Picks 'n Pops: Mazzulla leftovers, Aquaman, and Jayson Tatum saving a finger

Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I lost my shirt buying crypto from Jaylen Brown's hacked social media.

Some leftovers from my talk with Joe Mazzulla 

- After talking about then intensity of the parade, I remarked that he doesn’t seem to mind dipping into his intense side. 

“I've learned how to try to fight, to work on that so that it doesn't always come off that way,” he said. “But, I mean, if I had my choice, I would stay in that mode for 95% of the day.”

Imagine Parade Joe as his default for that long, and keep that in mind when he’s keeping it in check. 

- His reaction to the USA Basketball issues Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had this summer.

“I think Jaylen and Jayson both went through similar situations, as far as having a goal and not achieving it,” he said. “Our two guys, whether they can control it or not, have gone through a little bit of an adverse situation, and I gotta be better so I can help them be better.

“I don't know how they're going to handle it. I can't control how they can, but I can control how I help them. And so as I was processing that over the month or so, it was just like, ‘where do I need to get better to make sure I help them get better?’ My number one job is to help them be better. And so I gotta be better. And that was kind of ... it motivated me to get better.”

So the natural follow-up there was about revenge games and how Tatum and Brown processed this. How did Joe feel about these guys maybe going for some revenge against, say, Golden State?

“If they want to take revenge on that particular game, that's great for them. Like I said, My number one job is I gotta grow as a coach. I gotta get better so that I can get them better and help them get better and be a catalyst for growth. 

“Revenge is healthy and it's not at the same time. I think, just like anything else, you can have a little bit of it, but I think it's a short-term thing, and when that runs out, what are you going to rely on? So I think there's, there's short term moments to use all different kinds of motivational tactics, but they can't be long term solutions. And the long-term solution is just growth.”

This is a pretty good take on it, actually. I expected him to poo-poo the idea outright, but Mazzulla acknowledges the need for little pockets of motivation throughout the season. Sometimes you gotta toss these guys a treat to keep them running what they're supposed to run, so the occasional revenge game or what have you is fine as long as it’s not the only motivator. 

One thing Mazzulla is very good at is understanding the difference between short-, medium-, and long-term strategy. The long-term is the most important because that includes the ultimate goal and who this team is at its core, but the short and medium feed into that and help push the guys to their final destination. 

To borrow from Mazzulla’s animal kingdom analogies, the coach is sort of the herding dog and the team is the flock trying to get where it’s going without losing anyone. Sometimes the herd is fine, sometimes you have to reel one or two in, sometimes you have to nip at some heels to get them where they need to be. 

There are little things along the way, the short and medium-term things, to keep order and a good atmosphere. The occasional revenge game is one of those things. But getting to the final destination in one piece trumps all. 

- On learning from a visit to Patriots practice

“I'm sitting there watching the other day, and you can set illegal screens within one yard, I think, of the line of scrimmage. Essentially, you can just run into a guy,” he said. “They ran this action and in basketball terms, Hunter Henry would have been wide open for a three behind the illegal screen. But because you have to gain yardage, he overran the open window and ended up only getting, like, a half a yard or a yard. And so it was like, can we use these illegal type screens and these wide receiver patterns to create these pockets, which in our sport would give us an open shot.”

The Celtics have already incorporated what looks like pre-snap motion into some of their sets, which you can see at the beginning of this play: 

Mazzulla will take anything he can from anywhere to find a way to make things easier for his team. A jumper behind an “illegal” screen? You better believe I’m watching for that this season. I can already picture Jayson Tatum looking like he’s coming for the ball but he’s actually getting in the way of Jaylen Brown’s man so JB can get an open look.

There is no doubt they will try this. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. 

- We talk about this short turnaround for the Celtics and how that might impact them, but who had a shorter turnaround than Mazzulla heading into his first season as head coach? Any summer where he has more than a week to prepare is probably fine for him. 

- Mazzulla said flat-out that the Indiana series, which Boston swept, should have gone seven. Indiana not calling a timeout in Game 1, the Aaron Nesmith miss in Game 4, and a couple of bounces along the way could have made that series quite different. 

His message there is simply about controlling what you can and submitting to the knowledge that even then some things are out of your hands. 

