What's Next for Brad Stevens, Celtics After Busy NBA Trade Deadline?

Forsberg: As C's surge, Stevens' next move is all the more important originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

So, what's next?

That’s the question that NBA general managers face in perpetuity. Brad Stevens, fresh off dealing away nearly half his roster after three deadline trades, spent Friday pondering how to fill the five unexpected roster spots that his wheeling and dealing created.

The Celtics took a big swing in acquiring Derrick White, adding another potential long-term piece to their core while still maintaining flexibility to further tinker this summer.

Forsberg: Here's what the Celtics are getting in Derrick White

The Celtics now have five potential core pieces -- White, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams, and Marcus Smart -- under contract through at least the 2023-24 season. Smart and Williams are locked up through 2025-26 and Tatum has a player option that year. Part of the reason Stevens jumped at the chance to add White was the three years remaining on his deal after this season.

"This is good for three months,” said Stevens. “But this is really good for three and a half years.”

Stevens is slowly piecing together a puzzle he hopes will deliver the Celtics back to a championship stage. Every move he’s made since taking over for Danny Ainge this past summer has been with a focus on 1) Finding the players who best accentuate the pillars of Tatum and Brown, 2) Enhancing the defensive potential of the team after Stevens tabbed a defensive-minded leader in Ime Udoka to replace him on the Boston bench, and 3) Maintaining a flexibility to craft a high-level team where all the parts work in concert.

After a whole bunch of bumps in the road early in the 2021-22 season, the Celtics have started showing the sort of progress that suggests this ship is moving in the right direction.

The Celtics, now owners of the second-best defensive rating in the NBA, finally have an identity that can help them emerge as legitimate contenders. Boston has won a season-high seven straight games after Friday’s win over the Denver Nuggets and the team has eyes on climbing out of the play-in portion of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.

A franchise that has spent the majority of the past two seasons in a bit of a hazy, uncertain fog, finally seems to have a path forward.

Celtics Talk Podcast: Digesting Boston's wild deadline day | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

"I think it's our hope of being special,” Stevens said when asked about his team’s emerging defensive identity. "And maybe that comes in the next three or four months, maybe it takes longer to get there.

"But I think the baseline, the identity of a team -- the reality is, if you truly want to measure a team and how it functions together, just watch them guard together, watch them talk, watch them cover for each other, see how much they care on that end, see how much effort they're giving for each other, let alone individually. And that can tell you the story of what a team feels like.

"And so I do think, as I've said to many people weeks ago, we're better than our record is. But we have put ourselves in a tough position with close losses. The last two weeks, even though we've played sometimes teams that aren't full, we're playing to a different standard and we look different. And there's a feel to that that may or may not result in wins and losses here as we move forward on every given night that you hope to. But I think, ultimately, we're building something with a new coaching staff that I think can be special."

But even after all his deadline tinkering, the question is inescapable: What comes next?

First, Stevens has to fill out the end of Boston’s roster. The team signed two-way forward Sam Hauser and G-League center Luke Kornet to rest-of-the-season deals to get to the minimum roster limit on Friday. After dealing away both the team’s 2022 first-round pick and 2019 lottery pick Romeo Langford, Stevens suggested the Celtics may use open roster spots to try to find the sort of young, developable talent the draft typically produces.

“We’ve got to look at a couple of young prospects that we can hopefully develop and make part of our long-term future and can find a great niche and fit within our team,” said Stevens.

"I think a great example of that is a place like Miami that's done that really well. They've found guys that other people passed on or missed on and have created a team that has really, really good players making a lot of money, and really, really good players that are just starting out in their career, but have found the perfect fit.”

The big lingering question is, what happens this summer? So much has been made about Boston’s need to find a "third star," but Stevens has suggested both with his words and his actions that he might value fit over pure talent. Though certainly the next move has to be a mix of both.

"I think it has to be the right person,” said Stevens. "I think that that's the answer, right? And I think that, again, that’s why you identify Derrick as a great fit for our team. He just has the right mentality, he has the right amount of savvy, he has the right amount of self awareness to play around those guys. And I think that's super important.

"So, no matter who you're adding, whether it's a role player or a starter, or a person that’s gonna play 30 minutes or 10 minutes, they have to complement your best players. We've seen it over and over, not only this league but at every level, you can have three really special players, but they just don't fit. And so I think that that's the most important thing.

"We would like to have a scenario -- and I think we're getting there -- where every single person on our roster fits well and it makes a lot of sense. And [those players] are totally committed to be in the Celtics, totally committed to winning as a team.

"I think I said this at the beginning of the year, and to be quite honest I didn't think we were this year -- we want to be a team that Boston can root for. The last few weeks, we have been. It's been fun and I guess I'm now a better judge of it then I probably was when I was sitting in the other chair because I'm watching it just like you are."

The Celtics can ponder using Al Horford’s partially-guaranteed contract to trade for another high-level talent this summer by attaching future draft picks. (After the 2022 NBA Draft passes, Boston will have access to all of its future first-rounders). If any of the core pieces do not fit the long-term view of this team, Stevens still has desirable players on quality contracts and can easily swap pieces out.

Stevens always has to be looking forward but, at least for a brief moment, he’ll exhale and evaluate what his tinkering has delivered. The Celtics have a couple of tests before the All-Star break, including an Atlanta Hawks team that has routinely given them fits and the new-look 76ers. The overhauled Nets await after the All-Star break.

We’ll know soon just how good this defense can be. We’ll quickly find out what the Celtics still need to shop for this summer.

We’ll know if the Celtics are truly starting to put together something special.