Celtics' Brad Stevens Wins 2023-24 NBA Executive of the Year Award

After assembling a roster that won a league-best 64 games during the regular season, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has been voted 2023-24 NBA Executive of the Year.

Stevens received 16 first-place votes and 101 total points, finishing well ahead of Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti (four first-place votes, 47 total points).

Unlike most of the NBA's regular-season awards, which are voted on by media members, the Executive of the Year is determined from a vote of executives on all 30 teams.

The bar was already extremely high for the Celtics. They finished second in the Eastern Conference in each of the past two seasons, reaching the NBA Finals in 2022 and conference finals in 2023.

After losing to the Miami Heat in seven games in last year's Eastern Conference Finals, Stevens made two moves during the offseason to improve Boston's roster.

The first was initially seen as a questionable decision to acquire Kristaps Porziņģis in a three-team deal from the Washington Wizards and sending Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Smart was a limited offensive player, but he was regarded as the soul of the Celtics who also brought an edge on defense. Porziņģis played 65 games in his final year with the Wizards, but before that hadn't played more than 57 games in a season since 2016-17.

The other major move almost fell into Stevens' lap when Jrue Holiday became available immediately after he was initially traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Portland Trail Blazers as part of the Damian Lillard deal.

Stevens sent Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams and two first-round draft picks, including an unprotected selection in 2029, to Portland in exchange for Holiday.

Porziņģis, while he was limited to 57 games in the regular season, turned in the most efficient shooting season of his career. He connected on 51.6 percent of his field-goal attempts and had a career-best 64.7 true shooting percentage.

Holiday remains a defensive standout, replacing what Smart would have given the Celtics while shooting a career-high 42.9 percent from three-point range.

Per The Athletic's anonymous player survey conducted by Sam Amick and Josh Robbins, Holiday was voted the second-best defender in the league this season behind Victor Wembanyama.

When you combine what Porziņģis and Holiday brought on both ends of the court with the talent that was already in place, the Celtics were one of the best regular-season teams in NBA history. Their plus-11.6 net rating is tied with the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors for the third-best mark ever.

Stevens' promotion to president of basketball operations in June 2021 following Danny Ainge's decision to step down came as a surprise for many reasons, not least of which was because the 47-year-old had been so successful with a 354-282 record in eight years as Boston's head coach.

Since Stevens took over as the leader of the front office, the Celtics' 172 regular-season wins are the most in the NBA. No other team has more than 158 victories during that span.