It's time to stop overlooking Joe Mazzulla

No additional comment needed from me. The author states his case well.
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Justin Turpin
WEEI 93.7

It's time to stop overlooking Joe Mazzulla

For a coach who boasts a staggering 74.4% winning percentage — the highest in NBA history — Joe Mazzulla certainly attracts a lot of criticism.

After leading the Celtics to a 57-25 season in his first year on the job, marking the second-most wins by a rookie head coach in Celtics history behind Bill Russell, Mazzulla has steered the team to a remarkable 62-16 record this season. This achievement places him among just seven Celtic coaches in franchise history to achieve at least 60 wins in a season.

With his 62nd win of the season on Sunday night, the second-year bench boss added another impressive accomplishment to his resume, one that is sure to leave critics searching for excuses.

According to Dick Lipe, Sunday night marked Mazzulla’s 119th career win, the second most ever for a head coach in his first two seasons, behind just Steve Kerr, who was 140-24 during his first two years with the Warriors. Mazzulla is now 119-41.

In two seasons under Mazzulla, the Celtics are outscoring their opponents by nine points a game.

By now, Mazzulla’s story is well-known. The then-34-year-old was hired on an interim basis just five days before the start of training camp following Ime Udoka’s suspension. After leading the Celtics to an NBA-best 42-17 record at the All-Star break last season, Mazzulla was officially named the 19th coach in franchise history.

Prior to that, the Rhode Island native had never been a head coach above Division 2 in the college and had served as an assistant under Brad Stevens and Udoka since 2019.

From the outset, Mazzulla has been underestimated. Yet, many fail to grasp the immense challenges he faced in assuming the reins amid a depleted staff on such short notice for a team coming off a trip to the NBA Finals.

With a full offseason to prepare, Mazzulla has left an indelible mark on the culture of the Boston Celtics. Whether by tapping into the team’s rich history, inviting former champions to be more present at practices and games, or keeping the team focused with his emphasis on ‘mindset’ and winning the day, Mazzulla’s construction of the team’s culture has been nothing short of remarkable.

Sure, the team is incredibly talented; however, that doesn’t mean Mazzulla’s contributions should be overlooked. It’s simply lazy to point to the talent as an excuse for somebody winning 74.4% (!) of their games. While it’s certainly beneficial, his fingerprints are all over this team’s success.

Managing expectations, talent, and constant criticism is no easy feat, yet Mazzulla handles it admirably, and the Celtics are reaping the benefits of the culture he has built.

Stevens made the right decision by appointing Mazzulla as interim head coach 18 months ago and naming him the head coach 13 months later.

The numbers speak for themselves — all Mazzulla has done is win. With a revamped coaching staff and an entire offseason to prepare, Mazzulla has propelled the team in a whole new direction in year two.

Heading into the postseason, there is every reason to believe Mazzulla is capable of bringing home Banner 18.

Well, we all started off critical of him in Year 1. Not much negative to say after that and our respective mouths have been slammed shut on any major negativity. If anything, there has been some fine tuning but Joe's good. Really good. We're way ahead of this article here but it's not for us. It's for the media. They have to think up negative things because negative sells eyeballs and listening ears. This article proves the naysayers are really running out of things to talk about. Go check out MIL. They can get you to the 1st round before either MIA or PHI dismantle them. Plenty of negative there to report.

Move along, move along. Nothing to see here. It's time.

db

dbrown,

Firstly, not all of us were overtly critical of Coach Mazzulla in the first year.

In addition, with a criticism dial with settings 1-10, many had theirs set at 11. If I were ever to set my dial at 1 or 2, it seemed to result in others turning theirs up to 12. The word, Cacophony, comes to mind. Sure, the media played their part, but so did many fans.

The media won't serve up something for too long if the fans aren't scarfing it up and asking for more.

This article is for everyone.

gyso,

You are correct.  As with most negative news of any kind (no need to be redundant), it far overpowers and silences anything positive.  I fell into that trap with my comments!  I tend to exaggerate and use hyperbole.
Please forgive me if I offended you or anyone.  This site and the people on it have always told things like it is and that's what keeps it going.  And you're correct on the media.  They have to sell something and will change like the wind.  We don't sell anything here with our voices except the love of the Celtics and the game of basketball but expect nothing in return except convivial discussions on everything Celtics, hence the more free and open we can be and discussions we can have.  Most importantly we are the most informed.  The media always have/has an agenda.        

db

The single biggest factor in Mazzulla's success as a coach is the wealth of talent that he has on this team.  Give him Detroit's roster or that of Portland or any of the scrub teams and he would not be winning at any level close to what has been accomplished in Boston.

I do not agree with the author's contention.  To suggest that it is beneficial to have an incredibly talented team misses the reality that in absence of talent you will not win.  It is not beneficial, it is mandatory.

Sure, the team is incredibly talented; however, that doesn’t mean Mazzulla’s contributions should be overlooked. It’s simply lazy to point to the talent as an excuse for somebody winning 74.4% (!) of their games. While it’s certainly beneficial, his fingerprints are all over this team’s success.

While talent along does not guarantee success, I have yet to see a championship team that is not talented.  A great coach with a bad team is not going to win.

In my opinion Joe was not overly criticized last season and neither were his player.  There were really just two main critiques directed at Joe.  He had not mastered game management  (using timeouts ) and 2, he was mostly defensive in post game presser when his team did not play well.  

This year he has done a much better job managing the game and his relationship with the press is less confrontational.   He has developed more media savvy.  His maturation as a coach has taken place.

Winning a ton of regular season games is pretty special but the goal is to win a championship.  

There are very, very few things to criticize about CJ and the team, however there is one troubling fact that I will present here.

The Celtics record in close games this year (3 point games ) is only 6-7.  I expect that the playoffs will be difficult and they will need to win a few closely contested games in order to win the Championship.  

One of the more aggravating games this year was our 1 point loss to Cleveland 105-104 in our 1st game of a road trip.  After Wade cleaver scored again we had 19 seconds remaining in the game.  Mazzulla should have called a time out in that situation.  Instead he lets JT slow dribble up the court and then play with his food before taking a contested shot from the right side.   A timeout with 19 seconds let's you advance the ball and provides more time to run a series of actions to get a better look.   I hope that does not happen again this season.

As a Celtics fan, I will judge him or any coach based on winning championships.  He is a clear candidate to be named coach of the year along with several other well respected coaches.

The fact that Steven's picked him to be head coach should have tipped us off that he is more than capable. He was an assistant under Brad when Brad was still coaching, and then under Ime when Brad moved upstairs. Thus Brad has seen him up close as well as from a broader perspective. Every decision Brad makes is carefully considered and well thought out. He is not a guy who shoots from the hip. Further, Brad's judgment has proven excellent. Hence, when a careful decision maker with a history of excellent decisions picks a guy to be coach, we should assume he picked him for good reasons.

Brad and Joe are very much on the same page.  CJ is an analytics guy just like Brad..  The comfort level was there from the beginning.