In the quiet architecture of team-building, Brad Stevens has done what few executives manage: he turned discomfort into design. Stepping away from the Boston sideline in 2021, Stevens spent three years reshaping the Celtics through a series of bold trades — some painful, all purposeful — until the roster he assembled finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA. On Tuesday, his peers across the league's front offices voted him the 2023-24 Executive of the Year, a recognition that the hardest work in basketball often happens far from the court.
Brad Stevens Named NBA Executive of the Year After Engineering Celtics' 64-Win Season
He broke something that worked in order to build something better.
Mark
Why does it matter that the GMs vote on this award instead of the media?
Mimi
Because GMs are the ones who know what a trade actually costs — the relationships, the risk, the timing. When they give this to someone, it means something different.
Mark
Was trading Marcus Smart really that risky? He wasn't a star.
Mimi
He was the heartbeat of that locker room. The kind of player whose value doesn't show up cleanly in numbers. Moving him was a statement that Stevens was willing to break something that worked in order to build something better.
Mark
And Porzingis was the answer to what, exactly?
Mimi
Boston kept losing close games because they couldn't get a clean look when it mattered. Porzingis is a seven-footer who can shoot off the dribble, finish at the rim, and deter shots on the other end. That's a very specific problem solved by a very specific player.
Mark
The Holiday acquisition sounds like it was partly luck — the Bucks made a move and Boston benefited.
Mimi
The opportunity was luck. The preparation to act on it wasn't. Stevens had the assets and the clarity to move immediately when Portland suddenly had Holiday available.
Mark
How much of this is Stevens versus just having Tatum and Brown?
Mimi
Tatum and Brown are the foundation, but plenty of teams have two stars and go nowhere. The players around them — White, Holiday, Porzingis — are what turned a good team into a historically dominant regular season.
Mark
What does the Porzingis injury mean for the bigger picture?
Mimi
It's the one thing that could unravel the whole construction. He's the piece Stevens gave up the most to get. If he can't go deep into the playoffs, Boston is still dangerous — but the ceiling drops.
Mark
Stevens never made the Finals as a coach. Does this award feel like a correction of some kind?
Mimi
Maybe. Or maybe it just reflects that some people are better suited to building than to coaching. The front office gave him a different kind of leverage, and he used it well.
Il Polso
- Stevens inherited a talented but unfinished team and quietly rebuilt nearly every piece around it through trades alone — a rare feat in modern roster construction.
- The most wrenching move — trading beloved fan anchor Marcus Smart — created immediate tension in Boston, but unlocked the elite rim-protecting, perimeter-scoring presence the team had long been missing in Kristaps Porzingis.
- Stevens then moved swiftly to capture Jrue Holiday from Portland, pairing him with Derrick White to form what analysts now call the league's most dangerous defensive backcourt.
- The resulting starting five — Tatum, Brown, White, Holiday, and Porzingis — carried Boston to a 64-18 record and the NBA's top overall seed, validating every uncomfortable decision along the way.
- A Porzingis calf injury in the playoffs now casts a shadow over Boston's championship run, threatening to remove the very piece Stevens sacrificed the most to acquire.
In the quiet architecture of team-building, Brad Stevens has done what few executives manage: he turned discomfort into design. Stepping away from the Boston sideline in 2021, Stevens spent three years reshaping the Celtics through a series of bold trades — some painful, all purposeful — until the roster he assembled finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA. On Tuesday, his peers across the league's front offices voted him the 2023-24 Executive of the Year, a recognition that the hardest work in basketball often happens far from the court.
Brad Stevens spent eight years coaching the Boston Celtics, won more than 350 games, and never reached the NBA Finals. On Tuesday, the league named him its 2023-24 Executive of the Year — a sign that the best work of his career may have come after he left the sideline.
The award carries unusual weight: general managers across the league vote for it themselves, making it a recognition from the people who understand roster-building most intimately. Stevens is only the second former head coach to win it since Lawrence Frank earned the honor for his work with the Clippers in 2019-20.
