Joe Mazzulla went into the summer hoping to come out of it as the head coach of an NBA team.
He got his wish.
If we were doing a Halloween-themed TV episode here, we could cut to Mazzulla actually making that wish on a monkey paw before his interview with Utah, a tight shot of the finger curling down, and then a news clip of Ime Udoka’s suspension. At least then what happened this summer might make some sense.
Mazzulla was the head coach of Division 2 Fairmont State when Robert Williams was a rookie. What was supposed to be his fourth season in the NBA as an assistant is now his first as a head coach, and he got the gig less than a week before training camp.
One of my favorite sayings, even though I’m not sure it’s really a saying at all, is ‘life doesn’t give a damn about your plans.’ We’ve all been forced into some left turns along the way, and a great measure of a person is how those inevitable, random twists of life are handled.
Life threw Mazzulla and the Celtics together like some reality dance competition. With no warning at all, the interim coach and the players have to figure out how not to trip over each other as both feel their way through the NBA season. The first few weeks of the preseason have shown they can get some of the choreography down, but their first performance for the judges is coming up, and the spotlight can do some weird things to people.
This is the undercurrent for everything the Celtics will be this year. Mazzulla has shown himself to be direct and detail-oriented so far, but frankly, this is the easy part. Preseason is a largely controlled environment where most of the time is spent on the practice floor and the results in games don't matter much.
It’s a place where a shell-shocked team could turn into an armadillo and roll into a ball and shield themselves from the outside world. The team’s stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, barely talked to the media, leaving most of the quote-giving to the newer guys or the seasoned canned-answerers. Like giving a sick dog a diet of boiled chicken and white rice, the Celtics have spent much of the Udoka aftermath being as bland as possible. I came out of most scrums thinking “you can always tell a Milford man.”
It has worked perfectly. The team has rallied around itself and put many of the doubts to rest heading into the regular season. Udoka’s name is still mentioned, but mostly in historical context relating to the team’s play. That fire has effectively been knocked down.
But there is still much to prove this season.
There is no greater teacher than experience, and Mazzulla doesn’t have much in the NBA. He has been praised for his masterful scouting and direct nature with the players, which is a great start for him. But he didn’t have the luxury of building on the relationships with players from last year over the summer, putting together his own game plan, or even hiring his own staff of assistants. His few years on the bench have shown him a lot, but he doesn’t have the full breadth of wisdom that comes from seeing things in the league over, and over, and over again.
This means Mazzulla will either have to be a fast learner, a basketball wunderkind, or both. He’ll also have to rely on the support of his team, who will have to continue to have his back no matter what happens on the floor. Mistakes will have to be forgiven all around, because slightest fissure in the locker room could be enough to bring the whole thing down.
This is a veteran team, and one that might feel somewhat slighted by how much credit Udoka has been given for last year’s run to the Finals. Yes, everyone gave him credit last year by confirming that once everyone bought into the system, things got better.
But they were also supporting their rookie head coach, and a guy they thought was going to be here a while. They were happy to pump him up because he would, in turn, pump up his players. That credit, though, is a matter of public record, and now that Udoka is gone, the players have to reclaim some of that this season.
In some ways, it’s a perfect storm for the Celtics. The elements of navigating through this controversy with such a young head coach have come together in an advantageous way.
Mazzulla is the bright, young basketball mind who might have been fast-tracked to a head coaching job before he was faster-tracked into one in Boston. His players have incentive to prove they were as much the reason for last season’s turnaround as their recently-dismissed leader. And Udoka’s heldover staff, a group of confidants and trusted personal friends from Oregon, has reason to move forward and make this work because they might be looking for jobs after this season, and a championship is one hell of a way to headline a resume.
Season previews generally tell you things like ‘if they can shore up their rebounding, they can improve on a defense that looked good for 90% of the shot clock’ or ‘the key to this year is figuring out how to get through November and December so Robert Williams can come back and supercharge the team on both ends of the court.’
Those are true things. On the floor, the Celtics are more perimeter-oriented than last season. The addition of Malcolm Brogdon gives the Celtics an element they sorely needed by adding another driver and distributor. Grant Williams has added some face-up elements to his game and Sam Hauser has proven to be a serious shooting threat.
Brown has come in with a focus that, if maintained, will at least warrant some All-NBA discussion. Tatum is attacking the rim in a stronger, more determined way that suggests he’s now fully aware that he has grown his body into an NBA prototype combination of strength and length.
Schematically, the Celtics can rely on their perimeter players to carry the day while they piecemeal solutions to Robert Williams’ absence. They do need to steal rest for Al Horford where they can, which means opportunities for Noah Vonleh and Blake Griffin.
On paper, this team is a true contender. Their preseason has shown us ball movement that creates open shots. They have played with a good pace that, if maintained, will make them a surprisingly good offensive threat. This is a team that could threaten to be the perfect combination of top-five offense and defense.
They’ll need to be all that to face a beastly Eastern Conference. Milwaukee with Giannis Antetokounmpo and opening night opponent Philadelphia, with James Harden and Joel Embiid, present the biggest threats to Boston’s crown as conference champs. Brooklyn is full of drama, but their ceiling is just as high as anyone’s in the NBA. The acquisition of Donovan Mitchell thrust Cleveland into the conversation, and it’s a conversation that always seems to include the Miami Heat. Toronto and Atlanta will make some noise, meaning Tre Young could be leading the charge of a seventh or eighth seed into the playoffs.
It won’t be easy for Boston. But before any of the small or big lineups can work … before Brogdon can make his case for Sixth Man of the Year, or Brown for All-NBA, or Tatum for MVP … this team has to make sure it’s fully committed to one another for eight months.
The Celtics have done a wonderful job of healing so far, but this season requires the Celtics to take their full course of antibiotics or else this infection could come back again. If it does, then whether they switch, play zone, or go straight up man-to-man on defense won’t matter a lick.
It’s a weird season played under weird circumstances. This is obviously a team, but living up to their promise is going to take a full team effort. Everyone has to back each other up, petty differences need to be put aside, and individuals need to trust that their personal goals will be met in the end.
There's only one way for this season to work out the way the Celtics want, and it can’t be with wishful thinking.
