Joe Mazzulla Thread, Head Coach

[165bows]

Whoever's coaching the offense, I sincerely hope we try to play with more pace. None of the walking up the court and pounding of the ball until there's 12 seconds left in the shot clock even before getting into our first onball action. Part of our undoing in the Finals was letting the Dubs defense get set and making our slowdown deliberate offense become too predictable. Contrast that to Draymond and co. pushing the ball, make, TO, or miss whenever possible. If the excuse is fatigue, improve players conditioning or lengthen the rotation.

1000%. Love Smart but he's gotten a little Rondo disease about pace. If he starts picking up the rolling inbounds pass at half court the gig is up.

[GoCeltics123]

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[Froob]

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Interesting. Wonder if there would be compensation. Does Jay want to return? We did kinda boot him out with the new regime despite keeping Mazzulla.

[zoyathedestroya]

Mazzulla was an assistant coach in the Brad era.
Stoudemire was an assistant coach in the Ime era.
Larranaga was an assistant coach in the Doc era.

Just need Frank Vogel (assistant coach in JOB era) to complete the set.

[bisme37]

Joe drives a minivan. That's the big news about him so far.

[Hal14]

If he good enough for Lue’s staff, he’s definitely good enough for ours. He has familiarity with almost all of our core. Tatum would be pumped for sure, Jay was his personal coach before he left and Mazzulla took over that spot.

Yeah. He does seem to have a good reputation.

And talk about experience. Between Jay Larrañaga and his dad Jim, that's a combined 15 yrs experience as a player and a combined 65 yrs experience as a coach.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[playa-hater]

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On Kornet starting... He actually is a little better at every category than most give him credit for except the one category I was hoping he would be better at and that is a knockdown shooter..

With the exception of Joel Embiid and or a team like golden state who spreads it out I actually think he can hold his own against most teams in the league...

His passing and defensive rebound are very underated.. But he doesn't get offensive rebounds since he drifts on the 3 point line.. Which would be a waste if hes not knocking down shots at a high enough clip..

But in Brad and Joe I trust.. Until proven otherwise

[Hal14]

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On Kornet starting... He actually is a little better at every category than most give him credit for except the one category I was hoping he would be better at and that is a knockdown shooter..

With the exception of Joel Embiid and or a team like golden state who spreads it out I actually think he can hold his own against most teams in the league...

His passing and defensive rebound are very underated.. But he doesn't get offensive rebounds since he drifts on the 3 point line.. Which would be a waste if hes not knocking down shots at a high enough clip..

But in Brad and Joe I trust.. Until proven otherwise

Fair points. But keep in mind, the guy he's replacing in the starting lineup can't shoot either. Kornet is at least a better shooter than Rob.

I think Mazzulla likes Kornet for 2 main reasons:

-familiarity with the system - 3rd year with the C's - 3rd year with Mazzulla
-Seems to be good at 0.5 second offense. Doesn't stand in 1 place for long, keeps moving. And when he gets the ball he doesn't hold on to it for long

Bigger, better rebounder, rim protector than Grant, better lob threat than Grant. More NBA experience, more experience with the team than Kabengele, more size than Kabengele..

[zoyathedestroya]

I think main reason they're trying out Kornet as the starting center is cos he's the best "facsimile"/placeholder we have for Timelord. My guess is they'd still employ the same defensive scheme with their double-big lineups -- 1 thru 4 switching and Kornet patrolling the baseline as weakside helper. I will shamelessly cite Kornet's "rim defense" last season even though it's a small sample mostly in garbage time. He was limiting opponents to 47.8% FG% from within 6 feet of the rim, 15.5 percentage points better than the norm of the players he defended. That mark is 3rd best among players who defended at least 20 FGAs.

[Crunch 99]

Good luck to Joe. Hopefully he'll have plenty of success with the Celtics and keep the off the court distractions to a minimum. I believe this makes Horford the only NBA player older than his head coach for the 2022-2023 season.

Joe Mazzulla sounds good in interviews. I suspect he will do a good job.

Mike Conley and Rudy Gay, like Horford, are older than their coach - Coach Hardy.

[playa-hater]

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On Kornet starting... He actually is a little better at every category than most give him credit for except the one category I was hoping he would be better at and that is a knockdown shooter..

With the exception of Joel Embiid and or a team like golden state who spreads it out I actually think he can hold his own against most teams in the league...

