While I understand and somewhat agree with the sentiment that great coaches deal with imperfect situations...Brad Stevens is not a good example. He has two top 3 picks with Tatum and Brown along with an excellent supporting cast of Rozier, Smart and other role players. The Celtics have incredible depth behind Hayward and Irving, something the Gophers had zero of last year. While I agree that depth issues are ultimately on Pitino, the situations are certainly not apples to apples between the Gophers and Celtics.
It's the way Brad Stevens has utilized the Rozier's, Smart's, and other role players that is fascinating (to me).
Let's take a look at the depth that the Celtics have created and Brad Stevens has utilized brilliantly.
Terry Rozier? It's easy to look at him now and talk about the immense amount of depth he has provided, but look at his stats last year. He always did some things well, but there was no indication that this kind of player was in there.
Semi Ojeleye - He was a second round pick last year and he has provided good depth for the C's all year (16 mpg in regular season / 15 mpg in post season).
Greg Monroe - Yeah, he sort of fell in their lap, but he didn't join the team until February. It's important to note, a lot of other teams could have pursued him more aggressively as well.
Aron Baynes - He signed a very small contract in the offseason. He has been a pivotal addition to the Celtics.
Marcus Morris - Acquired for Avery Bradley (at the time the deal was mocked a bit as a bad move), but the deal opened up room for guys like Rozier, Smart, and Tatum to get max amount of minutes and added more frontline depth, especially frontline depth that could stretch the floor.
Larkin - Anyone could have signed this guy and no one wanted to. Stevens wanted Larkin because as much as he likes Rozier and Smart, he wanted to have more ball handling depth.
My point - - the precise thing Stevens and the Celtics have done incredibly has been Pitino's biggest weakness (IMO). The Celtics have found ways to add depth to the 9-13 parts of their lineup. When injuries hit, they had the depth to not completely crumble. I don't know if Boston comes out of the East this year, but they are unquestionably one of the better teams in the East without two of their best players. They have so much depth at the bottom of their depth chart that they could probably sustain ANOTHER injury and still be one of the better teams in the East.
Just to further go down the road of people defending Pitino. Where was this defense to Tubby? Pitino's bad luck here is a MN thing more than a Pitino thing. Tubby had seasons derailed by injuries to Al Nolen and Trevor Mbakwe. He had non-injury issues with Royce White, Devoe Joseph, Mo Walker, and Justin Cobbs. I understood not cutting Tubby slack for off-the-court issues, but how is the Reggie Lynch thing not partly on Pitino? How is the Dorsey-McBrayer-Mason thing not partly on Pitino?