Joe Mazzulla Thread, Head Coach

[31to6]

Joe came to OKC to chew bubble gum and get his ass kicked and he’s got LOTS more bubble gum!

[Romeiro Celtic]

Joe Mazzula should be fired. Whenever possible, but the sooner the better.

[Hal14]

Joe Mazzula should be fired. Whenever possible, but the sooner the better.

Guessing you're one of the clowns who wanted Udoka fired at this same time last year.

[Floody100]

Joe Mazzula should be fired. Whenever possible, but the sooner the better.

Guessing you're one of the clowns who wanted Udoka fired at this same time last year.

You’re not a very smart individual if you don’t think Joe’s the wrong guy.

[Floody100]

I hope people understand that the reason Joe doesn’t call timeouts when he should isn’t because he wants the players to figure it out themselves but because he has no idea what to tell them they should do.

[Hal14]

I hope people understand that the reason Joe doesn’t call timeouts when he should isn’t because he wants the players to figure it out themselves but because he has no idea what to tell them they should do.

he's already explained his timeout strategy multiple times in interviews. But sure, go ahead with your theories that don't have any substance.

[ThePigeon]

The next game is a big test for Joe IMO
If the team starts flat again, there is a huge problem
I wonder what the starting 5 will be and if there will be tweaks to the way we play, as it seems that what we do in the last 10-12 games isn't working

[MagicBagley18]

As I’ve written now for the 10th time….I give joe the same leeway I gave ime. He deserves that much and as “bad” as things are we are still currently tied for 1st in the east conference with one of the best records in the league. I do think joe is an intelligent basketball mind despite what some here have said.

My consistent fear since we knew ime wasn’t coming back was what type of demeanor the new coach would have. It’s my belief that this group of guys works better with a coach that can hold them accountable, call them out and then still be able to be personable and compassionate enough for them to respect and really enjoy playing for. For all his flaws ime did this very well.

Some will say oh so you liked ime because he “yells” and sure, when you see a coach calling out guys like a fan does on the sideline that’s entertaining but it’s way more nuanced than that and just saying that really dumbs down what ime did. Ime had complete buy in from guys and respect that came from a long nba career. The guys knew that he was asking them only to do stuff that he himself had done in his career and always the “dirty stuff”. Tommy points.

I do think joe is a good coach. I am not giving up on him or saying that ultimately he won’t shut any criticism up by the end of season but when the organization pivoted from stevens to ime- I likened it to many many years back in a different sport when Tampa bay went from dungy to gruden. Both were very good coaches with very different styles. I just fear joe is a repackaged brad stevens (which again isn’t a bad thing).

I’m still confident about this team and pretty confident joe quells my fears but I just think this group of guys with guys like smart, Tatum, brown etc who are all tough guys who’ve been through a lot needs a coach who can nip these occasional bad habits and lackadaisical effort at times in the bed in a way more direct and in your face way while still being able to be a players coach at times.

I’m not sure that’s joe…yet

[MagicBagley18]

Should also just mentioned my point about the grit plays was just one point of emphasis….I

see other things from him that make me feel this. Particularly his post game comments, his handling of in game stuff and certain things with certain players on offense that are in direct contradiction to what was said to be goals in the offseason.

[shackles10]

I think if he had an entire off-season, a training camp without distraction, and team knowing what kind of coach they’d have going into the season would make a big difference for Joe too. Unfair to ask him to be Ime Jr. when that’s not him, and the players were expecting to come in looking to pick up where they left off and hear the same message from coaching. It’s Joe’s job to lose now and he’ll get criticism and praise like every coach who wasn’t thrown into that mess, but Ime to blame for all of that other stuff.

[Hal14]

All I'm gonna add is 2 things:

1) I think Joe is a good coach. Not ready to give up on him. All I'm saying is we should have added at least someone to the coaching staff. We lost Udoka and Hardy from last season's staff and didn't add anyone to replace them. That's a bummer to lose 2 good coaches from your staff and not replace either of them. I'm starting to think that we could use an extra pair of eyes on the bench, an extra mind, someone on the bench who has some different experiences / different perspectives - a different voice.

Thing is, it was a tough spot for Brad. Hardy left for Utah. Brad probably thought about trying to replace him. Maybe he interviewed some guys but just didn't find the right fit and probably figured we'd be ok with the staff as is - so he instead focused his time on roster moves.

