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It’s quite a feat that Celtics president Brad Stevens has hit the mark with virtually all of his personnel moves
His winning percentage on trades and transactions is up there in Globetrotters territory.
Question for you, Celtics fans.
What has been Brad Stevens’s worst personnel move since becoming the Celtics president of basketball operations and chief decision-maker on June 2, 2021?
Before you go all Pitino Meltdown Mode on me here and start ranting about how all the negativity in this town stinks, know that I ask this question to illustrate a positive about Stevens’s tenure that gets some attention, but not enough.
He has not made one important personnel decision that could be classified as regrettable. His winning percentage on trades and transactions is up there in Globetrotters territory.
Stevens has not made mistakes, at least any of consequence. That is extremely hard to pull off unless you are a timid trader, which Stevens is not. Plus, the degree of difficulty in the NBA — where the rosters are smaller than in other sports, the tax penalties are stifling, and the acquisition of one bad actor can have an oversized effect on team culture — is an unforgiving and complex kind of calculus.
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The topic of Stevens’s front-office mastery has been rattling around in my mind for a few days, since The Ringer’s Brian Barrett opened a recent episode of his “Off The Pike” podcast by comparing the Celtics boss’s job performance with Theo Epstein’s when he was breaking curses and building his legend with the Red Sox.
It hit me that Stevens’s success rate is probably higher than Epstein’s — or at least he doesn’t have the basketball versions of a Bronson Arroyo-for-Wily Mo Pena trade on his transactions docket. (Now I’m wondering who the NBA version of David Wells would be.)
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So I hopped over to the endlessly valuable basketball-reference.com and took a spin through Stevens’s “executive record” page, which offers a complete record of his trades, signings, and draft picks. No matter how thorough and dedicated your fandom is, I guarantee you’ll see a move or two that totally escaped your recollection. They signed Ryan Arcidiacono in September 2021? Al-Farouq Aminu got a 10-day contract a couple of months after that?
Oh, and remember how mad some of you were when Stevens didn’t retain Bol Bol after acquiring him in a three-way trade with the Spurs and Nuggets in January 2022? (Maybe some of you were hoping to give him a Drake Maye-style nickname when he was here? Bol “Bol Bol” Bol? I bet you had that ready to go.)
I probably should have mentioned Stevens’s worst move a few paragraphs north of here. And I would have, had I actually been able to pinpoint one. I’d probably down-vote the decision to bring back Enes Kanter (now Enes Freedom) in August 2021, since we already knew from his first stint with the Celtics that he was playable only on one end of the court. But that was ultimately a no-harm, no-foul move.
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There have been other small moves that didn’t work out. Trading for Mike Muscala in February 2023 and Jaden Springer a year later cost primarily second-round picks. Both had fleeting moments but ended up as Celtics short-timers. Signing Chris Boucher this past offseason didn’t work out.
Some might suggest that trading feisty Aaron Nesmith, along with assorted roster fodder and a first-round pick, to the Pacers for Malcolm Brogdon in July 2022, should bring some level of regret. I disagree. Brogdon won Sixth Man of the Year in his one season with the Celtics, then was wheeled to the Trail Blazers the next offseason as part of a deal for Jrue Holiday. Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — picked up that same offseason along with two first-round picks for fan favorite but occasional detriment Marcus Smart — were the perfect additions to the eventual 2024 NBA Champions.
Then, when Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury seemingly altered the Celtics’ championship timeline and Holiday was among the high-priced veterans who departed as the franchise took the opportunity to avoid the punitive luxury tax penalties, Stevens acquired Anfernee Simons, who quickly won over Celtics fans before he was moved for big man Nikola Vucevic.
Two of Stevens’s early moves still rank among his best. His first deal was to reacquire Al Horford while simultaneously getting out of Kemba Walker’s contract, the definition of a win-win move. (The Celtics did give a first-round pick in that deal that became Alperen Sengun. Considering all that Horford gave the Celtics, that’s nowhere near regrettable.) His February 2022 trade with the Spurs for Derrick White — who has become a superstar glue-guy and a quintessential Celtic in all the ways we rhapsodize about — was Auerbachian in its savvy.
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We must note, too, that Stevens’s elevation of the wild-eyed and untested Joe Mazzulla to head coach — first as the interim choice on the eve of the 2022-23 season, then formally in February ’23 — was a bold move that proved brilliant.
And of course, we must note the current moment. The 2025-26 Celtics are legitimate contenders in the Eastern Conference despite some minor recent turbulence as Tatum gets his legs under him.
Young and/or undervalued players Stevens and the front office brought in — from recent first-round draft picks Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman to free agent pickups such as Luka Garza — have almost to a player exceeded outside expectations.
No one outside of the Auerbach Center offices could have anticipated this. But inside those Celtics offices? I believe they believed that this team was going to be good, and perhaps better than good.
After all, the guy deciding which players deserve a shot really does not miss.
Be civil. Be kind.
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