Is Joe Mazzulla ready for his first NBA playoffs? Brad Stevens believes he’s ‘a strength’ for the Celtics.
The 34-year-old's first NBA playoff game as a head coach will be on Saturday.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens vouched for Joe Mazzulla when the coach took over for Ime Udoka at the start of the 2022-23 NBA season.
Now, after 57 wins, an All-Star coaching appearance, and having his interim tag removed, Mazzulla enters his first postseason as Celtics head coach. The No. 2 seeded Celtics will tip off the first round against either Miami or Atlanta on Saturday.
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The 34-year-old coach has his share of critics. Some have called out his rotations and the small number of timeouts he calls. Others have wondered if he is ready to lead a playoff contender all the way back to the NBA Finals.
But, Stevens’s message hasn’t changed. He considers Mazzulla to be an asset to the organization and struck a confident tone when speaking to reporters on Sunday.
“Joe is a strength,” Stevens said. “He’s done a really good job. I understand because he’s new that the easiest thing to do is nitpick him, but he’s done a really good job. If he needs me, I’m here, but I trust him and I trust the staff, and they’ve all done a good job. I think our players would all second that.”
With two All-Stars, several lengthy postseason runs under their belt, and arguably the deepest roster in the NBA, the Celtics’ have had title expectations since the season began.
It’s a high-profile first gig for Mazzulla, whose lone head coaching experience before this season was at Division II Fairmont State. The trust that Stevens and the Celtics’ front office placed in him has paid off so far.
“He was going to be really good,” Stevens said of Mazzulla. “That’s been pretty obvious for a long time. But he’s been consistent in his own approach. Win or lose, he comes back and works the next day. He wants to grow, wants to improve. He demands that of the team. I think he does a good job of picking what the emphasis needs to be in the big picture and also in those small moments, those snippets of games where something is waning a little. He does a good job of figuring that out and making that a priority to improve.”
Sure, a late-season skid put the Celtics behind Milwaukee in the standings after their blisteringly hot start. But, at the end of the regular season, the Celtics have the same seed as last year plus six more wins.
They’re second in the league in the offensive and defensive ratings. They lead the league in net rating. They’re in as good a spot as anybody to contend for a title.
“If you watch in the last couple of months, he’s calling the game as he sees it now even more so than before,” Stevens said. “So, he’s quicker to stop a run, he’s quicker to do things. He may stop a game so he can make a sub. He may let a game go so they can’t make a sub. There’s a lot of decisions to be made in that moment, and you kind of feel out how your team best needs you and that takes time. That takes time for a person that’s done it for 30 years, and that takes time for a person that’s never done it before, and he’s done a good job. I think he’s just done a good job.”
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