The Celtics landed back in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive season with Brad Stevens running the show and making decisions as president of basketball operations. He’s now built two championship teams in two years, despite not getting over the hump in back-to-back years.
That said, what’s next for Stevens to do?
Firstly, it’s important to address the elephant in the room by saying Joe Mazzulla is likely to remain the head coach of the Celtics moving forward for the next few seasons. Mazzulla was given a contract extension when the team removed the interim label and named him head coach. Not to mention, it’s not a great look to have four coaches in four years if they were to move on from Mazzulla after one year.
Mazzulla wasn’t given the proper opportunity to be a successful head coach, as he was literally thrown into the position in the immediate aftermath of the team parting ways with Ime Udoka two weeks prior to the start of the season. It’s fair to say with a year under his belt, Mazzulla will readjust some of his coaching philosophies from what he learned this past season.
The Celtics need to support Mazzulla by bringing in a veteran assistant coach to work with him. It’s also worth mentioning there is a possibility that Udoka will try to take the remaining members of his coaching staff from Boston to Houston with him to join his new coaching staff- Ben Sullivan and Aaron Miles.
The second thing on Stevens’ to-do list is to figure out what the near-future holds for Jaylen Brown and Grant Williams. Brown unlocked supermax eligibility by making an All-NBA team this season and Grant is a restricted free agent this summer. Boston should offer Brown the supermax and match any offer that Grant gets in restricted free agency.
Finding a new home for Payton Pritchard is something else that’ll need to be addressed this offseason, which I don’t think will be too hard to do, as Pritchard has made himself admirable around the league. There were even lingering trade rumors floating around at the deadline this past year of contending teams being interested in Pritchard.
Cleaning up the roster is something that Stevens has thrived in since becoming the president of basketball operations. He needs to find more reliable and veteran pieces to surround the core with that can benefit the team down the stretch on the court rather than just in the locker room (no offense to Blake Griffin).
Lastly, Stevens needs to find positive reinforcements for the center position, as the writing is on the wall for Rob Williams and Al Horford. Rob is just too injury prone and can’t last the duration of a season, while Al is aging and starting to become more limited in his game. It’s fair to say Stevens should’ve brought in a big man at the deadline to support Al and Rob.
Stevens has a lot of work to do this offseason and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already started.
It’s worth mentioning that if the Celtics keep their pick, they’ll have the 35th choice in the 2023 NBA Draft.
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