With hindsight, it is very difficult to assess Joe Mazzulla’s season at the head of the Celtics. At 3-0 against the Heat, the Boston coach even seemed on an ejection seat. Except that the return of the team, which forced a Game 7, finally lost, reminded us that we had to avoid hasty judgments. Especially when it comes to coaches.
In all cases, The Athletic confirms that Joe Mazzulla should keep his job next year.
Certainly, he was overall tactically dominated by Erik Spoelstra in the conference final, but he is not the first, nor the last, and above all he was propelled “head coach” in complicated circumstances.
“I want to express my respect for Joe” thus released Jaylen Brown after the elimination. “It was a difficult situation. And he grabbed her around the body and carried her through. We’ve had two rookie head coaches in the last two years, and Joe took over from Ime as a temp at first, then he was named head coach, and he took us to here. It is a difficult position. It’s a difficult position for a team. We are coming out of a final, but we had no excuses and I don’t have any today either. We didn’t measure up. But I always respect our coaching staff and the squad we had on the pitch. »
At 34, Joe Mazzulla was not destined to become a “head coach” so quickly. In the 2021/22 season, Ime Udoka’s first assistant was Will Hardy, whom Danny Ainge brought back to Utah. But if the Celtics let him go, it’s because they didn’t imagine having to suspend their coach just before the “training camp”…
With the Ime Udoka affair, Joe Mazzulla was thus propelled from the position of second assistant to that of head coach, without transition, and with a staff that had lost a large part of its experience.
Still according to The Athletic, the goal now for the Celtics is to expand the staff of Joe Mazzulla, by recovering one or two experienced assistants. As for the “head coach”, who was extended and officially promoted during the season, his contract guarantees him 14 million dollars over the next three seasons. Proof of the confidence of Brad Stevens, who greatly appreciates Joe Mazzulla, as was already the case with Danny Ainge.
