The Boston Celtics officially announced a bombshell on Wednesday morning after their elimination from the playoffs, with Brad Stevens taking over for Danny Ainge has president of basketball operations.
While this move seemingly came out of nowhere, it apparently was in the works for quite some time. Ainge was thinking about resigning for a few months, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, even talking about succession plans with ownership.
Meanwhile, Stevens had grown weary from coaching ever since the Orlando bubble last year. The move to the front office will give him something of a fresh start and won't be quite as much of a grind, though obviously there's still plenty of work to be done.
Stevens will embark on a quest to find his replacement to be the Celtics' next head coach. Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd is just one of the early names rumored to be involved in the search.
Then, Stevens will have to work on retooling the roster around the young star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the latter of whom is currently recovering from wrist surgery. Kemba Walker is going to be hard to move because of his decline, leaving Marcus Smart as a more likely trade chip. A decision has to be made on Evan Fournier's free agency after he was acquired right before the trade deadline.
Boston is still in a solid spot thanks to Tatum and Brown, but Stevens doesn't have the easiest task ahead of him as he tries to build a championship contender.
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