Derrick White said something today about Joe Mazzulla [here](https://x.com/CelticsCLNS/status/1757976871365411147?s=20) that should remind Celtics fans about how good Joe is. Basically, D-White said that on the year Cs got to the finals with that monstrous defense, its **Joe**, not Ime, who was the defensive mastermind of their schemes. Remember that they have Ime, Hardy, and Stoudamire on that staff, but its Joe’s idea that they were using.
He’s also the two guys from Brad’s staff that was retained. Then when they faced the Heat on 2022 playoffs, Joe was in-charge of their scouting and gameplan against Spo, and guys like Horford (can’t find it again) and [Brogdon](https://celticswire.usatoday.com/lists/was-joe-mazzulla-the-mastermind-behind-bostons-defense-last-year/) said that his scouting was sort of legendary. (Probably Ime was messing around with the team staff during this important time, maybe why basketball gods punished em to lose.)
And when Hardy was hired by Jazz, it was Joe who got promoted to lead assistant to replace Will. Not Stoudamire or Sullivan or any of Ime’s guys.
Then when he stepped up on this mess, they’ve still managed to finished Top 2 on Off. and Def. Ratings last season despite of Rob Williams and Marcus Smart not being the same defensively due to injuries.
This year, he’s now more experienced and relaxed, creative (read about Adam Taylor’s blogs that highlights Joe’s X and Os), and handles the team very well despite of its talent, where everyone is bought in. Every interview, I noticed that guys like Jaylen often resonates what Joe wants to do, like the word ‘playing with intentionality’, so clearly Joe’s voice is being heard in the locker room.
If anyone is still not bought in to Joe at this point, maybe ask why he has Brad’s trust. Don’t listen to guys like Perk, Bill, Felger etc. who are all running their mouth. Even Zach Lowe admitted in his last pod that talking to Joe personally made him feel like an idiot basketball standpoint.
by IceJeyD
20 Comments
I agree with your point, when Joe came in he was put into a rough spot with Ime situation but wow did he handle it well, I was nervous because of his young age and I have never really heard of him before but he connects well with the players and he is really smart. Brad is a great gm and this hire was amazing!!!! I think we can be title contenders for a long time with Joe. In my opinion this team is special we can not take watching this team for granted!!!!! I love watching this team. Tatum will become a MVP candidate n the second half!!!!
Great post! Thanks for sharing those details
Joe really does deserve his flowers. People were honestly being unreasonable. He was thrown into an impossible situation last year and still handled it better than 99% of people would’ve been able to.
the biggest thing I point to for Joe skeptics is the buy in from the team. this team is insanely talented, they can win all kinds of ways but if they don’t have buy in for the coach and what he wants to do it doesn’t matter. The players opinions>>everyone else
Joe is a great basketball mind, not just a good basketball mind. He has had this team on the right track all year. The people on here who give him slack for not calling a timeout here or a timeout there have a simplistic view of how coaching works, their criticism of Joe speaks more to their basketball knowledge than joes.
He was the one who unlocked robs potential. But he definitely seems to favor offense
I don’t think people gave Joe a break for how weird and difficult a situation last year was for him to step into. He won 57 games on short notice with a reduced staff made up of guys that used to be his peers.
I think he deserves credit for last year as well as fair criticism for how the playoffs went. He has room to grow there and hope to see that progression this year
Joe is a basketball sicko
I think he’s a weird dude . Maybe a little bit of a Savant? I hope he’s the guy .
The fact that Joe did what he did last year with a undermanned staff is remarkable. Brad Stevens made the right call seeing what he could do with an offseason of preparation and a full coaching staff. Now we’re reaping the benefits!
I think Ime is a good coach, clearly connects with players, understands the game. But it’s just crazy how much he gets propped up by a finals Cinderella run that he lost. Had the healthiest Timelord and Smart seasons, Horford coming off vacation in OKC, and a staff that has his current lead assistant and 3 current head coaches.
Still went to 7 with the Bucks, still was one shot away of achieving the same result as Joe last year. And for all the talk about him being a motivator, Celts absolutely fell apart after losing Game 4 in the finals and lost 3 straight.
Joe is a maniac and deserves praise.
Don’t remember where it came from but I saw a quote or tweet or something that said something like,
“Everybody hating on the coach wouldn’t know an in game adjustment if it hit them in the face”.
