at one of the biggest NCAA programs. His name had never been seriously tossed around in the NBA much, until now.
Danny Ainge knocked this one out of the park. In Stevens, the Celtics are gaining an extremely smart head coach who loves to study the game and constantly improve his team. He seems to work tirelessly on studying tape and the finer points of the game, something that will surely be appreciated at the NBA level.
Although he is very young, Stevens will now have the opportunity to grow with the young roster thatBoston figures to have.
Rajon Rondo, Avery Bradley, Jeff Green, Jared Sullinger, and Kelly Olynyk give the Celtics some solid young players that the team can build around. Additionally, Ainge was able to acquire plenty of future first round picks from the deals with the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers. This, along with a very young, intelligent, determined head coach in Brad Stevens, should give Boston fans plenty to look forward to.
Mark lives in the Boston area and has been covering the Celtics for 3 years. He has been featured onFox Sports Yardbarker, Fox Sports , and Sports Illustrated "Hot Clicks", and has been published on Celtics 24/7, Bleacher Report, and Sports-Kings.
