Up by 26, Joe Mazzulla went right up to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown after the timeout and was coaching them up
It’s been so vindicating watching Mazulla prove everyone who thought he was a roster merchant wrong. The dude is one of the single best coaches in the league and I’m not really sure how you can argue otherwise.
It would have been so easy to just run the same offense we ran the last 2 years but with Brown as the focal point. It would have been bad, but it would have been easy. This dude revamped the entire offensive scheme and large portions of the defensive scheme in a single off season resulting in a top 5 offense and defense, while also finding space throughout the season for all our young and/or inexperienced guys to get reps and develop into genuine impact players.
As long as Brad and Joe are in Boston they’re going to be competitive, full stop.
And when Tatum came back he managed to merge some of the old offense back in seamlessly. His usage of each Jay has been really smart, maximizing both of their strengths and letting them play off each other better.
I saw someone recently say he’s not an X’s and O’s coach because he’s not amazing at ATO’s… while that last part may be true his attention to detail and creativity in game planning is elite.
I think the ATO stuff is a little overblown because he’s sitting in Brad Stevens’s shadow who was the best damn ATO guy in the league. It’s definitely something he needs to work on but they haven’t been that bad.
They’ve definitely improved over time. He’s pretty good at them in general, but I do think that he tends to rely on creating an iso a little too much in low clock/clutch situations. Or that one play where Tatum starts in the backcourt and runs lol.
He’s pulled out some really nice ones mid game though, and the adjustment for Hugo’s buzzer beater against the Nets was insane.
But yes, it’s not a big deal. It’s only because he’s so elite at everything else (and Brad’s shadow, as you said) that it stands out.
ATOs are also such a small part of a coach’s job, too. Scheme, tactical adjustments, and mentality/discipline are way more important, and Joe’s been amazing at all three of those
Also it’s like, one of the easiest things to possibly fix. Like just have one guy on your 20 assistants staff who happens to be good at it. No one should be hiring or firing head coaches over ATO’s. I’d argue their success or lack thereof comes down to other things than how deep in their bag a HC can go. It’s not like the good ones out there aren’t available for anyone to just copy and use already.
I had the Celtics in the lottery, maybe play-in. Beyond proving us doubters wrong, this year is legacy shit whatever happens the rest of the playoffs. I’m also even more terrified of that man and vow to never make eye contact.
I knew Brown, White, and Pritchard would be too good to be a lottery team. But even the more optimistic fans here thought “oh we just need to make the playoffs and if JT comes back anything can happen.” I don’t think any of us had us as good enough to be the favorites in the East before JT even came back.
I thought we’d be somewhere between 6th and 10th in the east and right around .500, and people thought I was overconfident.
I put us in between 4-7 (more like 5-6 though) and of course mocked for that. My logic was simple: Pistons, Cavs, Magic, Knicks are better for sure (lol), so we might get lucky and pass one of them if they have troubles and get 4th seed at best, but also one or two teams like Atlanta or Toronto can get better and jump us. All I wanted was assuring top 6, getting Tatum back, pulling an upset in the first round and making a proud second round exit. That was the target in my mind as a very optimist fan lol
Excellent post! We fell into having Joe as our coach, and he has been awesome.
Forgot we were in r/nba as I was trying to understand the hate below for a hot second.
He is a great coach who keeps saying coaches don’t do anything because they’re not physically on the court.
He is simply trying to give praise to his players. No need for people to try and misunderstand it.
It’s been amusing to see everyone come around on him now, especially after all the hate he got for the Quizlet stuff. People were acting like he was a joke of a coach, but in less than 3 years he’s easily a top 3 coach in the league at minimum.
Has he really been getting hate? As a neutral fan, it seems like this sub has really liked him. He’s a bit of an odd guy with his soundbites but for the most part the vibe I’ve been getting is people think he’s a great coach.
Not recently no, he’s been pretty popular or at least accepted as one of the better coaches for probably 2 years now, with this season being the first I’m seeing a lot of people say he’s top 3 or even best coach in the league now.
The first season was completely different though, lots of hate back then even in our own team sub.
Personally for me, even as a Raptors fan, he’s made me want to tune into Celtics games last few seasons. Definitely one of my favorite coaches in the league.
I think maybe people have been writing off Celtics success due to roster but this season showed it’s really a whole culture that goes into their winning, not just Tatum and Brown, and he’s finally starting to get some credit.
