Ahead of their duel with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens shared his thoughts on why the Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala acquisitions could go down as one of the best trade deadline moves ever.
After the Celtics' practice on Sunday, Stevens gave a breakdown of his observations on how Iguodala and Crowder have impacted the Heat's playstyle. With the two in the fold, the Erik Spoelstra-coached team has been able to play small-ball.
“Like, I think the opportunity for them to play small ball, with even more versatility, and to surround those great shooters with more skill, but also guys that could guard the best players on the other teams for multiple possessions for end of games, or those types of things, has added a great deal to their team,” Stevens said per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“It allowed them, a team that started big all year, it allowed them to start Adebayo at the five, with all that floor, that spacing,” he said. “Now everybody’s strengths are that much more amplified.”
Speaking on Crowder and Iguodala individually, Stevens said:
“They’re different players,” he said. “Jae is a little bit more of the rugged, physical, I guess, prototypical Miami Heat player.
“Andre just has so much world-class Finals experience. If you can add a guy like that to your mix, particularly with their young guys, that’s invaluable. You can’t even put a value on that. The amount of things he does to help you win, the analytics can’t even explain.”
The Eastern Conference Finals between the Heat and the Celtics will be on Tuesday.
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