Joe Mazzulla Thread, Head Coach – (COTM, Dec 2023 & March 2024)

[31to6]

So regarding COTY, let me see if I got this right.

Brown cannot dribble left
Tatum is not as good as the other top MVP contenders, Brunson is better
KP is injury prone
Horford is old
Jrue is a choke artist
Joe Sucks
Improved on last season by 8 wins
Posted all time historical numbers
40% of starting lineup was changed over last season.

But Joe cannot win COTY because the team is far too good around him, we are expected to win games.


SGA should be MVP
Holmgren is 2nd in ROTY, and was competing as the winnger earlier in the season
J. Williams is a legit MIP candidate

but Coach is easily coty because he took such a bad team to such a great improvement?

To me, the most persuasive argument for Mark D. is that 2 of his top 3 players are YOUNG. Coaching can be presumed to matter when your #2 and #3 players are a rookie and sophomore.

I didnt realize that Mark coached Chet into being a franchise altering top draft pick who was a legit 7 foot shotblocker with 3point range on his jumper.

Or that a runner up to rookie of the year could improve in his second year without Mark coaching?

COY narratives are IMO always dumb, because in my experience it is *only*: "Which team surprised the casual fan the most?" Without taking into account any details of what the coach actually did. (Fencer, not arguing against you here, just The National Narrative)

FWIW the Celtics were not picked by Vegas or anyone to finish 7 games ahead of the rest of the league this season.
Some might credit the coaching staff for integrating new additions so well.
Then again Joe probably finishes second, and last year was third(?) so I shouldn't get too out of shape on his behalf.

[BRUNiNHO91]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

[Fencer reregistered]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

If Embiid heals quickly enough, the Cs could have a serious opponent in the ECF.

Everybody else should be on the level of tune-up match.

[exculpatory]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

+ 17 trillion!

[shackles10]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

And Mark D. will still deservedly be COTY if his team loses in the first round to the Pels or Kangz? It's a regular season award, but you aren't a scapegoat waiting to happen if one team loses before the Finals and still a deserved winner if the other team loses in the first round and have an award with any kind of legitimacy. 31to6 is right... it's kind of a crap award IMO based about 90% on narrative, 9% logic and facts, and 1% actual coaching ability.

[zoyathedestroya]

Joe comes on at 39:40 of the video:

Watch on YouTube

[zoyathedestroya]

Read on Twitter

[Froob]

Joe comes on at 39:40 of the video:

Watch on YouTube

Holy **** lmao, I love this man. He is truly insane.

[BRUNiNHO91]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

And Mark D. will still deservedly be COTY if his team loses in the first round to the Pels or Kangz? It's a regular season award, but you aren't a scapegoat waiting to happen if one team loses before the Finals and still a deserved winner if the other team loses in the first round and have an award with any kind of legitimacy. 31to6 is right... it's kind of a crap award IMO based about 90% on narrative, 9% logic and facts, and 1% actual coaching ability.

Im not talking about COTY. I’m talking about putrid and easy playoff paths which is what we got.

Btw, stop comparing Boston to OkC and the job both guys did. The Thunder absolutely destroyed any predictions of how good they would they would be, while Boston is right where they should have been. This is a ready to win team and has been for 3-4 years now, Tatum and Brown have seen LeBron’s and Curry’s at the highest level of the game, Jrue is a champion..SGA, JDub and Chet are babies to this playoff game nobody had a clue this team would be a 1 seed. If they lost in round 1 it would be nowhere near as pathetic as if Boston did.

[BK_2020]

OKC's preseason prediction was 44.5 wins and they got 57. Boston was 55.5 and got 64. If you think a value of a win is linear and going from 1 win to 2 wins out of 82 is the same as going from 63 to 64 wins out of 82, then sure, OKC is more impressive. I think it's a lot harder to go from good to elite, and harder still to go from elite to historic.
Also, OKC's achievement wasn't even unusually good this season. The Wolves' were also 44.5 and got to 56. If a couple bounces go their way and a couple go against OKC, it's the Wolves who win the West and overachieve by most games over the pre-season line.
OKC was also completely healthy this season. Their top 6 averaged like 78 games played going up against teams like the Suns or the Clippers. Boston's top 6 played 68 games on average, which is fewer than the Clippers' top 6.