His passing and defensive rebound are very underated.. But he doesn't get offensive rebounds since he drifts on the 3 point line.. Which would be a waste if hes not knocking down shots at a high enough clip..

But in Brad and Joe I trust.. Until proven otherwise

Fair points. But keep in mind, the guy he's replacing in the starting lineup can't shoot either. Kornet is at least a better shooter than Rob.

I think Mazzulla likes Kornet for 2 main reasons:

-familiarity with the system - 3rd year with the C's - 3rd year with Mazzulla
-Seems to be good at 0.5 second offense. Doesn't stand in 1 place for long, keeps moving. And when he gets the ball he doesn't hold on to it for long

Bigger, better rebounder, rim protector than Grant, better lob threat than Grant. More NBA experience, more experience with the team than Kabengele, more size than Kabengele..

But Rob, knowing he doesn't want to shoot, stayed closed to rim for off rebounds and monster put backs. If you float out in 3 land, that can't be done. maybe starting with the Js provides a lift in confdence/open looks at therefor shooting pct increase.

[bisme37]

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[zoyathedestroya]

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D'Amico never says anything bad about the Celtics but I'll just take his word on this.

[Fencer reregistered]

Old article on the Mazzulla family.

https://atlantic10.com/news/2017/11/3/211676500.aspx

Joe came first, leading Bishop Hendricken High School to three straight state titles from 2004-2006. The scrappy guard went on to help West Virginia to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, finishing with a Final Four run in 2010.

Looking back, Justin couldn't have asked for a better role model to follow.

"I would see him be exuberant out on the court -- pounding his chest, slapping the floor, taking charges," Justin said. "Those type of things made me want to love the game like that, too."

Joe played a part in that growth. He made the transition to coaching right after his playing career ended, starting with an assistant gig at Glenmont State (W.V.) in 2011.

Justin began spending part of every summer in West Virginia with his brother. He appreciated the chance to be far away from the distractions of home and the way Joe put new-school twists on many of the fundamental drills their father had preached growing up.

Naturally, the brothers started their first workout of the day at 6 a.m. They usually went back to the gym around noon and then again in the evening.

Joe's practices were designed to hone Justin's dribbling, passing and shooting, but also to give him the intangibles he'd need at the next level. He pushed Justin's limits every summer, which is exactly why he kept coming back.

"It was a great experience because you got to spend quality time with your brother and also get a great workout in each and every day," Justin said with a grin. "Or two or three workouts."

In the photo, the brothers look a lot alike. So I presume whoever Joe's mystery mother was was also the mother of 10 years younger Justin.

[Fencer reregistered]

Ahh. Found a name. Latresa Mazzulla.

https://gwsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/justin-mazzulla/588

And with that we can see that the Globe mentioned her a few days ago too.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/28/sports/dont-know-much-about-joe-mazzulla-lets-catch-you-up-new-celtics-coach/

His Dad's personality might also add a little context to his own misbehavior as a young man and the claims that he has since outgrown it.

“I played against Joe’s old man back in the 1970s,” recalled Leo Papile, who invented the Boston Amateur Basketball Club and worked 16 years as Celtics scouting director and personnel director. “Danny Mazzulla was a Johnston, R.I., street legend.

“He was not a guy you’d want to be arguing with in a bar at 2 in the morning. That would just not end up good for you. He was like Jim Loscutoff and he was a hell of a player. We had a fistfight when we were playing against each other in a semi-pro game in North Providence in ’73, but we later became really good friends. He was a really good guy.”

[zoyathedestroya]

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[Hal14]

Mazzulla seems like a sharp guy. He was an assistant under Brad and then he was an assistant under Udoka.

I think Mazzulla is smart enough to take the things that Brad did well as coach and the things that Udoka did well as coach and work that stuff into what he does.

[Bill Bradley]

I like that he doesn’t wear a mask for interviews like Udoka did.

[zoyathedestroya]

Whoever's coaching the offense, I sincerely hope we try to play with more pace. None of the walking up the court and pounding of the ball until there's 12 seconds left in the shot clock even before getting into our first onball action. Part of our undoing in the Finals was letting the Dubs defense get set and making our slowdown deliberate offense become too predictable. Contrast that to Draymond and co. pushing the ball, make, TO, or miss whenever possible. If the excuse is fatigue, improve players conditioning or lengthen the rotation.

So far, so good.



Question becomes... What happens if and when we go back to double-big lineups? (I'm cool with this team being able to play every which way depending on who's available and who we're up against.)