When Stevens moved into Boston's front office in 2021, he inherited Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Payton Pritchard. Nearly everyone else on the current roster arrived through deals he engineered. The most consequential — and most uncomfortable — was trading fan favorite Marcus Smart to Memphis in a three-team arrangement that brought Kristaps Porzingis to Boston. Smart's departure stung, but Porzingis filled a gap the Celtics had struggled with for years: a big man capable of protecting the rim at an elite level while scoring from multiple areas of the floor.
Three months later, Stevens moved quickly again. When Milwaukee sent Jrue Holiday to Portland in the Damian Lillard blockbuster, Stevens acquired Holiday in a separate deal. Paired with Derrick White, Holiday gave Boston what many now consider the league's best defensive backcourt. The starting five that emerged — Tatum, Brown, White, Holiday, and Porzingis — is being mentioned alongside some of the most formidable lineups in recent memory.
Boston finished 64-18, claimed the top overall seed, and entered the playoffs as the clear favorite. The Celtics lead Miami three games to one in the first round, though a Porzingis calf injury clouds the picture heading deeper into the postseason. Losing him would not break this team, but it would remove the piece Stevens gave the most to get. What he built in three years — bold, sometimes unpopular, always purposeful — is the kind of work that box scores confirm and peers recognize.
Brad Stevens spent eight years coaching the Boston Celtics, won more than 350 games, and never once made it to the NBA Finals. On Tuesday, the league announced he had won its 2023-24 Executive of the Year award — a recognition that the best work of his career may have come after he stepped away from the sideline.
The award is unusual in that it bypasses the media entirely. General managers across the league vote for it themselves, which gives it a particular weight: these are the people who understand, better than anyone, what it takes to build a roster. Stevens is only the second former head coach to win the honor since Lawrence Frank took it for his work with the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2019-20 season.
When Stevens moved into the front office in 2021, he inherited a team with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Payton Pritchard already in place. Nearly everyone else on Boston's current roster arrived through deals he engineered over the three seasons since. The results have been hard to argue with: a Finals appearance, a conference finals exit, and now a 64-18 regular season — good enough for the top seed in the entire NBA.
The most consequential move Stevens made this past year was also the most uncomfortable one. He traded Marcus Smart, a fan favorite and the team's emotional anchor, to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of a three-team arrangement that brought center Kristaps Porzingis to Boston. Smart's departure stung. But Porzingis filled a gap the Celtics had been unable to close for years: a big man who can protect the rim at an elite level while also scoring from the perimeter, the mid-range, and the post. Boston's late-game collapses had often traced back to an inability to generate clean looks under pressure; Porzingis changed that calculus.
Three months after the Smart deal, fortune intervened. The Milwaukee Bucks sent Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers in a splashy trade for Damian Lillard. Stevens moved quickly, acquiring Holiday from Portland in a separate transaction. Holiday, paired with Derrick White — himself a 2022 trade deadline addition — gave Boston what many analysts now consider the best defensive backcourt in the league.
The starting five that emerged from all of this — Tatum, Brown, White, Holiday, and Porzingis — is being discussed in the same breath as some of the most formidable lineups the league has seen in decades. The combination of two-way versatility, size, and shot-making is rare. Stevens built it in pieces, under pressure, with no guarantee any single move would work.
Boston entered the playoffs as the clear favorite and has played like it. The Celtics lead the Miami Heat three games to one in the first round, and a return trip to the Finals looks probable. The one shadow hanging over the picture is Porzingis, who injured his calf in Game 4 and whose availability for the rest of the postseason remains uncertain. Losing him would not sink the Celtics — this roster has too much depth for that — but it would remove the piece Stevens sacrificed the most to acquire.
What Stevens has done in three years is rare in any sport: he took a talented but incomplete team, made a series of bold, sometimes unpopular decisions, and turned it into something that looks, on paper and on the floor, like a genuine championship contender. The general managers who voted for him this week recognized something the box scores confirm — that the Celtics' 64-win season did not happen by accident.
Citazioni salienti
Stevens is the first former head coach to win Executive of the Year since Lawrence Frank took the honor for his work with the Clippers in 2019-20.— NBA announcement, as reported by CBS Sports
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