And it’s true. The criticism of this guy are some of the most superficial bullshit I have ever heard.
The revisionist history that Ime was some kind of late game offense maestro, and in-game adjustment genius is borderline infuriating. Those were literally his weaknesses as a coach. We played DROP ON STEPH CURRY FOR 4 OUT OF 6 GAMES IN THE FINALS AND HE MURDERED US.
People just can’t handle the fact that he got fired and they take it out on Mazzulla, but there is nothing other than “ViBez” that point to Ime being a better coach.
One missed 3 in the ECF was the difference between the success of the two, and Mazzulla had an infinitely worse situation around him for his first year.
It’s reasonable to wonder if we even make the ECF that year if Middleton is healthy.
The biggest criticisms of Mazzulla just so happen to be the exact same shit that’s happened under Stevens and Ime as well, and it’s frankly better under Mazzulla.
Meanwhile, Jaylen is having his best season as a playmaker, Tatum is better than ever, White is having his best season yet, KP is better than he’s ever been. Jrue has embraced sacrificing numbers for his role as a glue guy, makes our defense elite, and has been on fire offensively in the calendar year, and his play is essential to what this team does.
Not a single guy has regressed. The team is on a win pace as good as some of the best teams in franchise history. The longest home winning streak in franchise history. Top 5 in offense and defense his entire tenure.
And these chucklefucks act like he is an incompetent moron.
It’s truly, truly insane. There is no rational reason to believe this is a bad coach. Zero.
But Ime, Ime, Ime, Ime! Where are those whiners now?
I’m not a “Joe hater” or anything. I like him as a coach. But this team has been talented enough to win the title for several years, so idk if Joe deserves some immense amount of praise for coming along for the ride. Remember how great of a coach Doc Rivers was when he Ubuntu’d the Garnett Celtics to one championship? Yeah, how has he done since then? Not so hot eh? Was he ever a great coach? Or did he just do a good job managing personalities on an incredibly talented team?
Joe is fine, but what he mostly needs to do at this point is stay out of the way of what is, by far, the most talented roster in the NBA. The one habit he has had that worries me a bit is the analytics focus. I’ve said this on this sub before: it’s fine to shoot a million threes during the regular season. But if they go cold again in the postseason and they “just keep shooting bc that’s what the analytics say to do,” he could actually cost them a chance to win it all. We have KP in the post as a very solid option this year when the 3s aren’t falling. We have a stronger than ever Tatum who gets to the line. We can win in so many different ways that it just doesn’t make sense to let the nerds and their numbers dictate playoff decisions. You have to keep your head in the game and change things based upon things like momentum, matchups, etc. Idk guys, have you really seen Joe do that so far in his brief coaching career? I hope he does a better job of it this year. They lost to a gritty and well coached Heat team last year despite having way more talent. How does that reflect on the coach? 🤷🏻♂️
The thing I hate is people act like Joe Mazula is basically an idiot over his head and Ime was this chosen one basketball coach and the celtics would have guaranteed championships with him. By every statistical measure the celtics are better with Joe (but obviously there is a lot of context for that) The same celtics problems we have every year were still there with Joe, Ime and even Brad. Being stagnate on offense, blowing games like Ime did in game 5 vs the bucks, multiple games against the heat in the weird 2022 series and then we completely collapsed in the finals. If Joe had lost like that in the finals he would get nothing but criticism, but somehow Ime is praised for it. The sad thing is if the Celtics when the finals this year Joe still wont get credit, cause the narrative will be oh yeah its easy to coach a stacked team.
We are insanely likely to hit 50 wins before 20 losses and yet people here will shit on him after a single bad night in an 82 game season.
He gets no credit unless he rings. With the talent they have, 1/2 of the weirdos in this sub could coach this team to the Finals 🤣
Just check the scoreboard.
1st in ORTG, 3rd in DRTG, 1st in net rating.
best record in the nba (it’s not close)
locker room never been better
players love playing for him
players have developed under him – pp, kornet, hauser, white, jb, and kp are all having career years.
coaches want to work for him – it will suck when cassell gets a HC gig elsewhere
consistent message in every player interview, they are on the same page whether they agree fully or not.
not a single player complaint all year about touches/rotations.
9 rotation players completely bought into their roles. 11 if you count queta and hopefully tillman.
5 of those have been the #1 or 2 option on a team in their career.
brad and joe have done an amazing job building this team identity.
I love Joe