How fearless Brad Stevens built a title contender with the Boston Celtics in his first year on the job

At the time he made his first move as the President of Basketball Operations of the Boston Celtics, former head coach Brad Stevens was seen as having made a necessary — but perhaps too costly — move to get off veteran point guard Kemba Walker’s salary in exchange for old frontcourt friend Al Horford.

It was a similar assessment when he traded wing Josh Richardson, shooting guard Romeo Langford, a first-round pick, and a pick swap for guard Derrick White, and again with the move that brought back big man Daniel Theis given the cap hit of his contract as a third center.

Yet when the dist settled, we found the Celtics one of the best teams in the league with realistic designs on contending, and that with a roster put together on a relatively cheap overall cost to the team’s payroll and asset collection.

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Host of the NBC Sports Boston “Celtics Talk’ podcast Chris Forsberg recently sat down with former Butler Head Coach Todd Lickliter to talk about Stevens’ path to and success in his new job — check out the clip embedded above to hear their conversation on the contender Brad built.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!