LEAD BETWEEN THE LINES
Stevens in no rush to empower a team captain
WASHINGTON — The Celtics’ basketball ops people are still in search of a rim protector and a significant and consistent scorer to complement Isaiah Thomas as they look over incoming talent and perhaps discuss trades at this week’s draft combine in Chicago.
But as has been evident as it fights through these playoffs and takes a 3-2 lead into this evening’s game against the Wizards, the club does not lack leadership.
That doesn’t change the fact that the Celts have been without one of their traditional parts since December 2014, and Brad Stevens is perfectly fine with it.
It was on the 18th of that month that the C’s traded Rajon Rondo, and they haven’t had a captain since. Team records show 15 players have been the sole captain or shared the title, beginning with Bob Cousy in 1950.
It was a conscious decision on the part of Stevens and the club to not fill the role.
“First of all, I’ve coached a lot of different teams that have had captains or not had captains,” he said. “And some of the teams, especially when I go back to the college years, it was so hard to pick a captain because so many guys were exhibiting the leadership qualities that you want, and so we started referring to those guys as catalysts — guys that did their job well to lift the others up.
“We’ve really talked about the catalyst idea here, because we do, right now, have a lot of guys that you could say could be a leader in this organization, not only for now but for a long time coming.
“And,” Stevens getting to a key point, “I think one of the things about naming captains that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is if you empower a guy or two, you may disempower three or four. And so what I think is that if there is that clear-cut obvious candidate, maybe that makes a little bit of sense. But I also think that we don’t want to take anybody’s leadership away.”
The lack of a designee certainly hasn’t hurt the Celtics this year as they won 53 games in the regular season, fought back from 0-2 down in the first round and now find themselves one win from the Eastern Conference finals. A number of players have spoken up — from veterans Avery Bradley, Isaiah Thomas, Al Horford and Gerald Green to relative newcomer Marcus Smart. Green got in for just mop-up duty in Game 5 Wednesday, but he was extremely vocal when the ball was in play and in timeout huddles.
“I think leaders emerge,” Stevens said. “Like, I’ve never believed that you tap somebody a leader. That stuff emerges over time, and it starts with doing your job reliably every day.”
The Celtics have tried to bestow the title on certain players, hoping it would help them develop and look at things from a greater team standpoint. Well after Cousy, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens and Larry Bird, people like Dee Brown, Pervis Ellison and Antoine Walker were given the role, sometimes at early points in their career to hasten their NBA maturity.
Paul Pierce shared the gig with Walker, who’d had it in various combinations for three seasons prior, from 2000-2003. Then Pierce held it alone until he was traded in 2013. Rondo was captain from then until being sent to Dallas.
Bradley would have seemed the logical choice to step in, but Stevens chose to go a different route.
“I’m fine with that,” Bradley said. “I mean, they might consider me that anyway, my teammates. I just try to go out there and do my job to the highest of my ability and do things the right way, and hopefully everybody can follow that and respect that, and we can be the best team we can be.
“I think being captain is an honor, and I guess you could say it’s a lot to live up to in a way. But if that was me, I would just try to make sure I’m doing things the right way, because this is a top-of-the-line organization. I’d feel like it’s a reflection of me in a way. Like I have to represent it well, and that’s what I try to do anyway.”
The most visible duty of a captain may be during the pregame meeting with the officials and opposing captain at center court. Stevens had no idea earlier in the season who was performing that ritual, but, in fact, it has been Thomas.
“I used to,” Bradley said, “but I think it’s more appropriate to send the point guards, because those are the ones that are talking on the court. If Isaiah’s not going, Smart usually goes. That’s just how it should work, because they’re the second voice on the court. They should be directing everybody.”
And part of leadership is knowing when to step aside and let someone else take the baton.