Celtics Notes: Grousbeck, Stevens, Draft

Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck believes in the team’s plan to rebuild through the draft, writes Sam Amick of USA Today. Grousbeck said, “I’m not used to being out of the playoffs. I remember being back to the building phase back from ’03 to ’07, and we knew in ’03 that we didn’t have a team that was capable of winning. So we changed the coach and the general manager and really started over just building through the draft, with the goal eventually of maybe making a couple of transformative trades. And that’s really how it played out in ’07. So we really think we’re going to do the exact same thing. We’re going to draft and be patient and provide the payroll and support and steady hand necessary to bring this back, because I’m only interested in banners. I named my company ‘Banner 17’ – we got that one (championship in 2008). I might as well name it Banner 18, because that’s all we’re interested in.”

More from Boston:

• In the same Amick article, when asked about his timetable for the team to contend, Grousbeck said, “Nothing would make me happier than to be contending next year. We went from basically worst to first in ’07-’08. Having said that, this is going to be a multi-year process. We’ve got a young core that we’re excited about. We’ve got picks (seven first-rounders in the next three drafts) and a GM and a coach that looks like a recipe for a lot of success in the future, but it doesn’t look like it’s an overnight success. So we’re prepared for the long haul, but we’d love to accelerate it if we could.”
• If you ask Celtics coach Brad Stevens about the who the team might add in the draft, he’ll tell you developing the players already on the roster is just as important, writes Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Stevens said, “I got asked just today, ‘What would you like to see us add’ with regard to positional need or shooting or whatever the case may be. We’ll get focused on some of those things but we also need to focus on the guys that are here and the guys that will be here — because they can all get better and they’ve all proven themselves to be really valuable.“
• Brad Stevens’ college ties might make him the best talent evaluator in the organization heading into the draft, writes Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald. Stevens had recruited many of this year’s draft entries while at Butler, plus has closer ties to high school and prep coaches than most NBA executives, writes Murphy.