Following Boston’s first-round Playoff exit last night, Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania are reporting that Danny Ainge is being replaced by Brad Stevens as President of Basketball Operations. Over the last few years, Boston has not lived up to the level of success that many expected them to. It seems as though the franchise has tried everything to build a championship team. They traded away Isaiah Thomas, have drafted Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, made use of their draft picks, and changed the lineups about every year for the last four seasons. Nothing has worked.
Now, he will be replaced by Stevens, his head coach for the last several years.
Danny Ainge is expected to step down as President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, sources tell ESPN. Brad Stevens is expected to assume a more prominent front office role with the team. https://t.co/8eR4AHcGv3
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2021
Brad Stevens is moving from his head coaching role to leading the Celtics basketball operations — and Stevens will lead the search for the Celtics‘ new head coach, sources said. https://t.co/U74E2VBLfo
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 2, 2021
Ainge brought the Celtics their 17th championship under his leadership in 2008. There have been a lot of memorable moments in the 18 years he has served the front office. Brad Stevens was considered a homerun hire when they made it in 2013. While the Celtics have had some success under his coaching, it was noticeable that Stevens was growing tired of the role. The Celtics made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017, 2018, and 2020.
With Tatum and Brown emerging as the superstars they are, the Celtics need to do something to keep their core in Boston. If they don’t manage to keep at least Tatum, the Celtics are going to be in for a rude awakening. Ainge made so many trades, moves, acquired a ton of picks, but the one thing they didn’t do until now is making a change in the front office.
Danny Ainge is out, Brad Stevens is stepping up. The Celtics are looking to the future.