But then Udoka got suspended and now all of a sudden Brad is scrambling to a) figure out who the head coach will be (seems like Brad pretty much knew it was gonna be Joe, without having to think about it a whole lot) and b) try to find another assistant.

The timing was tricky - it's tough to find a new assistant on such short notice, right before the season started. And you got to not only find a guy who is available, wants to coach here, wants to be an assistant, but you also need to have that guy get the approval of Brad, Wyc and Joe. All of that with only like 2 weeks before the season tips off and training camp already rolling.

I would think someone like James Borrego, Lloyd Pierce or Jay Larranaga (maybe even Evan Turner) could have been good to add as an assistant.

With that being said, word got out (at least internally to Brad and some others within the organization) that Udoka was doing sketchy stuff in what, June/July? Even though Udoka wasn't suspended till October, Brad could have been anticipating Udoka might get suspended and then once Hardy left for Utah, he could have been more aggressive with finding another assistant. Oh well..

2) Many on here are so quick to blame the coach anytime something goes wrong with the team (it's not just Mazzulla, fans did it with Brad, Udoka, etc.). But the reality is, it's a player's league. For the most part, the players win games and the players lose games.

Also, we need to be careful to not over-analyze these coaches. Why? With players, we see them play on the court. Their play speaks for itself. Everything they do is out there in the open, for everyone to see. We can more easily judge their performance, whether they're doing well or poorly because we can not only see every play they make with our eyes, but we also have tons of different statistics available for the players performance.

That is NOT the case with coaches. We do not hear what they say in the locker room. We don't hear what they say on the team plane. We see VERY limited footage of team practices to know what goes on there. We don't hear what the coach says during timeouts, what he says to the players on the bench during games, what he says to players on the court during games. There's NO statistics for coaches, other than wins and losses.

As a result, people on here (or Twitter, facebook) will try to use things that a coach says in a press conference against him. Because we have no stats for the coaches and it's far less obvious whether they are performing well or poorly than it is with the players so fans on here will be like "oh he said this in an interview so he's clueless!" Um, not really. Who cares what someone says in an interview. I take it with a grain of salt. I mean, some players/coaches just aren't great at giving interviews or they don't really like having to do them so they'll just say whatever they can think of, to get that question over with. Look at Belichik - horrible at giving interviews, all-time great coach.

That's why I actually find it pretty funny some of the things people say about Mazzulla (and other coaches, for that matter). People will write post after post on here bashing coaches, criticizing them. When 90% of what they do happens behind closed doors or it happens at games but we can't see/hear it.

That's why I don't really criticize coaches much. Players, sure - pretty much everything they do in terms of their contribution to the team, we can see it on the court..

[shackles10]

Fair points on while the suspension happened only a bit before camp, it seems they knew it was possible, pending investigation, for much longer. Can you really go out and talk to guys to fill out a staff because your head coach might be in trouble and still keep it in house? Definitely not… but you can go out and fill out a staff because your lead assistant left and let everything think that’s the only reason why. They were either very hopeful or not prepared, and “hope” is not a plan.

[ConstableGeneva]

Joe was elevated to interim coach. Damon elevated to lead assistant.

Hardy and Mazzulla were replaced by DJ MacLeay and Matt Reynolds. So they found replacements, just not the ones you probably wanted.

[shackles10]

MacLeay and Reynolds filled out Ime’s staff last year I thought.

[Hal14]

Joe was elevated to interim coach. Damon elevated to lead assistant.

Hardy and Mazzulla were replaced by DJ MacLeay and Matt Reynolds. So they found replacements, just not the ones you probably wanted.

Ok, I stand corrected. Never heard of either of those guys..

This article from 10/14 says Brad explored adding another assistant but decided to keep this staff as is..

