Brad Stevens made himself available to the media Wednesday during Celtics Summer League, as they pulled off a 89-84 comeback win over the Charlotte Hornets in Las Vegas.
The team president of basketball operations spoke on a variety of topics in a brief one-on-one scrum with reporters. With the pending sale of the Celtics, Stevens was asked about his thoughts on majority owner Wyc Grousbeck's decision to sell his stake in the team.
"I learned not long before everybody else did that [that] was going to happen," Stevens told reporters. "I obviously am very thankful for Wyc and his family and everything that they've done. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens from here."
Stevens added that he's looking to remain focused on the off-season and the change in ownership doesn't necessarily impact his day-to-day duties immediately. With the upcoming 2024-25 campaign not being too far off, he'll continue to work as the team looks to defend their recently won NBA title.
"I don't want to get too far into the weeds of it all but how does it affect us?" Stevens asked. "It doesn't really right now. From the standpoint of the corporate side or basketball operations we're just head down, doing what we think is best for the now of the Celtics and the future of the Celtics. We're lucky we [have] a good team."
Boston has done just that, keeping busy to start the summer by extending Jayson Tatum to a super-max deal (the richest in league history) and Derrick White to a four-year contract. Stevens also re-signed veteran Luke Kornet, developing frontcourt talent Neemias Queta and back-up big man Xavier Tillman -- essentially bringing back nearly the same championship roster from last season.
Stevens also reacted to Jaylen Brown being passed over to play for Team USA in this year's Paris Summer Olympics when Derrick White was chosen instead to replace an injured Kawhi Leonard last week. While Stevens believes Brown was deserving of the honor, he also thinks the Celtics All-Star will use the snub as a motivator for next season and operate as usual with his off-season workouts.
"Jaylen's a great player," Stevens said. "I don't think there's any doubt that Jaylen could be on any team, could be on any Olympic team in any year. But at the end of the day, his approach, he talked about how he called Derrick and he talked about his own feelings from it.
"I know this about Jaylen," Stevens explained, "whether he has success and gets all the accolades like Finals MVP or Eastern Conference Finals MVP or if he feels like he got left off a team, I know he's going to be motivated and hungry regardless. That's what I've always loved about him. He always comes back to work."
As for the 15th and final standard contract spot that remains open after all of the activity from the Celtics thus far since the start of free agency, Stevens noted that they'll stand pat for now as Kristaps Porgingis continues to rehab his surgically repaired left ankle.
"We kept 14 most of the year last year, then we added two at the end of the year," Stevens said. "We'll see how the next few months play themselves out with regard to people's availability. Obviously, Kristaps is going to have a long rehab process ahead of him. Then we have to determine what's the best need for our team in that 15th spot?"
Joel Pavón
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