The Brad Stevens thread - More Clueless Than Alicia Silverstone

HomeRunBaker

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Hey just think, if we sweep the Cavs then Brad will hold an above .500 post-season record.

/baiting ;)
 

InstaFace

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Brad Stevens getting zero votes in COTY would fortunately mean that I could stop treating it as meaning anything other than a popularity contest.

Like, it'd be one thing for Casey to win the award. Like baseball MVP and CYA voting, you understand why people focus on the traditional statistics and are swayed by surface-level things, even if you don't agree with it. But for Stevens to get zero votes, something else must be going on as well.
 

the moops

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Casey winning the award is kind of ridiculous anyway. Sure, he is a decent coach, but he gets credit for his teams success because he finally decided to do what the rest of the league is doing. Only took him 6 years to figure it out.
 

mt8thsw9th

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Should we be shocked that the Coaches Association, likely made up of NBA lifers, isn't exactly taking a shine to the wunderkind that never played nor coached at the NBA level? He didn't receive a vote last year, either.
 

mikeot

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Unfuckingbelievable. From the NYT:

"....Casey is also regarded as a top contender for the N.B.A.’s Coach of the Year award and, according to the people with knowledge of the voting for the N.B.C.A. award, was one of just eight coaches to receive votes in the balloting. The other seven coaches to receive votes from their peers were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers."
 

BigSoxFan

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Unfuckingbelievable. From the NYT:

"....Casey is also regarded as a top contender for the N.B.A.’s Coach of the Year award and, according to the people with knowledge of the voting for the N.B.C.A. award, was one of just eight coaches to receive votes in the balloting. The other seven coaches to receive votes from their peers were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers."
Stevens is totally going for 40 tonight.
 

Montana Fan

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Brad Stevens “we don’t celebrate coach of the year awards, we celebrate championships.” And no he really didn’t say that but I’d like to think he would.
 

Ale Xander

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Doc Rivers received a vote and Brad didn't, are you frickin' kidding me?

37.5 of the coaches given votes and what,95% of the votes, may get fired.
 

DJnVa

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Unfuckingbelievable. From the NYT:

"....Casey is also regarded as a top contender for the N.B.A.’s Coach of the Year award and, according to the people with knowledge of the voting for the N.B.C.A. award, was one of just eight coaches to receive votes in the balloting. The other seven coaches to receive votes from their peers were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers."
That quote is what everyone above you is already responding to....
 

InstaFace

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Should we be shocked that the Coaches Association, likely made up of NBA lifers, isn't exactly taking a shine to the wunderkind that never played nor coached at the NBA level? He didn't receive a vote last year, either.
Maybe that's a factor, but personality seems to weigh into these things too. I mean, Belichick himself has won AP NFL COTY 3 times, most recently in 2010, despite deserving it at least a majority of the years he's been at NE and arguably every year. And they don't get more lifer / insider than Bill Belichick. Voters everywhere gravitate towards the newest / sexiest shiny object, or who had managed to lower expectations the most and then managed to exceed them, rather than who objectively did the best job of shaping a team, preparing them, getting the most out of them, and managing in-game.

Belichick, of course, couldn't care less for his peers' approval and has nothing to prove to anyone. He would trade all 3 of his COTY awards for one more shot at replaying any of his 3 SB losses, without a moment's hesitation. But Brad is both young and relatively new, and might see the award as a means of validating to players (especially FAs) that his teams' progress isn't a mirage and that some of it is down to him.
 

reggiecleveland

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To be fair Doc was only 5 games out of the playoffs. It was a tough situation since the Clips had to get rid of some stars because the coach the previous years never could do much on the playoffs with those guys, so he had to start over.
 

joe dokes

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This is a fake award invented last year. Stevens will unquestionably get votes in the real COTY voting. I think less hypervenitilation is in order.
 

nighthob

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This is a fake award invented last year. Stevens will unquestionably get votes in the real COTY voting. I think less hypervenitilation is in order.
I think people are more mystified as to how Brad Stevens can't manage a single vote from amongst his peers.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Hey just think, if we sweep the Cavs then Brad will hold an above .500 post-season record.

/baiting ;)
Hey look, if Dwane Casey swept anyone twice, he still wouldn't have an above .500 playoff record.:mad:

Hey look, Terry Stotts has been swept twice in the last two years and even if you took those out, he wouldn't have close to a .500 playoff record.