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/report-celtics-dont-plan-add-coaching-staff-roster-game-1

[Memokerobi]

I think Joe is a good coach, but I fear the player empowerment strategy is not working well. Effort has been an issue since the Magic games. We got beat by them in our own arena, had a chance to come out and get immediate revenge but fell flat again and then came out against Indiana and did not play defense to fall behind by 30. We lost to the Nuggets, had an opportunity to respond against a bad team and came out flat again. This is not a team that can switch it on and off whenever they want like the Warriors for example, they aren't mature enough yet. That's why Udoka's tough love worked in a relatively short period of time. We can write and think all we want about Udoka but I'd be very surprised if most of our important players in that locker room did not wish Udoka was coaching them right now

[Hal14]

I think Joe is a good coach, but I fear the player empowerment strategy is not working well. Effort has been an issue since the Magic games. We got beat by them in our own arena, had a chance to come out and get immediate revenge but fell flat again and then came out against Indiana and did not play defense to fall behind by 30. We lost to the Nuggets, had an opportunity to respond against a bad team and came out flat again. This is not a team that can switch it on and off whenever they want like the Warriors for example, they aren't mature enough yet. That's why Udoka's tough love worked in a relatively short period of time. We can write and think all we want about Udoka but I'd be very surprised if most of our important players in that locker room did not wish Udoka was coaching them right now

Udoka was 18-20 at this time last year. Joe is 26-12.

That was 3 months ago it was announced that Udoka was suspended for the season - I think the players have moved on.

Also, odd that you point out games we played poorly in recently while conveniently ignoring the whooping we just gave the Bucks on Christmas or the strong win we just had over the Clippers, the blowout win over houston, etc.

[Memokerobi]

I think Joe is a good coach, but I fear the player empowerment strategy is not working well. Effort has been an issue since the Magic games. We got beat by them in our own arena, had a chance to come out and get immediate revenge but fell flat again and then came out against Indiana and did not play defense to fall behind by 30. We lost to the Nuggets, had an opportunity to respond against a bad team and came out flat again. This is not a team that can switch it on and off whenever they want like the Warriors for example, they aren't mature enough yet. That's why Udoka's tough love worked in a relatively short period of time. We can write and think all we want about Udoka but I'd be very surprised if most of our important players in that locker room did not wish Udoka was coaching them right now

Udoka was 18-20 at this time last year. Joe is 26-12.

That was 3 months ago it was announced that Udoka was suspended for the season - I think the players have moved on.

Also, odd that you point out games we played poorly in recently while conveniently ignoring the whooping we just gave the Bucks on Christmas or the strong win we just had over the Clippers, the blowout win over houston, etc.

This is not an apples to apples comparison, I'm sure you're aware. Not roster wise and not where they picked up both teams. Udoka picked up a .500 team coming off a 4-1 first round exit. Mazzulla took over a finals team that was 2 wins away from a championship. You can't just compare their records at the same points in the season and say Joe is better. I think Joe went through his honeymoon period and is now facing adversity, lets see how he and the team responds. I'm not saying he'll be a failure he's still a rookie coach and there are a lot of games to play but we've been struggling for a while now and effort has been declining not improving

[MagicBagley18]

All I'm gonna add is 2 things:

1) I think Joe is a good coach. Not ready to give up on him. All I'm saying is we should have added at least someone to the coaching staff. We lost Udoka and Hardy from last season's staff and didn't add anyone to replace them. That's a bummer to lose 2 good coaches from your staff and not replace either of them. I'm starting to think that we could use an extra pair of eyes on the bench, an extra mind, someone on the bench who has some different experiences / different perspectives - a different voice.

Thing is, it was a tough spot for Brad. Hardy left for Utah. Brad probably thought about trying to replace him. Maybe he interviewed some guys but just didn't find the right fit and probably figured we'd be ok with the staff as is - so he instead focused his time on roster moves.

But then Udoka got suspended and now all of a sudden Brad is scrambling to a) figure out who the head coach will be (seems like Brad pretty much knew it was gonna be Joe, without having to think about it a whole lot) and b) try to find another assistant.

The timing was tricky - it's tough to find a new assistant on such short notice, right before the season started. And you got to not only find a guy who is available, wants to coach here, wants to be an assistant, but you also need to have that guy get the approval of Brad, Wyc and Joe. All of that with only like 2 weeks before the season tips off and training camp already rolling.

I would think someone like James Borrego, Lloyd Pierce or Jay Larranaga (maybe even Evan Turner) could have been good to add as an assistant.

