CelticsLife Awards 2015-16: Best Direction

The 2015-16 CelticsLife Award for Best Direction goes to Brad Stevens for his work in ATO's (after timeouts). The man has been praised by opposing players and coaches, media both biased and not, and pretty much anyone who has seen a Celtics game for what he comes up with in must score situations during his late half and late game timeouts.

Some of these plays are so beautiful that they make me look at sunsets with pity and disdain. They are so innovative I cast a glance at Apple and think, "You're stagnant". If you have some time to kill and want to see NBA people fawn over Brad, search Brad Stevens ATO on Twitter. It's to the point where while watching a Celtics game if a late game timeout gets called I know my Twitter timeline is going to have a half dozen tweets stating "Brad Stevens ATO alert". That's respect.

The below video shows his ATO highlights that are compiled throughout his Celtic tenure, and not just this last season. IT'S 14 MINUTES LONG. I'm pretty certain if I just ran plays in this video, I could coach any NBA team to the playoffs. If there's a shitty coach out there who hasn't watched this, he must just enjoy being shitty.



You shouldn't be able to go 94 feet in 5 seconds for a dunk against a set defense, but Brad doesn't let his beautiful mind be restricted by conventional norms, wisdom, or laws of physics.


(video credit - Darren Hartwell)

When you're Brad Stevens, teams are so worried about your reputation of ATO wizardry and complexity that "Sully, pass it back to Marcus" is so simple that it catches the opposition asleep at the wheel.


(video credit - Mark Van Deusen)

You're expecting Isaiah Thomas to get the ball in the crunchest of times? We'll have him backscreen for Jonas Jerebko to run to the weak side, have the inbounder throw it crosscourt to the weakside, and have Avery Bradley curling around a delayed Jae Crowder screen at the top of the key. Got it?



The man is a savant. Great direction this year, Brad. Congrats on the CelticsLife Award nod.




Photo Credit: Winslow Townson/Associated Press




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