I always liked and appreciated Brad Stevens the coach. His teams generally played hard and overachieved relative to their talent. I had no idea that Stevens was going to be even better as a GM.
That’s not saying that this NBA trade deadline was such a homerun win that we have to make sweeping judgements about him. If anything, this was just another example of Stevens being a solid singles and doubles hitter that consistently moves runners along.
I suppose it boils down to expectations. As a coach, Stevens was taking a team built around a diminutive point guard and a bunch of try-hard role players to the Eastern Conference Finals.