“It was (finding) guys that really cared about winning and they came to work, and that was what they did.”

The Athletic: How Brad Stevens’ Butler days provided blueprint to build Celtics into champions
(Free link as the NBA has it up in full on it's website)

This article is 7 months old, but I keep coming back to it in light of our well the team is performing this season.

Additionally, it’s interesting just to get a peak into Brad’s mindset in regard to team building in general.

Searching, I couldn't find that it was posted here, so I wanted to share. I hope that's okay!

Some parts that stood out to me for the TL;DR crowd:

Since they couldn’t necessarily target five-star recruits, they needed to create their own edge.

“We were very particular with our recruiting,” Graves said.

Butler typically sought players from winning programs. It wanted players willing to put the team above individual success. When the assistants under Stevens attended high school games or AAU games to recruit, they weren’t just evaluating a player’s physical gifts or basketball IQ. They observed how players handled themselves in huddles. How they dealt with problems on the court. How they behaved when they were on the bench or in foul trouble.

[…]

“The biggest thing in looking for guys was, did they fit the team concept?” said Graves, now the head coach at Indiana State. “And what I mean by that is, were they competitors? Did they care about winning? And were they great teammates? How did they act when they weren’t playing well or when things weren’t going well for them?”

[…]

Johnson, now an assistant at Purdue, said he would go to schools and ask teachers and janitors about a player. Coaches and parents would usually praise a player to anyone recruiting him, but someone else might share more useful information.

“Are you a snob?” Johnson explained. “Is your chest too big, too high, when you walk through the hallway to talk to people? Or, if you’re walking by pieces of trash, would you pick it up? We looked out for things like that. Or even something as simple as how do you warm up? Does somebody need to motivate you or are you bringing energy to your teammates?”

[…]

Stevens wanted versatile players. He wanted skilled big men. He wanted lineups with multiple ballhandlers. He wanted winners who would habitually do the right things.

Stevens cared about how the pieces fit together on and off the court. In recruiting, he instructed his assistant coaches to trust their own vision for how a player would fit in the program.

“That approach was more like putting a puzzle together,” said Johnson.

Stevens told his assistants not to worry about recruiting rankings or any media reaction. He wanted them to look at a player’s strengths, not necessarily their weaknesses. How would that player fill a Butler need? He encouraged his assistants to think outside the box and believe in their evaluations.

[…]

“He really just wants to be around good people, people of high character,” said Johnson. “And that’s where it starts, getting the right guys on the bus. And then, from a basketball standpoint, he tries to prioritize individual growth. And then, collectively, we all achieve something bigger than ourselves.”

In conclusion: In Brad we trust.