Brad Stevens reveals why 'boring' deadline was part of Celtics' plan

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BOSTON — The 2025 NBA trade deadline featured several staggering trades that shocked the NBA world. However, none of those moves came from the reigning champion Boston Celtics. With the deadline now passed, Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens explained why the C’s stood pat and decided to double down on their core.

“In our situation, with our team this year, today was boring as hell,” Stevens joked during a Thursday night press conference. “There wasn’t going to be anything going and, you know, the phones didn’t ring. We had already had any discussions that we were probably going to have, and we just weren’t going to do anything major.”

Through 51 games, the Celtics are 36-15 overall, just three games shy of their record at this point of the 2023-24 season. That victorious campaign ended with Boston winning its 18th championship in franchise history and bringing back all of its major pieces in the short offseason.

Although the Celtics are on a four-game winning streak, it started the new year 5-4 and couldn’t find any sort of rhythm. Yet, Stevens never lost hope, and that’s a major reason why the Celtics are defending champs.

“At the end of the day, even through our ups and downs over the last six weeks, like, what gives us our best chance of having a chance to win? And that is this group playing a little bit more like itself more of the time,” he stated. “And so, I’m encouraged by kind of where we’re headed with that. Never really wavered in our belief in that.”

Brad Stevens sounded a little like Joe Mazzulla talking about the "fun" challenge of competing for championships:

"It's a great challenge. But that's the fun part. We believe that this group can do it." pic.twitter.com/PjbWiQHHBk

— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) February 6, 2025

Just how strong is Brad Stevens’ faith in the Celtics?

Before capturing banner No. 18, the Celtics fell short numerous times. Led by stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the C’s lost to the dynastic Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals and disappointed in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals versus the eighth-seeded Miami Heat. These setbacks would’ve made a less patient general manager panic, but Stevens stayed the course and continued to build around Tatum and Brown.

“I mean, we have to play better, and there are several reasons why we probably haven’t,” he admitted. “But we believe in this group.”

Stevens’ current plan is to trust what he’s built and maximize the Green Team’s championship window. It won’t be easy, as the new CBA punishes big spenders and the Celtics certainly fit that label thanks to massive contracts for Tatum, Brown, starting guard Derrick White, and other key pieces. Boston is over the second apron and may be severely limited in the trade market and have a few draft picks frozen in the near future.

“We’re in this window where we’re really willing and been willing to put all of our resources towards trying to be as good as we can be, and you’re weighing that against your pick being frozen for one year or two years,” he said. “And you just have to weigh that. It’s just like any other cost-benefit … You certainly feel limited. But I didn’t really care as much at this deadline, because we were planning on limiting ourselves because we like our team.”

The aforementioned second-apron restrictions won’t stop Stevens from attempting to upgrade his roster, which was short two players right after the deadline. That’s because Boston dealt bench guard Jaden Springer on Wednesday to the Houston Rockets for two second-round picks. Houston has since waived Springer.

“We have 13 guys right now, we’ll probably do something with a 14th relatively soon,” Stevens revealed. “And then we’ll take our time with the 15th and really assess our health and needs and those type of things as we go on, and [I] won’t get into any particular players. I think all of our guys have done a great job. It will be more based on the needs of the Celtics.”

The former Celtics head coach later divulged that one of those “needs” would be a wing, likely backing up Tatum and Brown.

“I think the first thing that we’ll look to do is bring in a wing,” he mentioned.

Stevens immediately delivered on that promise, bringing in Bulls forward Torrey Craig, per Shams Charania of ESPN.

No matter what the Celtics do with their final roster spot, they should be in good shape to contend for another title.

The road to repeating is undoubtedly tougher, as teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder boast better records than the Celtics, but it’s not unmanageable. And Stevens’ stamp of approval shows that every Celtic, from the coaching staff to the front office, is confident in their ability to run it back.

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