Hey look, Nate McMillian hasn't won a playoff series since 2004-05.
 

scott bankheadcase

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Why does Quin Snyder get votes for winning 48 games after losing Gordon Hayward, when Stevens won 55 games after losing him?
Because he plays in the west and has possibly even less talent than Stevens on his team? Stevens is the best coach in the league right now and should be getting votes, but Quin Snyder is not the issue here.
 

joe dokes

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I think people are more mystified as to how Brad Stevens can't manage a single vote from amongst his peers.
I assume its 1 vote per coach, without ranked voting.* Popovich has been effusive about Stevens, but Brown was his assistant. I could see none of the other 29 coaches ranking Stevens first but all of them ranking him 2nd, regardless of who they cast their only vote for.

*If I'm wrong about that, then its really mystifying.
 

InstaFace

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luckiestman

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This seems like a good place the reiterate Luckiestman’s Rule: Anything that is decided by voting has a high probability of being bullshit
 

djbayko

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Coaches' Association names Casey "Coach of the Year"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/sports/nba-dwane-casey-raptors-coach-of-the-year.html

Meh, OK. But this?

Casey is also regarded as a top contender for the N.B.A.’s Coach of the Year award and, according to the people with knowledge of the voting for the N.B.C.A. award, was one of just eight coaches to receive votes in the balloting. The other seven coaches to receive votes from their peers were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers.

Lolwut?
Unfuckingbelievable. From the NYT:

"....Casey is also regarded as a top contender for the N.B.A.’s Coach of the Year award and, according to the people with knowledge of the voting for the N.B.C.A. award, was one of just eight coaches to receive votes in the balloting. The other seven coaches to receive votes from their peers were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers."
Everyone can calm down. This quote is obviously ridiculous.

By my count of the roughly 25% of ballots which have been made public, it's a tight race between Casey and Stevens, with Casey having a slight edge. Quin Snyder is coming in 3rd. The quote does have all of the other vote getters correct, however. They must have simply overlooked Stevens somehow. Doc Rivers does indeed have one 3rd place vote (from Shaun Powell of NBA.com). Shaun also voted Nate McMillan 2nd, leaving Stevens completely off of his ballot.
 

Reverend

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I think the "calm down" faction is mistaking the interest in something that is, in fact, interesting.

Does it "mean" anything? I dunno. But seeing how the coaches voted is interesting and I'm not likely to be convinced otherwise--all you can really do is tell me more about why it is interesting, because it's the coaches.
 

DJnVa

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Everyone can calm down. This quote is obviously ridiculous.

By my count of the roughly 25% of ballots which have been made public, it's a tight race between Casey and Stevens, with Casey having a slight edge. Quin Snyder is coming in 3rd. The quote does have all of the other vote getters correct, however. They must have simply overlooked Stevens somehow. Doc Rivers does indeed have one 3rd place vote (from Shaun Powell of NBA.com). Shaun also voted Nate McMillan 2nd, leaving Stevens completely off of his ballot.
Again, you are conflating awards.

The one where they named the 8 contenders is NOT being voted on by Shaun Powell. The "people with knowledge of the balloting" are referring to the NBCA vote.

--NBCA Coach of the Year: Casey won and was 1 of 8 to receive votes. Coaches vote.

--official NBA Coach of the Year: Shaun Powell and the media vote, which is where you are pulling your "25% have been made public".
 

djbayko

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Sorry guys, I thought that quote had flipped context to a different award.

I agree that the omission of Stevens is interesting, but it has to be a mistake......right?

It's curious that Doc has a vote in both.
 

Reverend

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Sorry guys, I thought that quote had flipped context to a different award.

I agree that the omission of Stevens is interesting, but it has to be a mistake......right?

It's curious that Doc has a vote in both.
NOW you're getting it!!

It's so weird that it's hard to process at first.
 

DJnVa

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Barkley calling NBA coaches petty for not voting for Stevens. lol
 

lovegtm

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Barkley calling NBA coaches petty for not voting for Stevens. lol
I think the fact that Stevens never played in the league and was never an assistant puts him a bit on the outside of the club.

Also, your daily reminder that Dwayne Casey is a joke. "Hey guys, my team shoots 3s now!!!!! Where do I pick up my award?"
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Eddie Johnson said the same thing as Barkley on NBA radio today - essentially that there are a lot of egos amongst the NBA coaching fraternity and they may not take kindly to all the buzz around Stevens. Furthermore, Johnson also mentioned the idea put forth upthread about Stevens not paying his dues and climbing his way through the ranks like many other NBA lifers.

I would also add that the NBA bloggerverse/Twitterverse loves him and highlights a lot of the plays he draws up that make some of these very same voters look bad - I wonder if that factors in to how he is perceived.

Finally, like any successful coach, Brad seems extremely competitive. I wonder if, in addition to the aforementioned reasons, he is also thought of as being a bit of a douche by the other guys. I hope that is the case because I don't know if its possible but it would only make me love him more.
 

