Robert Parish: Celtics HC Brad Stevens 'Getting a Little Too Much Praise'

Nobody's stock has risen higher during the 2018 NBA playoffs than Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens', but Celtics legend Robert Parish wondered if some are going a bit overboard in crediting Stevens for the team's success.

During an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Parish called Stevens a good coach but argued some of the praise for his acumen should be reserved for when he leads the Celtics to an NBA title:

Stevens, meanwhile, said the focus should be on his players during the postseason.

"It's silly. The praise is uncomfortable, and it's just something that these guys should be getting it all," Stevens said, per ESPN's Chris Forsberg. "We all have a role to play, and we all need to play that role as well as we can."

While Parish and Stevens both make good points, it's hard not to look at the past couple of years and see Stevens as the common denominator behind Boston's on-court success.

The Celtics had the best record in the Eastern Conference (53-29) last season, and they won two more games in 2017-18 despite missing Gordon Hayward for basically the entire year and seeing Kyrie Irving miss 22 games.

There's no question Stevens has maximized the talent at his disposal, with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown among the team's biggest surprises. Boston is three wins away from the NBA Finals, which is much further than anybody could've reasonably expected when the postseason started.

Should the Celtics fail to reach the NBA Finals this year, it feels like only a matter of time before they do get there, and Stevens is a big reason for the franchise's positive outlook.