Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has a small sign above his desk with a simple collection of questions: What do you want? What’s true? And how do you get there?
He considered those questions as he began to assess this season, and where his team goes from here.
“There’s no question what we want,” Stevens said. “There’s no question, when you look at what’s true, that, though we did a lot of good things, we lost in the first round. And we were also 3-11 against the top three seeds in the West and the other top two in the East. And so, we’ve got to get better.”
At his end-of-season news conference Wednesday, Stevens discussed the team’s first-round loss to the 76ers, reports of Jaylen Brown’s dissatisfaction, the next stage of Boston’s championship pursuit, and other topics. Here are the highlights:
⋅ Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, a close acquaintance of Brown’s, said on a podcast this week that Brown has become frustrated with the Celtics organization. The source of those alleged frustrations was unclear, but Stevens said Brown had not relayed any discontent to him.
“I talked to Jaylen Monday a little bit . . . and was nothing but positive,” Stevens said. “He has not expressed those frustrations to me. We’ve been here 10 years together, and I do think that, obviously, I love JB, and everybody around here loves JB, and I think just like any of our other guys, as we get to the end of the season, I’ll be here, and my door is always open.”
⋅ On Sunday, Celtics star Jayson Tatum said it was unsurprising that he began to experience the left leg tightness that forced him to miss Game 7, less than two months after returning from last May’s Achilles injury. He pointed out that he was playing every other day, and that his playing time had swelled quickly.
Tatum reached the 37-minute mark in his 10th game back and played 39 minutes in five of the seven games before Game 6 against the Sixers, which he departed early. Stevens said the Celtics’ training and sports science staffs created a detailed program for Tatum, adding to his workload late in the regular season to prepare him for the playoffs.
“Do we think that had an impact on his knee stiffness and the injury in Game 6? Hard to tell, but you can’t cross it off,” Stevens said. “So we have to look at that. I know that they will. I feel really comfortable that they worked their butts off to try to get everybody on the court. And they did an amazing job with JT and he did an amazing job all year and to be able to play a lot, if needed.”
Stevens said it was obvious that Tatum struggled with soreness at the end of Game 6. The forward tried to complete a workout on Saturday morning, prior to Game 7 that night.
“I watched it, and [he] clearly didn’t feel right,” Stevens said. “It’s not like a long, long-term concern, but it certainly didn’t look right when he was working out, and didn’t feel right. So it made sense to be smart about that. I mean, I think the obvious answer is any time you’re coming back from an injury like he was coming from, there’s a tendency to overcompensate, and there’s probably a little bit of that there.”
⋅ Stevens offered a frank assessment of the first-round loss. On offense, the Celtics struggled to get open looks against a pesky 76ers defense, and that Philadelphia’s offense “made it really hard on us.” He added that the 76ers, in many ways, controlled the series, particularly after star center Joel Embiid returned in Game 4.
The Celtics emerged as an elite offensive rebounding team this season, but that advantage mostly vanished during the defining games of this series.
“I thought that probably one of the defining things that they did to us in Games 5-7 was they cleaned up the glass, which had been a real boost for us,” Stevens said. “Our first-shot offense wasn’t very good the whole series, but we really got a lot of good looks on second chances and off the glass, and I thought they did a really good job.”
⋅ The Celtics’ reliance on the 3-point shot was exposed. In its four losses, Boston connected on just 49 of 179 attempts (27.4 percent). Stevens also hinted that some offseason personnel adjustments could be needed to help diversify the attack.
“We certainly shot some bad ones,” Stevens said. “I’m not telling you we didn’t. There’s no question about that. But I also thought we shot some really hard shots at the rim and some really hard shots in the midrange, too. And I don’t necessarily fault anyone for that, other than a credit to Philly’s defense. And we’ve got to do a good job as we build out the roster to have more options.”
Stevens said that most of all, the team must find ways to generate good looks on its first shots, including being more impactful at the rim.
“So we’ve got to figure out a way to do better in that,” he said, “and I think that one of the things that we’ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And I think we do need to add to our team to do that.”
⋅ Joe Mazzulla almost certainly will be named NBA Coach of the Year in the coming days, but he has lost series as a higher-seeded team in three of the last four seasons. Stevens was asked about Mazzulla’s standing within the organization.
“I think our coaching staff, like all of us, can continue to improve and get better,” he said. “That said, I think they’re very good. And we need to continue to provide them the resources to grow and to get better and to continue to be the best that we can be.”
⋅ Veteran center Nikola Vucevic, whom the Celtics acquired from the Bulls in February, never truly found a rhythm with Boston. He missed a month with a broken finger and appeared to be a clunky fit at times after he returned. Vucevic, the team’s lone unrestricted free agent, did not play in Game 7.
“I thought that Vooch gave us all that he had and did what we asked, and it was a hard matchup,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for Vooch as a person and as a pro. I thought he was really good in our locker room. I thought he was a really good person to have around.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.