Boston Celtics president of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens reckons they will need to come back stronger in the next season to defend their title. The Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks by 4-1 in the NBA Finals and Stevens feels it will be imperative to keep improving and come back even stronger.
The Celtics have received a lot of adulation after winning their record-making 18th NBA Championship and they will determined to keep up the good show.
“The adulation doesn’t mean much in all sincerity. And the scrutiny doesn’t mean much either,” Stevens said Tuesday on Pat Mcafee show. “If you hang a banner everybody is going to talk about how great you are. And if you don’t, they’re going to talk about how much you stink. … If you tie your approach to that, then you’re just going to ride a roller coaster that’s not worth the journey. So, I think the most important thing is you appreciate the people you’re with, you try your best to have the best season you can. And you just keep going.”
Celtics has a potent team and players like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford — are under contract for next season.
Stevens said any player they pick in the NBA draft will be picked, keeping the future in mind.
“I think there’s a lot of moving parts to keeping this roster sustainable beyond this year. But specifically to this year, we’ve got a lot of guys back,” Stevens said. “It will be hard for any draft pick to crack our rotation when healthy. So we’ll think about how we can continue to invest in young players and their development and growth, with the reality that if we’re able to continue to move forward with this group — these guys are going to be on the court.”
Stevens said the next season will be another opportunity to bounce back stronger and keep up the good show.
“We’ll always evaluate how to make our team better,” Stevens said. “But I think we would be crazy not to say that character and the foundation of this team is right. And let’s see if we can be as consistent as we can. Grow. Develop. Get better. Improve. … I’m not anticipating major changes, at least early on. Because I think this team deserves that.”
