Brad Stevens wants to find a ‘big wing’, but that player could already be in the building

Brad Stevens spoke to reporters after Thursday’s observe and acknowledged that whereas he’s at all times searching for alternatives to enhance the roster, he’s additionally wanting internally at potential candidates for elevated minutes.

Stevens defined that whereas he’s monitoring exterior alternatives each day, this specific Celtics crew has already made its massive splash when it acquired Jrue Vacation the day earlier than coaching camp.

Photograph by Brian Babineau/NBAE through Getty Photographs

“Yearly round this time, you’re how can we enhance to offer ourselves the perfect likelihood?,” Stevens mentioned. “There are alternative ways to do it. Clearly, you may enhance inside, and we are able to do higher at what we do on each ends of the courtroom, and hopefully make strides individually and in how we match collectively. Then, you may enhance from free company and trades or no matter. I do suppose that the important thing to us goes to be enchancment from inside.”

Stevens recognized including one other massive wing to be his specific rotation precedence.

“I want to proceed to see how we are able to discover one other massive wing or so that may assist us, and I feel that may be from inside,” Stevens mentioned. “I additionally suppose we’ll proceed to watch free company and trades, however once more, the distinction on this 12 months and possibly different years is that our instruments are fairly restricted from a {dollars} standpoint.”

However, as he evaluated his choices forward of the February midseason commerce deadline, Stevens doesn’t wish to disrupt the crew’s chemistry, both. The Celtics completed the month of December with an NBA-best 12-2 file, and proceed to take care of the perfect file within the league (27-6).

Returning gamers like Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet have largely excelled of their roles, persevering with to play effectively with each other and throughout the Celtics’ system.

“Whenever you add gamers to your crew, they will add to your crew, or take away out of your crew,” Steven mentioned. “You’ve simply obtained to watch out. That’s one thing to consider when you’ve gotten as many guys which might be complementing one another in addition to ours.”

The subsequent month will function a superb alternative for Stevens to judge his choices on the ‘guys within the constructing’, as he likes to name it.

For reference, the Celtics’ present assortment of back-up wings embrace:

• Sam Hauser, who has excelled off the bench this season and has turn out to be a fixture of the bench unit. Hauser is capturing 42.2% from three and averaging 8.5 factors per recreation, all whereas excelling throughout the Celtics protection as effectively.
• Lamar Stevens, who has traditionally been identified for his protection, Lamar Stevens began 25 video games for the Cavaliers final season. Stevens has seen simply 60 recreation minutes to date this season, however has been fairly productive in these. His per 40 minute averages are 19.3 factors, 9.3 rebounds, and 17.8 assists. Small pattern, however he’s contributed effectively .
• Oshae Brissett, who spent the final three seasons with Indiana and have become a daily rotation participant there. Brissett has been a sometimes-rotation participant, and has gotten about 190 minutes of motion to date this season. His per 40 minutes averages are 10.9 factors, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, and he’s caught fireplace from downtown as of late, hitting 5 of his final 7 three-pointers.
• Svi Mykhailiuk, who has not but seen a lot motion this season after discovering his manner as a starter for the Hornets late final season. Svi has performed 99 minutes however has struggled offensively in restricted time, capturing simply 28.1% from the sphere and 19.2% from three.
• Jordan Walsh, the 19-year-old drafted with the #38 decide, who has spent many of the 12 months in Maine. Walsh is placing up 15.2 factors, 6 rebounds, and a couple of assists per recreation. It’s unlikely he’ll get referred to as on this 12 months, however supplies one other “in-house” choice.
• Drew Peterson, who’s an undrafted rookie out of USC that was signed to a two-way take care of the Celtics final month, and has been a standout on the Maine Celtics, averaging 16.7 factors per recreation. He’s a sharpshooter that has described himself as an all-around participant who does the little issues.

Stevens mentioned January’s tough schedule will possible present a possibility for extra end-of-bench guys, a gaggle that has typically been known as the “Keep-Prepared” group. How these guys fare might assist Stevens decide if he must look exterior the present roster for back-up wing minutes earlier than the February 9 commerce deadline.

“We simply should be looking out for a way we are able to fortify, how we are able to make it higher,” Stevens mentioned. “I don’t wish to say that particular person shouldn’t be within the constructing as a result of they is likely to be proper now. I’ve been very inspired when our bench has gotten in video games, how they’ve helped us.”