Since Brad Stevens joined the Celtics prior to the 2013-14 season, his work with the team has been nearly universally praised league-wide. The Celtics overachieved often, perhaps most notably last year when they made an unexpectedly deep playoff run.

This season, for maybe the first time, skeptics have begun to question Stevens as the hyper-talented Celtics roster has underachieved. After taking a Nobody-Believed-In-Us type of squad to the Eastern Conference finals, this year’s team -- chalk full of current and future All-Stars -- scuffled in its own tracks for a variety of reasons.

But on Thursday, speaking with the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck expressed continued confidence in Stevens.

"Brad would be my top choice to coach the team -- if we were doing a search right now, he would be the hands-down winner,” Grousbeck told Himmelsbach. “I can’t be more impressed with Brad. He’s hung in there through ups and downs this year and he coaches basically 24/7 to an extremely high level. I’m very glad he’s a Celtic.

“The only criticism that matters comes from inside the organization, and he’s not experiencing any of that.”

Danny Ainge has expressed similar confidence in Stevens, despite the team’s struggles. Stevens, meanwhile, has tried to shoulder the responsibility for some of the team’s toughest losses at various times this season.

Stevens, for the record, is almost certainly not on the hot seat -- the Celtics are smart enough to recognize what a potential long-term asset they have in their talented young coach. While criticisms of Stevens are probably fair at the current juncture, don’t expect to see him go anywhere any time soon.

“We have the utmost confidence in what Brad does,” Aron Baynes told MassLive on Wednesday. “He’s such a great Xs and Os coach. As much confidence we have in him, he has in us.”