The Celtics’ MVP is Brad Stevens! 🗣️ Zach Lowe applauds Boston’s team-building | Get Up

The Celtics’ MVP is Brad Stevens! 🗣️ Zach Lowe applauds Boston’s team-building | Get Up

one person who is probably the most important person in these finals now if you take a look through two games on ESPN BET right now Jason Tatum is a pretty significant favorite to be named the MVP despite not yet having a 20-point game Jaylen Brown as you see is right behind him my guy Drew holiday is amongst the others but did you see Sunday night in the postgame our Bob Meyers had a fascinating take on who the most important Celtic really is I’m going Brad Stevens I I hey I okay you think I mean half I get it but but the team put a team together he put a team together Drew holiday might have been the best player in this game the first game it might have been Jaylen Brown might have been porzingis that’s the advantage that this Celtics team has so of course leave it to the team Builder to make that comment but I mean I think there is some validity to that and you were talking this morning and this was a fascinating conversation about where the Celtics were three years ago relative to where they are right this minute so we focus a lot on two years ago they lose the finals oh the disappointment last year they lose in the Conference Finals to the heat that’s a big disappointment 3 years ago not that long ago they were a 500 team now injuries and Co had something to do with that but they were a 500 team and they got obliterated in the first round of the playoffs by the Brooklyn Nets super team that everyone was scared was going to take over the league spoiler alert that did not happen but the Celtics had kemell Walker his career was going down Gordon Hayward that experiment had already gone bust they had Tatum and brown and kind of a muddle around it and you Flash Forward three years with Brad Stevens and he would tell you it’s not just him they have a great front office there to trade what they traded for Drew holiday christops porzingis and Derek white and to get Al Horford back is Master stroke after Master stroke after Master stroke Reinventing a team that three years ago looked like uh-oh have we hit a wall have has the East kind of passed us by before we even had our moment it’s a great job of team building a total news Supporting Cast that makes a ton of sense and their stars have gotten better too it’s a point worth making here guys that the very first time when I was hosting NBA Countdown that we went on the road was November of 2021 so it’s you know after that playoff L after that playoff loss and they the Celtics were playing the Lakers and we did countdown from Center Court in Boston and the number one topic that we had and no one was making fun of it or anything was is it time to break up Tatum and brown is have they gone as far as they can go with this Duo do they have to trade away Jaylen Brown do they have to start this thing all over again that isn’t that long ago to your point on the calendar it’s not that long ago and here they are and and they’re two wins away from a championship it it is and I think that you give the credit that guy on the screen gets a lot of the credit among a lot of other people totally agree I I countless times I had that conversation on this show and other shows that was that went on for several years break absolutely I’m glad I never bought into that because you know ultimately this was what they needed around them and I also think there’s a there’s growth in their relationship there was a time when I would watch them play and I never got to the point where I said you know what break this up but I would say to myself man they really operate independently of each other at all times that you know nothing they do is in conjunction on the court to put maximum pressure on defenses I don’t feel that way anymore I feel like now there’s a really beautiful e and flow to when these guys are the alpha on a given possession and more importantly when they understand the play that needs to be made right now is the right play for somebody else that’s what they’re doing right now they’ve meshed beautifully and and look they’re two WIS away from finally breaking through as much as their majority is a part of this I do think that the point guard leadership from Drew holiday has been huge on both sides of the basketball whether you talk about him defending Kyrie Irving or just his experience having gotten over the hump this we were here when they he got shipped from Milwaukee and was hanging out on the west coast whatever that happened we were immediately like Boston is a team that needs to go get this Championship caliber all defensive point guard period and it is been such a perfect fit so Kudos the Brad Stevens that to me I mean we can argue about holiday or porzingis in terms of the savier movie you might even want to throw Derek white that move into the conversation might absolutely yeah when Milwaukee acquired Dame Lillard we thought that might be the missing piece for a championship and we were right it just turns out it was for Boston because that’s how Drew holiday wound up there and he is as important a piece of this as anybody Wendy final word on just how this Celtic team went from one no one really believed in to one that appears inevitable not just now but maybe into the future well it was 11 years ago this month that they basically broke their team up and traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn that was where the seeds of this team began because those that was the deal that got them Jason Tatum and Jaylen brown but I will say that there one of the biggest moments was Draft Day last year again one year ago this month when not only did they get the porzingis trade done and if you remember there was a deadline on the trade and they had one trade fall apart overnight and they scrambled during draft day to put one back together and in that porzingis trade not only did they get him but they got a draft pick somehow they acquired Chris Taps porzingis and a first round pick that’s a brilliant move and that first round pick was a centerpiece in the deal that fell into their lap a few months later for Drew holiday amazing set of circumstances there that was the final pieces for this decade long bill yeah they also traded back the year they took Jason Tatum to take him from first to third they’ve gotten a lot of things right in Boston and that’s how you wind up [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On Get Up, Mike Greenberg is joined by Tim Legler, Brian Windhorst, Monica McNutt and Zach Lowe to discuss how Brad Stevens constructed the Boston Celtics with the additions of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to be a dominant force in the NBA Finals.

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