Joe Mazzulla isn’t going anywhere.
Go ahead, process that.
Take a minute.
Let it out.
You good? Good.
Joe Mazzulla isn’t going anywhere. The Celtics are not going to put their players through another coach, another system, another voice, for a fourth straight season. The guys have been praising him throughout the playoffs and Jayson Tatum flat-out said he loves his relationship with Mazzulla.
This isn’t to dismiss shortcomings from this past season and some slow-to-come adjustments in the playoffs. Mazzulla certainly could have coached better along the way to help his inconsistent Celtics gain their footing and maybe get to the Finals.
But players play, and that's where most of Boston’s focus has to be heading into the offseason. Are they properly constructed to maximize their stars? Are their stars being used the right way? What can be done to finally break through and win a title next year?
Coaching is definitely part of the equation, and the Celtics have to correct some of the mistakes they’ve made this season.
When Mazzulla was hired, his spot on the bench was never filled. Neither was Damon Stoudemire’s when he left for Georgia Tech. Obviously, the timing of both openings made things very difficult for Boston, so there's a reason why they couldn't really act on those openings right away. However, holes are holes, and those holes on the bench could have been filled by someone who might have had a helpful idea or two.
Now there are more vacancies. According to the Globe’s Gary Washburn, three assistants will be leaving to join Ime Udoka’s staff in Houston. That leaves only DJ MacLeay and Tony Dobbins as front-of-bench coaches potentially returning.
This gives Boston an opportunity to fix a problem. It was one thing to drop Mazzulla into the deep end of the pool, but he barely had any kind of floatation device to hang onto. As the interim coach, he wasn’t really in a position to hire anyone. Boston could have given him help, but adding anyone to the bench, like a Frank Vogel-type, would have been unfair to Mazzulla because there would have been pressure to elevate that coach every time Mazzulla didn’t call a timeout in a loss.
Then, when Stoudemire left, it was at an impossible time to bring in anyone with any value midstream.
Now? Boston has a chance to build a staff that helps support a unified vision for this team.
If Mazzulla wants to focus on the offense like he did this past season, he can find someone with a defense-first mentality to be a coordinator on that end. The bench also needs experience, so the C’s can bring in a mix of former players who can relate to the current team and maybe shed some light on things on which Mazzulla still has a tenuous grasp. Maybe he can employ a badass former pro … someone of the old Clifford Ray mold … to step in when the hammer has to come down on the team. They can also bring in some experienced assistants who aren't going to be a threat to take over at the first sign of problems. Mazzulla needs to be able to coach without looking over his shoulder.
Mazzulla is a smart basketball guy. He’s a work in progress as a coach, but there is a solid foundation there. There's a reason why Danny Ainge wanted to hire him and bring him to Utah as part of Will Hardy’s staff. It’s because he has a ton of potential as a coach, even though it was also clear he wasn’t ready for the job at the time.
Was he the right guy for this team, at this time? No, not necessarily. Given the situation, I understand fully why he got the job, but considering where this team was in its basketball life, a young rookie coach with minimal NBA experience would not have been my first choice.
But he’s the coach right now, and there's more value in keeping him and building a good support staff around him rather than going to a fourth coach in four years. Going on a new head coaching search is an even bigger disaster waiting to happen. Not only is it too much to ask everyone to start over from scratch again, but it would also mean that hire would have to be perfect because it’s the last one before everything comes crashing down.
Mazzulla has learned a lot of lessons in year one, and he’ll come to camp hopefully better for it. But one year on the sideline isn’t going to be enough seasoning. He still needs support as those lessons set. Getting the right coaching staff in place is going to be a big step forward for this team next year. This is their chance to make sure Mazzulla gets the support he needs.