That submission is so important. Understanding that no matter what you do, there is always something you can’t control that impacts winning and losing. And because of that, you have to fight to do the controllables as well as possible so you can minimize how much you’re impacted by the other stuff. 

In printable 2024 terms, that's called ‘mess around and find out.’ The more you mess around, the more you’re gonna find out. 

- I need to revisit this quote:

“I’m looking forward to the challenge. I can’t wait to see how hard it’s gonna be. I can’t wait. I wish we started tomorrow. I hope it’s even 10 times harder than it was last year. I really hope it is. … People are going to say the target is on our back, but I hope it’s right on our forehead in between our eyes. I hope I can see the red dot.” 

I feel like each of Mazzulla’s past lives all ended with him charging and screaming into some battle somewhere and taking out 20 dudes before he got killed. He was never an ancient craftsman making fine pottery. Every iteration of Joe Mazzulla has been some kind of warrior, soldier, samurai, or something like that. There's no way anyone is this intense without centuries worth of it layered on top of one another. 

There are 29 other groups of beat writers out there covering NBA teams, but only this one gets to cover Mazzulla. And let me tell you, buddy … it’s a hell of a ride. 

Elsewhere … 

- Jaylen pushed the Aquaman motif after another summer full of pictures from his underwater workouts. 

Aquaman is easily the worst of the superheroes. And he always reminds me of Dave Chappelle’s bit on Dr. Katz: 

- Jaylen should have had the power of two-factor authentication because his Twitter got hacked by someone pushing crypto. The tweets have stopped but the posts are still up. 

- Evan Fournier is leaving the NBA to play in Greece. There are some people complaining that the new CBA is pushing these end-of-the-line veterans out of the league, but Fournier was obviously not cutting it in the NBA anymore. 

Sorry, but this is how it goes. And let’s not treat getting paid $4 million to live in Greece and play professional basketball like it’s some punishment. His choices were sit the bench and be a mentor to young Charlotte Hornets or live in Pireaus, right on the water, and play for a prestige Euro League team in Olympiacos. 

It’s an easy choice, to me, and that's not just because that's where my dad grew up. International basketball isn’t just a way for people like me, who weren’t NBA players but had more basketball to play, to taste the professional life. It’s a great way to ease the landing into retirement.

- Shaquille O’Neal simply cannot admit any center active since he first started playing can be dominant, not even Victor Wembanyama 

“Wemby is a great player, but I don't really think you can be dominant when you shoot jumpers a lot,” O'Neal told the Pat McAfee show. “I think if he was an inside player at 7'5", the answer will be 'yes' but when you shoot jumpers, you're always going to go up and down. But he's a fine player; I wish him well."

Shaq wants all centers to be 350 pounds, bury their shoulders into peoples’ chests, and dunk. The game has evolved, and Wembanyama can absolutely dominate with a bunch of jumpers in his repertoire. 

Just because things are different now, it doesn’t mean they can’t be just as good. They're just done differently. 

And frankly, I’m sick of hearing all these old legends constantly putting today’s game down. Okay, maybe it’s not your favorite thing, but it’s still a beautiful game and the guys playing it are more skilled than ever. It’s okay to be critical, but the constant negativity is a drag. 

- You know what’s not a drag? Oshae Brissett. 

His time here was brief, and frankly, largely uneventful. That's why he’s not coming back. But he was a great locker room guy and his social media gave us an incredible inside look at the team.

- For example, here’s Brissett getting Jayson Tatum on camera saying he got his championship ring fit for his index finger because he’s saving the pinky for his next one. 

The mild-mannered Brissett going for the middle finger is funny. 

- Jaylen Brown says he wants blood this season

Mazzulla better be serious when he says the occasional revenge game is okay, because Brown might be looking for a couple along the way. 

- Unless something catastrophic happens, LeBron James will score his 50,000th point (regular season and playoffs combined). 

That's just a staggering number. 

- Steph Curry could hit his 4,000th 3-pointer this season, too. We’ve been really lucky to see these guys play. 

- This week’s AI-generated image: Jaylen Brown has asked for some changes at the TD Garden

- Here are my latest podcasts … my full conversation with Joe Mazzulla … if you’re bored.