Devizier

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NBA coaches have traditionally enjoyed a lot of job security, even when they were fired. Having college guys come up was no problem when they were fuckups like Pitino. If there’s a cohort of guys even half as good as Stevens many of these guys are in trouble.
 

Reverend

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NBA coaches have traditionally enjoyed a lot of job security, even when they were fired. Having college guys come up was no problem when they were fuckups like Pitino. If there’s a cohort of guys even half as good as Stevens many of these guys are in trouble.
Well, the only way we could really know if they, collectively, as a group, felt like Stevens was an outlier, something somehow different would be to, well, poll them? :wooper:
 

joe dokes

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Brett brown said he was surprised Stevens didn't get ant any votes. ( Paraphrasing). No one asked him who got his vote.
 

Eddie Jurak

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Also, your daily reminder that Dwayne Casey is a joke. "Hey guys, my team shoots 3s now!!!!! Where do I pick up my award?"
Disagree. How often does an NBA coach retool the offensive game of his whole team including one of its star players. That's a pretty impressive feat. If I'm running an NBA team, Stevens is hands-down the coach I'd want, but that doesn't mean the other guys suck.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Disagree. How often does an NBA coach retool the offensive game of his whole team including one of its star players. That's a pretty impressive feat. If I'm running an NBA team, Stevens is hands-down the coach I'd want, but that doesn't mean the other guys suck.
Dwayne Casey kinda sucks. The fact they added 3 point shooting 5 years late only adds to that fact.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Dwayne Casey kinda sucks. The fact they added 3 point shooting 5 years late only adds to that fact.
Where do you get this information? The Raptors have been in the Top-10 in 3-point FGA several times under Casey despite their best offensive player not having this shot in his arsenal until this season. They had years when the entire 2nd unit was one big 3-point heave with Ross, Patterson, and Vasquez.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Whether or not some set of people did or didn't vote for him, I'm very happy Brad Stevens coaches my favorite team. The only guy I'd consider letting him go to acquire is Pop, who is far older and not remotely available. If others have a different opinion of Stevens...great, have fun with that.

Meanwhile, three of the final four teams have Lebron, Durant/Curry, Harden getting them the key basket each game. The fourth relies on a rookie, a second-year guy, and a vet who people think is 'average'. Coaching is ultimately about results, and one guy's show pretty clearly he knows what he is doing.
 

dcmissle

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Should we be shocked that the Coaches Association, likely made up of NBA lifers, isn't exactly taking a shine to the wunderkind that never played nor coached at the NBA level? He didn't receive a vote last year, either.
No. Making it worse, he is naturally modest. The real killer — he does not care about this at all.

We are so fortunate. And the tandem with Ainge, who has ducked the NBA’s mediocrity black hole at least twice, makes it better still.

Would not swap out these two guys for any other tandem.
 

lovegtm

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Where do you get this information? The Raptors have been in the Top-10 in 3-point FGA several times under Casey despite their best offensive player not having this shot in his arsenal until this season. They had years when the entire 2nd unit was one big 3-point heave with Ross, Patterson, and Vasquez.
Yeah, you're right, let me rephrase. Most of the case for his candidacy seemed to revolve around "reshaping the offense," which seemed to me code for "get DeMar to shoot 3s."

Hyperbole aside (and if you spend a lot of time in Canada, as I do, the hyperbole is super fun) , most of the case for Casey comes down to making it a "Player Developer of the Year" award. I was legitimately impressed with what their younger guys did this year.

However, if you're judging coaches more holistically, where development, in-game strategy, ego management, playoff adjustments all matter, Stevens and Snyder are ahead of Casey and it's not particularly close.
 

the moops

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Where do you get this information? The Raptors have been in the Top-10 in 3-point FGA several times under Casey despite their best offensive player not having this shot in his arsenal until this season. They had years when the entire 2nd unit was one big 3-point heave with Ross, Patterson, and Vasquez.
If by several times, you mean two, and by in the the top 10, you mean barely cracking the top 10, then yes, you have a point.

Before this year, during the Casey era, the Raptors ranked 22nd, 19th, 9th, 10th, 12th, and 21st in 3PA.
 

lovegtm

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If by several times, you mean two, and by in the the top 10, you mean barely cracking the top 10, then yes, you have a point.

Before this year, during the Casey era, the Raptors ranked 22nd, 19th, 9th, 10th, 12th, and 21st in 3PA.
Sweet, I was too lazy to look that up. I hereby rescind my apology, and return to the regularly scheduled Casey-mocking.