Boston Celtics: 3 things to be thankful for

3. Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens

Possibly the two best people in their position in the NBA as of now. Well… sorry, but Gregg Popovich is still the greatest coach of all time. Don’t get me wrong though, Brad Stevens deserves to be in the conversation for top-five in the league.

This season, Stevens has coached the Celtics to a 16-3 record. He lost one of his best players in Hayward and he still is finding ways to win. Even without Hayward, Stevens does have a great team assembled. Either way, you have to give credit where credit is due, and Stevens is and should be the early Coach of the Year frontrunner.

With all eyes on the coaching position, we can’t deprive Danny Ainge of his share of the credit. He’s always found ways to swindle teams into giving him players and draft picks. We have seen him bring a championship to Boston when trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Now he’s been stacking up on draft picks and sending them out for better players.

This offseason he signed Hayward, and traded away beloved Isiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder. However, they brought in All-Star Kyrie Irving, Marcus Morris and drafted Jayson Tatum. It was questioned a little as to what he was up to, but the mastermind is looking like a genius.

Not many people believed that they would be able to come out this well after the offseason, but it’s paying dividends, and Celtics fans should be rejoiced they have both Ainge and Stevens on their team.