Bill Simmons didn’t call him “second row Joe” as a compliment
only the celtics fans have been against him since the beginning so you’ll just see them projecting r/nba
Brother, I used to have DOZENS of comments saved from Mavs flairs insisting yall had the coaching advantage in the finals, be so for real rn
check those flairs again and report back again if they’re not lakers. but i used to go on celtics sub to defend mazzulla to counter y’all
Nah this was back on an old username during that dead week waiting for the finals to start. All pre Luka trade. In the Mavs sub.
I mostly can’t fault fans for being delusional in their own sub, because that’s the whole point of sports. But the idea that only Celtics fans were the only ones hating on Joe is legit crazy and I had to say something.
I remember there were convos that he should be out as coach after he lost to Miami his first year. I truly believe he’s the best coach in the NBA right now, Kerr and Spolstra have the legacy but I don’t think there’s a coach right now who I’d say could outcoach Mazzula.
You’re so right about him and Stevens, and the best thing for Boston is Mazzula is 37 and Stevens is 49, things can change fast in the NBA but these guys could be in Boston for a long long time. Since trading Pierce Boston has missed the playoffs once, i don’t see them ever missing it again as long as these two are still in charge. Joe truly could be the next Belichick in Boston.
The year we lost to Miami he found out he would be the head coach two days before training camp started after our whole staff had been raided by other organizations. We undeniably underperformed that season (wild to say about a team who lost game 7 of the ECF) but the context matters.
Obviously the roster the next season was otherworldly but Joe had his fingerprints all over the chip. Custom tailored defensive schemes for all four playoff opponents and some extremely well drilled ones at that. An off season to prepare and rebuild his assistant staff went a long way.
Don’t forget that, of the coaches we had left for that season, literally all of them, were Udoka guys and they all hated Second Row Joe for getting promoted over them. And then they all left in the offseason to follow Ime to Houston.
Joe was basically solodoloing a conference finals run, and dummies on this website insist he was close to getting fired. Brad would never do that, which is why y’all’s teams suck and the Celtics don’t.
I hate to admit this as a sixers fan but he’s a great coach. Most franchises would have just accepted a rebuild year when one of your stars goes down with an Achilles but here they are #2 seed and looking like ECF favorites
He’s like the anti-Doc Rivers, he has no ego, and it let’s him focus fully on creating a winning team.
“oh you never heard of me? good, don’t look me up. just follow these plays that I actually took the time to write out and plan along with my staff that deserves more credit.”
To your point about Joe and Brad; they’re both relatively young for their roles and can keep this going for at least 15 years.
every time I remember Brad isn’t even 50 yet is a shock to the system
Looking at his face is the exact opposite. Hard to believe the guy is actually about to be 50. He looks to be in his late 30s at most.
Then his impact makes it feel like he’s been doing this longer than he’s been.
Schrodinger’s Brad
babyface brad
I still love the story of him talking to Josh McDaniels about how they run pre-snap motions on the Patriots offense to see if there’s any edge he can give to his team from the NFL
Psychotic love of the game
Starts with Brad, he’s making the hiring decisions and seems in all aspects to be a great talent evaluator
I was a mozzarella hater. He proved me so fuckin wrong man and I love it ngl
Where was this brilliant coaching when he blew two leads to ny at home 😂😂😂
Do you have an actual argument here or is your point just that the injury riddled Celtics went ice cold from three twice last year?
yes that his coaching sucked last Playoffs
Turns out it’s really difficult to coach around your team being riddled with injuries and everyone going ice cold from three.
Also turns out that one of the marks of a great coach is learning from their mistakes, something Mazulla has very clearly done. He has evolved the offense to address the weaknesses that the Knicks exploited last year and it is far more resilient to cold shooting nights. There is far more movement, motion, and complex screening actions that keep teams in rotation off-ball while JT and JB work in isolation
Okays fair points
Focus on your own teams issues next time
Which was a season after he won a championship. Charlotte fans know all too well about blowing leads as well but will never know what winning a playoff series feel like
Winnin with the most stacked Celtics roster since 2008 ain’t the flex u think it is 😂
That’s exactly the roster you’re supposed to win with and he did.
