They have now lost six of eight falling to the Hawks last night.

Atlanta's been beating some good teams, but remember, no camera, no smart or no Langford last night.

Stephen.

A.

Talk to me.

Do you think Brad Stevens should be feeling the heat and be on the hot seat at this point?

Um, yeah, because I think he is feeling the heat.

I think it's really, um, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has been making around locally, uh, talking about the team.

He tried not to point the finger at Brad Stevens, but he did highlight that he believes that this team is talented enough that they're about winning, Uh, that you know that the situation right now is unacceptable.

He expected better from them.

He believes he's got a roster that mandates they should be better than how they have looked.

Um, you've got Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.

Two young stars in this league, no doubt hold on the ball a little bit too long, which will explain while they're 28 while they're 28th out of 30 teams in the NBA in terms of assists that just not passing the ball and distributing the ball with the fluid ity that they need to do it, and we all get that.

But in the end, maybe they're not doing it because they don't have faith in the people around them because they don't believe in what's transpiring as we speak to certainly is not a problem that they had in the past.

Why the hell would they have it now?

They're having it now because they don't believe in the people around them or they don't believe in the system that Brad Stevens has implemented.

And Brad Stevens?

Like I said before, I think he's a damn good coach.

He knows his X's and O's.

I thought it was a tremendous higher on Danny Angels part years ago to grab him from the University of Butler, where he took them.

Ah, small school tow back to back national title game appearances.

Uh, I have tremendous respect for Brad Stevens, and I hope it works out for him.

But I think last night in that post game conference, the things that you saw him say and the manner in which he spoke, if you cover Brad Stevens and people Max in Boston would be more after more qualified to speak about this than me but idea venture to say, I've never seen him come across that way.

He came across to somebody who's thoroughly concerned about what's transpiring there, and Danny Ainge alluded to.

This is, Well, he spoke to a lack of effort.

Let me tell y'all something right now.

In all my years of coach of covering sports, anytime unexamined, a tive speaks about lack of effort.

That is an indictment against the coach.

There is no way around it when they're when they say it's a lack of effort.

That is the coach's job.

The coach's job is to make sure that the one thing you never say is that his teams don't look like they're playing hard.

They don't look like they care enough.

It doesn't look like it matters to them as much as it should, even though those exact words were not use because I don't have the quote from Danny Ainge right in front of me.

I can assure you what I heard him say alluded to those things.

That is when a coach is in trouble because I'm here to tell you something right now.

They had a chance to get James Harden before, you know, before he was traded to Brooklyn, the Houston Rockets.

I'm telling you what my sources told me.

The Houston Rockets wanted Jalen Brown and Marcus Smart.

Danny Ainge wasn't trying to hear that, because Danny Ainge believes that what he has is good enough to compete for a championship.

I personally interviewed Jalen Brown on on on my SportsCenter show with Stephen A.

At the beginning of the season.

What was he talking about?

Championship expectations, Nothing less.

And here they are, a game below 500.

It is unacceptable.

They are better than that.

Regardless of Kemba situation and Marcus Smart situation.

They are better than a 500 team, and they are one game below 500.

That is unacceptable.

Brad Stevens knows it.

Danny Ainge knows it.

And even though Danny Age tried to point the finger at himself in the end, we know he don't mean that we know what he means.

He's talking about Brad Stevens.

Brad Stevens could be in trouble if he doesn't get the steered in the right direction.

But I'm rooting for him to do so because I really like him and I really think he's a good coach.

But you gotta be able to galvanize the troops and make sure you peel out of them what's inside of them.

If you're a head coach and being a leader of men.

And this year that has not shown to be the case.

I think he's in trouble.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

Subscribe to ESPN plus.