Would Brad Stevens coaching the All-Star game be beneficial to the Celtics?
The NBA All-Star game has its issues - let's just get that out of the way. The voting process is a little whacky - players are at the mercy of fans being able to actually spell their names correctly and sometimes deserving stars get shunned for less qualified players - but at the end of the day it's still a pretty cool spectacle where mostly great players hit the hardwood for bragging rights.
Now, the rules state that the coaches of the Eastern and Western conference All-Star teams are decided by which team has the best record by the break. Last year, Tyronn Lue, coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers won the honor in the East while Greg Popovich, coach of the Spurs, coached the West.
Those same rules state that a coach cannot be eligible in consecutive years so, if the All-Star game were tomorrow, the coaches would be Dwane Casey of the second seeded Toronto Raptors and Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors. But fortunately the All-Star game isn't tomorrow and there's still some time to sort out seeding.
Currently the Boston Celtics are two games behind the Raptors, due to their head-to-head loss earlier this week. But there's a very strong possibility that the C's sneak into the second seed before the All-Star break and Brad Stevens would earn All-Star coaching honors. So, what would that mean, if anything, to the C's?
Maybe after playing under coach Stevens for a night some of these All-Stars (e.g Jimmy Butler) will be so impressed that they will want to head to Boston to play for him the rest of the season? Next, having your coach lead a group of the best players in the NBA is no small feat. Brad Stevens is already considered one of the best coaches in the NBA and seeing him lead the Eastern conference All-Star squad will only validate how a lot of pundits already feel about him.
"That's a real honor to be a part of a team that's in position to do that," Stevens says of the possibility of coaching the East All-Stars.— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 10, 2017
Finally, and probably most importantly, it means that the C's are in a great position in the East - the second seed.
All in all we should all be rooting for coach Stevens to lead coach the All-Star game. Not only do we get to root for him and potentially Isaiah Thomas but we can be collectively satisfied that the C's are right behind Cleveland in the standings.
But wait, some of you might be yelling out a loud and emphatic 'No!' Would it be a distraction? Should the C's be focused more on playing solid ball instead of trying to overtake Toronto just for All-Star bragging rights? Is the All-Star game dumb? How ridiculous is it that Zaza Pachulia is second in votes in the West among front-court players? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Photo credit - Charles Krupa/AP
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