Joe Mazzulla is an intense person, and he likes it that way.
“I’ve learned how to try to fight to work on that so it doesn’t come off that way,” he told me earlier this month. “But, I mean, if I had my choice, I would stay in that mode for 95% of the day.”
After meaningless losses to the Atlanta Hawks, Mazzulla channeled that intensity by going on a Jiu-Jitsu binge.
“I went on the mats and punished myself and pounded my body until I couldn't take anymore, and ended up tearing up my knee," he told the Pardon My Take podcast. "It was a great experience for me, I had to do six hours of treatment to coach the next game without too much of a limp. I couldn't walk."
Winning is everything to Mazzulla, which is a nice trait to have when your job is to win basketball games. But the Celtics are entering a bit of a different phase this season where winning might not actually be everything during the first few months of the season.
This regular season is really about one thing for the Celtics: can they get to the playoffs in one piece?
The playoffs begin on April 19, exactly seven months from today. If they can run their regular starting five, with everyone on their bench at full strength, they should be able to repeat as champions. It shouldn’t matter if they are the first or fifth seed. A fully healthy Celtics team on day one of the playoffs should win it all.
This is always a priority in any season. Every team would love to have a fully healthy team to start the playoffs. Just ask the Milwaukee Bucks.
But this is, essentially, the only priority for Boston. Obviously, there are little things along the way that are also important for the Celtics. They still have to put in the requisite work, build the right habits, and continue to demonstrate the mindset that made them champions. But there isn’t a whole lot for them to learn at this point.
Which brings us back to Mazzulla and a pretty big question heading into camp.
Can the most intense man in the room, a man who tore his meniscus because of how Boston played in two meaningless late-March games after a nine-game winning streak clinched the top seed, dial it down enough to accept a few more losses for the greater good of the team?
Mazzulla will be the first to tell you he sometimes needs to be reigned in on the sidelines. He has games he wants to win just like the players do. He also has players who want to play. Neither Jayson Tatum nor Jaylen Brown will be happy if Mazzulla trims their November minutes down to 32 minutes or so.
But the team has to be smart about everyone’s playing time in the early going. The short summer turnaround, coupled with the longest possible season a team can play and another 100-plus games potentially on the docket, makes player health the most important issue for the Celtics. Any sort of soft tissue injury could result in a season-long issue.
No one wants that, and everyone has to be willing to do uncomfortable things in order to prevent them.
That might mean a few more losses early on, which everyone will have to accept. Fans will have to understand that might mean weird rotations through the rest of 2024. It might mean some of the losses the Celtics avoided last season end up in the L column this time around. The team that didn’t lose more than two in a row throughout their championship run might go on a couple of longer streaks this time around.
There's no doubt people will overreact to this. I can guarantee national NBA shows will talk about a championship hangover, flipping switches, and how this is a one-and-done team. There will be speculation about breaking the team up, maybe even some talking heads breaking out some golden oldies about splitting up the Jays.
It won’t be comfortable. But it will be necessary.
Mazzulla loves when things are uncomfortable, but is he willing and able to go down this road? He’s obsessed with winning, even at times where other things might matter a little more in the grand scheme of things.
Can he accept this as a premise heading into camp? Can Mazzulla operate in a world where he knows playing certain guys more would likely lead to a win, but leave them on the bench and deal with the consequences?
We know what the Celtics can be when they're at their best, but they can only be at their best when guys are 100%. If Mazzulla can put the intensity aside and do what it takes to get there, he can let the intensity fly unchecked at another parade.