[Gant]

It's settled.

After much discussion, the wisdom of the crowd has spoken: Joe Mazzulla has proven that he's a worthy candidate for NBA coach of the year, and that he should be fired.

[sam_I_am]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

With all due respect, firing coaches like this never works. Joe is a second year coach and is much better this year than last. The last thing we want is to do is to mimic what Bucks did last year - only to end up with Doc on a long term contract. They would be much better off with Budenholz right now.

I guess ownership could ask Brad to return or completely clean house with new GM and coach. I think Ainge had it right when he preached continuity. Even if Cs fall short this year, they are most likely a contender for 2-3 years.

Why are we even talking about firing Joe right now anyway? He is having the winningest start to a coaching career in NBA history.

EDIT: while I was typing, Gant said it better and more succinctly!

[BRUNiNHO91]

With the way the East is set up, you can EASILY have a finals path that puts you in front of a DeMar DeRozan or Bam Adebayo led lower seed, a Paolo Banchero or Donovan Mitchell led mid tier squad and a New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson without Randle. You’re essentially avoiding Embiid, Butler, Giannis and Lillard and playing tier 2 and 3 stars that have less playoff experience than your own stars, with homecourt advantage and the most stacked roster in the league.

ESPN guys are already calling for him to be fired if Boston doesn’t make it to the finals and I agree. It will be an absolutely historical choke job if we don’t get there. Unless maybe Jaylen or Jayson get injured along the way, there will be no excuse to survive this sort of choke job. None.

With all due respect, firing coaches like this never works. Joe is a second year coach and is much better this year than last. The last thing we want is to do is to mimic what Bucks did last year - only to end up with Doc on a long term contract. They would be much better off with Budenholz right now.

I guess ownership could ask Brad to return or completely clean house with new GM and coach. I think Ainge had it right when he preached continuity. Even if Cs fall short this year, they are most likely a contender for 2-3 years.

Why are we even talking about firing Joe right now anyway? He is having the winningest start to a coaching career in NBA history.

EDIT: while I was typing, Gant said it better and more succinctly!

You can fire a coach and not hire a worse one, you know that right? The Bucks had the right idea TWICE they just did a bizarre job of replacing their guys.

If the Celtics lose to this absolute dumpster fire of a **** conference, who actually gives a flying **** about the 60 something wins this team got? He can take his ‘winningest start to coaching’ and go see how long he can keep it for with the Charlotte Hornets.

[BRUNiNHO91]

It's settled.

After much discussion, the wisdom of the crowd has spoken: Joe Mazzulla has proven that he's a worthy candidate for NBA coach of the year, and that he should be fired if he in embarrassing and pathetic fashion, lost to the Jimmy less Heat, the Donovan Mitchell Led Cavs, the Brunson-Anunoby ‘powerhouse’ Knicks or anybody is this shambles conference.

Let me help you there.

[KamikazeK]

Personally I never called for CoY, I've been consistently saying that he'll be judged by playoff results and that if he fails to get them to at least the finals then he needs to go. That would be two straight years of having a finals-ready team and failing. There's a real question still up in the air about whether or not you can win a chip with Joe mazzula as the coach. We'll see.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

"Imagine a scenario where Mazzulla sucks at his job then don't you agree he should be fired for sucking at his job ? Yes. Good then I'm right to think he sucks at his job in the real world" is an interesting outlook on life.

[Big J]

Shoulda fired this bum last year when we had the chance.

[Big J]

Can the owners fire Joe before game 3 and force Brad out of his cush office and back down on the sidelines?

[playa-hater]

This thread should be burned from our memories forever.

Even if we win 18 which is not looking good right now no way will we win 18 because of this **** coach. How much evidence do you need he has no clue..

[playa-hater]

Is spo the best coach ever?? Maybe or maybe not.. Is Joe the worst coach ever.. Maybe but probably not..

But can you recall a greater coaching disparity in a playoff series than those 2 coaches..

If yes I would love to hear It.