LAS VEGAS -- When Kyrie Irving returns to the TD Garden next season, Boston Celtics fans are going to treat him to one of the more resounding choruses of boos in recent memory.

But the coach who spent two season with Irving will not be as angry as the fans. Brad Stevens, speaking to reporters at Las Vegas Summer League on Tuesday, said he harbors no ill feelings for the star point guard who left the Celtics to sign with the Brooklyn Nets this offseason.

“I don’t know there’s anything anyone individually necessarily feels like they should have done or could have done,” Stevens said. “That’s part of free agency. You can go where you want at the end of the day. I enjoyed Kyrie. I like Kyrie, and I wish him nothing but health and success. I think any time you go through a year like we went through where you don’t necessarily meet expectations -- on some years that might be a good year, but on others it’s not -- I think there’s probably going to be some change. And I don’t fault him one bit for choosing to follow whatever he wants to do. That’s his right.”

After a disappointing season, Irving’s decision seemed all but certain once the Celtics bowed out in the second round against the Milwaukee Bucks. Recent reports (spurred on by New York Knicks forward Bobby Portis) suggest Irving’s mind may have been made up even earlier, perhaps as early as February. It was back in February that cameras caught Irving and Kevin Durant speaking in a hallway during the All-Star break in Charlotte. Irving chafed at reporters when questioned about it.

“It’s a video of me and one of my best friends talking,” Irving said at the time. “And then it turns out to be a dissection of a free-agency meeting? Do you get that? Like, do you get that? And then I’m asked questions about that? That’s what disconnects me from all that s---.”

Still, as it turns out, Durant and Irving did team up in Brooklyn -- Durant’s decision followed closely on the heels of Irving’s, and both agreed to deals as free agency opened on June 30. Stevens said he didn’t speak to Irving after the season, although the two spoke regularly during the year.

“I don’t really look at it from the standpoint of where we lost, what part of the season we lost in,” Stevens said, when asked to reflect on his time with the All-Star. “It’s just you spend two years together, you wish him well and you move on.”

The Celtics also lost Al Horford, who departed for the Philadelphia 76ers. That move was significantly more surprising, both to fans and (reportedly) to the front office, which hoped to re-sign Horford on a multi-year deal after he opted out of the final year of his contract.

“Obviously Al was great here," Stevens said. "We loved Al, we wanted him back. Again, it’s his choice. He can go do what he wants to do and there’s a lot of factors that end up helping these guys making those decisions. But he’s a heck of a player and did a great job here in the three years he was here.”