During a recent appearance on Grantland podcast The Lowe Post, Washington Wizards guard/forward Jared Dudley suggested that there's a "buzz" among players in the league regarding Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens.
"I’ve been hearing great things about Brad Stevens -- that’s the buzz going around the league now," Dudley said. "Players, ex-players. I played with Jerryd Bayless, who played with him, different guys that have played for him. He, obviously, back then, he was a rookie coach ... but he was coaching like a vet. He knew when to give rest to the guys, not be in practice too long; his X's and O's; his confidence he instilled in his players; he was playing a lot of different guys. He just knew it. I think some people just get it at the young age. As you saw with [Golden State Warriors coach Steve] Kerr, he had a great team, but he got it.
"I keep hearing the buzz on [Stevens] a lot. He’d definitely be in my top two or top three [coaches you’d want to play for]."
The Stevens praise was spawned by a discussion about the Players' Awards of the NBA players' association. One of the awards that players voted for was Coach You Most Want to Play For, an honor that went to San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Dudley also invoked the name of former Celtics/current Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers before gushing about Stevens.
Dudley, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks last season, also praised Boston's offseason additions, especially the signing of Amir Johnson.
"How about Boston?" Dudley said. "Boston came on crazy at the end [of the 2014-15 season]. You know what you have in Isaiah [Thomas]. You know what you have in [Avery] Bradley. [Jae] Crowder. They [traded for] David Lee, which, hey, that's a good backup. And then you have Amir along with Kelly Olynyk and all these other players. And then, let's just be honest, can anyone say -- I know [Milwaukee coach Jason] Kidd's up there -- but is Brad Stevens not one of the best young coaches out there? I mean, come on, I'm super-impressed with him and how he does his play calling."
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