Awards elude Stevens, Tatum
Though the Celtics made a strong statement in 201718, reaching the Eastern Conference finals for a second straight year despite an injury-depleted lineup, neither of their candidates for NBA awards had their names called in last night’s ceremony in Los Angeles.
Brad Stevens (Coach of the Year) and Jayson Tatum (Rookie of the Year) lost out to Dwane Casey and Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, respectively.
A sign of just how precarious the coaching profession can be, Casey was fired by Toronto after the Raptors were swept by Cleveland in the conference semifinals. He was subsequently hired by the Detroit Pistons.
Stevens was certainly appreciative of Casey, telling the Herald last week, “Everybody looks at things their own way, but it’s clear that Dwane’s an excellent coach. Excellent coaches — and that’s why he got hired right away by Detroit, and to me it should be him or Quin (Snyder of Utah) that win the award. There were a lot of guys fired this year that I thought were ridiculously good coaches.”
Stevens, of course, has risen through the ranks with relative haste, culminating in this season’s 55-win campaign despite losing Gordon Hayward on opening night and the eventual loss of Kyrie Irving before the playoffs.
Stevens’ Celtics teams have improved each year, moving on from a 25-win season in 2013-14 to win, in succession, 40, 48, 53 and 55 games. His last two teams have reached the conference finals.
Tatum, as expected, lost out to Simmons in the media’s voting for Rookie of the Year, even if the Celtics forward ultimately led the team in playoff scoring with an 18.5 average.
Alas, his best was too late for the vote. Though Simmons was the clearcut leader for most of the season over Tatum and fellow finalist Donovan Mitchell of Utah, the Sixers rookie faded during his team’s elimination by the Celtics in the conference semifinals.
Neither Stevens, in Indiana for a memorial service for his grandmother, or Tatum were on hand for the ceremony. Aron Baynes was there to accept the awards in the event either had won.
When speaking recently to the Herald, Stevens was admittedly uncomfortable being named a finalist.
“It’s always an honor to be recognized, but I take it with enough of a grain of salt, because some of that stuff is irrelevant in terms of trying to achieve the next task,” he said.
“Just the nature of the game and how competitive it is,” Stevens added. “Some of the people I steal the most from have 20-plus wins or 30-plus wins. That doesn’t mean they’re not doing an incredibly elite job. I just think when you go through this list of 30 coaches, to pick three is silly. It’s nice to be on a team that achieves something, and we know that individuals benefit from that. But from my standpoint, I don’t consider myself in that league. The first thing I’d like to improve as much as I can and I do so by watching the other 29 coaches.”
Celtics notes
The Celtics, in the market for some insurance at guard with Marcus Smart about to test restricted free agency, reached agreement yesterday with Brad Wanamaker from Turkish power Fenerbahce.
A league source confirmed that the sides agreed on a one-year deal. Wanamaker, a combo guard who averaged 11.3 points and shot 33 percent from 3-point range in EuroLeague competition, led Fenerbahce to the EuroLeague semifinals, where the team lost to Real Madrid and No. 3 draft pick Luka Doncic in the championship.
Wanamaker, a Philadelphia native, went undrafted out of Pittsburgh in 2011, spent two seasons in the Italian league, and after returning to the states for a stint with the Austin Toros of the NBADL, went back to Europe.
Wanamaker had his peak scoring season in 2016-17 for another Turkish club, Darussafaka, averaging 16.7 points and shooting 38.6 percent from downtown.