U got Stockholm from 81⁄86 😂😂😂
Obviously winning can’t be a flex for you, when all you do is lose 😂
Youv won 2 rings since bird retired. Actin like yall the lakers😂😂😂
2 more than you ll ever see in your life time 😂
Doubt it 🤓
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 keep dreaming
Ty for Charles 😘😘😘
Dude cmon it’s embarrassing seeing someone be worse than Celtics fans
If you win a ring, odds are your team is stacked. How many teams have won in the last 20 or so years that people wouldnt say are stacked/deep? We’ve also seen plenty of stacked teams fail. Winning is hard.
it ain’t a flex is all I said not that the ring ain’t valid
Yep, that’s a coach coaching his players like a coach.
In fact, it’s being reported that this is the coachiest coach to every coach.
Some teams have had stars who openly proclaim they don’t really need coaches. They ARE the coaches. Having a team respect your coaching is still pretty coachy.
Why doesn’t he just insult them like Ime? is he stupid?
Bro he coached so hard here! Most coachinest coach coaching today
My favorite part is when Joe Mazzula says “it’s coachin’ time” and proceeds to coach all over those guys
That is unironically my favorite part
Makes you miss the Malone days eh?
Yes. Yes, I do.
The absolute madman!
The man truly has no chill.
But it works, he’s probably the best coach in the league.
I wonder what would happen if Pep and Joe met and started talking tactics, I think they would be kindred souls lmao
Well, you’d be happy to know that Mazulla went to Manchester to meet with Pep and Pep went to Boston during the NBA Finals to meet Mazulla. Apparently they have a close relationship
Of course they did and of course they are.
I knew he was fond of football so he had an eye for it and he supported Brazil during their recent friendly in Boston v France, love the cross-sport friendship.
He draws from a lot of other sports. He talked about how you can see Jokic’s background playing water polo in his basketball style and same for Embiid and soccer.
He’s top 3, and he ain’t 2 or 3
Helps when your best players buy in and set the tone for the team
I hate how lovable this team is, they’re just amazing from the FO down to the 15th man. Just a competent organization with great basketball character.
With that said…FUCK BOSTON, FUCK DANNY AINGE AND FUCK THR CELTICS!
Fuck the Celtics outside of everyone on the Celtics
Fuck the concept of the Celtics?
Fuck the lakers besides our glorious guy Mahcus Smaht☘️
Ainge was a master at getting a war chest but nowadays honestly I think he was the limiter for us during the early tatum/brown years, the moment brad came in he said NO MORE UNDERSIZED GUARDS and we pretty much won a championship off of the back of that
Except Pritchard because he’s cool like that (and also strong af)
Pritchard was a Danny Ainge pick still. It’s just that he went to the Marcus Smart School of how to use a low center of gravity to your advantage.
Coach of the year.
Regular Psycho Joe for me
Psycho Joe might genuinely end up being the best coach of all time. And I say this as a lifelong Spurs fan.
To get to that level you need to rings and in this nba it’s just so hard. Not just 1-2. Like 3+.
I can see the Celtics being the favorites out of the East for the next 6 years. He’s got a shot.
Theyre missing a solid big to get the consistency.
i feel the same way but with the way the eastern conf bigs are now no rush for boston to get a quality big. we’ll see in the next 3 years with the maturity of ware and duren and how guys like mobley and diabate develop. if queta develops to be a consistent big over the years boston is good
Red Auerbach basically invented half the techniques you see on a basketball court on any given day, and coached his team to 8 consecutive championships.
I know people don’t respect old heads anymore but let’s slow our roll a little bit lol
Man I wish we had a team ran this well. Joe Mazulla is easily a top 3 coach in the league and is pretty close to being my number 1 right now.
So many coaches do this sort of thing, why are people repeatedly in awe of a coach coaching lol
I like Mazzula and think he’s great, but this is basically “coach coaches player”. Like a lot of coaches just stop paying attention or helping players improve because of the score of the game or what?
A coach doing his job🥹🫶🏼
Coach did job?
When was the last time Sacramento had a competent coach?
Mike Malone
Coach coaches. Is that the bar?
One will say I’m reaching, but dude wants to be seen, despite what he says. They’re making their way to the bench and you can tell JB is tired. Why have them stand at the 3 point line when they can have a seat and be spoken to.
You’re reaching sorry brother lol.
The simplest answer to your question would be, he wanted to speak to them in private about something and not in front of the entire team
That makes sense