Brad Stevens on his rotation philosophy

WEEI's Ben Rohrbach had a nice sit down interview/podcast with Brad Stevens and they touched on a lot of great subjects. Nothing too surprising, but good insights into his coaching philosophy and his approach heading into the season.

One thing that stood out to me was the fact that he's (rightfully) not going to just "play the kids" because we're rebuilding. That's a dangerous precedent and one that I've heard contributed to the spoiled brat attitude that Andre Blatche displayed in Washington (though you could argue that he didn't need any help in that regard). Still, it only makes sense to make guys "earn it."

Green Street " 18 things we learned from the Brad Stevens podcast

Game action for young players is a bit overrated: "You have to perform in practice to be able to perform in the game. There are some people who I do think are ‘a gamer,’ but if you don’t bring it in your preparation, if you don’t spend time on your preparation and if you don’t work on your own game, study your opponent, commit to however your team is playing, then you’ll have a ceiling on yourself. And I think at the end of the day, you’re looking for guys who won’t accept the ceiling and will just continue to strive and be the very best that they can be."

The starting lineup is nowhere near determined: "I really don't give that a lot of thought in general. One of the reasons why is because you don't necessarily always start the five guys that are going to finish the game. You don't start the five games who are maybe the best five. You may start the best couple and then the guys who complement them. You just find that out as you go through the early season.

With all that said, he had words of praise for young players like Olynyk and Phil Pressey and there are a lot of young players that have already proven that they can go about their job the right way and earn playing time. Just don't be surprised to see Wallace and Humphries (assuming they are still on the team) playing minutes - at times ahead of the younger players.

Check out the whole article at the link above or find the podcast here.