Joe Mazzulla is putting his stamp on Celtics and it’s being noticed: ‘He’s more comfortable’

https://theathletic.com/4951398/2023/10/11/joe-mazzulla-celtics-coach-al-horford/?source=freedailyemail&campaign=601983



Joe Mazzulla is putting his stamp on Celtics and it’s being noticed: ‘He’s more comfortable’



By Jay King
4h ago




BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla took over as the Boston Celtics head coach last season in what he now calls survival mode. After learning shortly before training camp that he would replace Ime Udoka in that role, Mazzulla didn’t have time to worry about anything other than the most pressing details. He plunged straight into the season without much chance to implement the changes he would have otherwise wanted.

Now, at the beginning of his second season, Mazzulla has had more of an opportunity to reshape the team with his vision. His returning players have noticed some early differences in his approach.

“In my opinion, now he is more comfortable,” Al Horford told The Athletic. “I believe last year he managed it as well as you can possibly do it. I felt like he did a great job last year. And I think that this year it’s just him putting his imprint on the team (with) how he wants things.”

Given the rare circumstances surrounding the start of Mazzulla’s tenure, Horford believes it is only natural the coach waited until his second season to tweak certain details. Horford said the new ideas became evident when the Celtics started to funnel back into the team’s practice facility in late August and early September. Mazzulla modified parts of the players’ day-to-day schedule, including their regimens on the court and in the weight room. The adjustments helped produce what Horford called the best pre-training camp atmosphere he has ever experienced with the Celtics.

“And it has carried on,” Horford said after a recent practice. “Here is just completely different: how it feels, how it looks. Obviously, it was good before, but it’s very clear that he has put his imprint on how he wanted things to be. … We had a good culture, but I think that (he is) really setting the tone on the details and the things that he expects and that he wants in every facet of what we do.

“Weight room, on the court, preparation — there’s a lot of layers that go into it. And with him getting the job a couple of days before training camp last year, it’s kind of hard to establish all that. So that’s what I’m seeing right now.”


In Mazzulla’s second season, Sam Hauser said the days are “more scheduled” now. He said aspects of the team’s daily routine were optional for certain players last season, but now it’s “more mandatory for guys to be in here getting work in.” He also said Mazzulla has put a heightened focus on both offensive and defensive “reads,” drills that simulate game-like situations and force players to react on the fly.

“We’ve done a pretty good amount (before),” Hauser told The Athletic. “I think it’s been more preached on and more like, ‘We have to do this. We have to work on things that hurt us last year.’ So it’s been great.”

“Honestly, just the whole structure of the day is just a little bit different,” Hauser explained. “It’s more of what I think he envisioned. He was kind of just thrust into the head coaching job last year so he didn’t have a chance to sort of establish what he wanted to do in the month leading up to the training camp, the couple of weeks everybody was back leading up to training camp, so things like the lift, the pre-practice work, the pre-practice group work, getting our reads in, our defensive reads, our offensive reads, learning the new terminology that we’ve been putting in. So all of that I think is accompanying what he’s trying to preach to us this year.”

Mazzulla has shared some of the changes he considered important. In July, he said he thought the Celtics focused too much last season on the ultimate goal — returning to the NBA Finals and winning the championship — at the expense of the day-to-day process of improvement. During a recent appearance on J.J. Redick’s podcast, “The Old Man and the Three,” Mazzulla suggested he wanted to emphasize defense more often after not doing a good enough job of that throughout his first season.  Jayson Tatum later said he has noticed Mazzulla addressing the defense “more than last year.” After a practice last week, Mazzulla also revealed a couple of smaller ways he aimed to adapt.

“Initially, it was like, when I was an assistant, I did a good job of being aware of like (players) 8 through 15,” Mazzulla said. “Like, that was my job. I was on the court with those guys every day and kinda had that sweat equity. Because of my mindset last year, I probably lost touch with 8 through 15 and kind of missed and didn’t manage some of those relationships as well as I could have, as well as I did as an assistant.

“And then I think just like being on the court every day. You have a tendency as a head coach to get stuck in your office sometimes because you’re worried about the next game plan or the next thing like that. But getting back to being on the court early and getting your meetings and stuff out of the way so you can be out there. So that’s another reason why I feel a little more comfortable because that’s where I was at my best as an assistant was being down there with the guys.”

Not everybody believed Mazzulla fell short in those ways. Hauser said the coach did a good job of communicating with the bottom half of the roster last season and was just being hard on himself when saying he didn’t.

“I was in that 8-through-15 last year and felt like I was a part of the team and felt that he respected my word and all that,” Hauser said. “But I do think he’s settled more into his role and he’s been able to put his fingerprint on this organization the way he’s wanted to ever since he got the job. So I think maybe that’s the difference right there.”

It’s not clear yet whether Mazzulla returned as a better coach, but it is clear he put a lot of thought into what he should shift heading into his second season. Under his guidance, Horford said the Celtics are “truly trying to focus on the day-to-day (process of improvement),” something the big man believes has not always been the case in the past. Horford said that “the coolest thing is just seeing everybody rally and buy into it, everything that he’s expecting.”

“Everyone has bought in to work at a certain standard and a certain level,” Horford said. “It started with Joe and the coaches, I feel like they set the tone. And our guys, or young guys, and when we started to come in in September, there was a sense of urgency. I know that word gets tossed out there a lot, but everybody’s locked in, everybody is getting after it, everybody’s trying to get better. We’re all pushing each other the right way. So that’s what has impressed me the most. And you feel it. Guys that come in here, they see it and they feel it. …

“It starts with the mind, the focus. The sense of urgency is doing things to the best of your ability and being engaged and being in the moment. I can honestly say nobody’s skipping steps, everybody is locked in on what they need to do. They’re doing their best, they’re trying to understand how we want to do things here. And it’s just not (early in) training camp. I was here all September. It’s been like that every day. Every time you come in the gym it’s been very consistent. So just the mindset and the willingness to do what you need to do.”


Bob
MY NOTE: Last year was last year. This year Joe has a new opportunity and, as the article says, he has the time to do things "his way". I also think that the addition of Charles Lee and Sam Cassell are highly underreported and underappreciated upgrades. Their impact will be significant, both on the players and on Joe.


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Last year Joe was a sailor put in charge of an aircraft carrier in the .middle of a hurricane during a battle. Now the seas are calm and he's had time to gain better control of the vessel befor heading off to war.

worcester wrote:Last year Joe was a sailor put in charge of an aircraft carrier in the .middle of a hurricane during a battle. Now the seas are calm and he's had time to gain better control of the vessel befor heading off to war.

W -

For every HS English teacher or college English Comp prof who said "show me don't tell me," you just nailed it.