With that being said, word got out (at least internally to Brad and some others within the organization) that Udoka was doing sketchy stuff in what, June/July? Even though Udoka wasn't suspended till October, Brad could have been anticipating Udoka might get suspended and then once Hardy left for Utah, he could have been more aggressive with finding another assistant. Oh well..

2) Many on here are so quick to blame the coach anytime something goes wrong with the team (it's not just Mazzulla, fans did it with Brad, Udoka, etc.). But the reality is, it's a player's league. For the most part, the players win games and the players lose games.

Also, we need to be careful to not over-analyze these coaches. Why? With players, we see them play on the court. Their play speaks for itself. Everything they do is out there in the open, for everyone to see. We can more easily judge their performance, whether they're doing well or poorly because we can not only see every play they make with our eyes, but we also have tons of different statistics available for the players performance.

That is NOT the case with coaches. We do not hear what they say in the locker room. We don't hear what they say on the team plane. We see VERY limited footage of team practices to know what goes on there. We don't hear what the coach says during timeouts, what he says to the players on the bench during games, what he says to players on the court during games. There's NO statistics for coaches, other than wins and losses.

As a result, people on here (or Twitter, facebook) will try to use things that a coach says in a press conference against him. Because we have no stats for the coaches and it's far less obvious whether they are performing well or poorly than it is with the players so fans on here will be like "oh he said this in an interview so he's clueless!" Um, not really. Who cares what someone says in an interview. I take it with a grain of salt. I mean, some players/coaches just aren't great at giving interviews or they don't really like having to do them so they'll just say whatever they can think of, to get that question over with. Look at Belichik - horrible at giving interviews, all-time great coach.

That's why I actually find it pretty funny some of the things people say about Mazzulla (and other coaches, for that matter). People will write post after post on here bashing coaches, criticizing them. When 90% of what they do happens behind closed doors or it happens at games but we can't see/hear it.

That's why I don't really criticize coaches much. Players, sure - pretty much everything they do in terms of their contribution to the team, we can see it on the court..

The interviews post game and pre game only matter when what’s said isn’t correlating to what’s happening on the court. Sure, things happen behind closed doors I agree with you but what happens behind closed doors is very easy to see (both positive and negative) played out on the actual court and actual games.

[Hal14]

I think Joe is a good coach, but I fear the player empowerment strategy is not working well. Effort has been an issue since the Magic games. We got beat by them in our own arena, had a chance to come out and get immediate revenge but fell flat again and then came out against Indiana and did not play defense to fall behind by 30. We lost to the Nuggets, had an opportunity to respond against a bad team and came out flat again. This is not a team that can switch it on and off whenever they want like the Warriors for example, they aren't mature enough yet. That's why Udoka's tough love worked in a relatively short period of time. We can write and think all we want about Udoka but I'd be very surprised if most of our important players in that locker room did not wish Udoka was coaching them right now

Udoka was 18-20 at this time last year. Joe is 26-12.

That was 3 months ago it was announced that Udoka was suspended for the season - I think the players have moved on.

Also, odd that you point out games we played poorly in recently while conveniently ignoring the whooping we just gave the Bucks on Christmas or the strong win we just had over the Clippers, the blowout win over houston, etc.

This is not an apples to apples comparison, I'm sure you're aware. Not roster wise and not where they picked up both teams. Udoka picked up a .500 team coming off a 4-1 first round exit. Mazzulla took over a finals team that was 2 wins away from a championship. You can't just compare their records at the same points in the season and say Joe is better. I think Joe went through his honeymoon period and is now facing adversity, lets see how he and the team responds. I'm not saying he'll be a failure he's still a rookie coach and there are a lot of games to play but we've been struggling for a while now and effort has been declining not improving

This post is missing lots of context.

Saying Udoka picked up a .500 team that lost 4-1 in the 1st round is misleading. Our 2020-2021 team had more key players miss games to injuries/illness than any team in the league. We were the 7 seed but would have been top 4 seed with better health - and then we would have been playing an easier team in the 1st round than the Nets. We went 10-3 that season during the 13 games where rob/tatum/brown all started together. Also, Brad lost the locker room that season, clearly didn't really want to coach anymore. So we were clearly much better than a .500 team. And jaylen was out during the nets series. Rob and Kemba were hurt too. So it's misleading to say we lost that series 4-1.

And even though we were .500 and lost in 1st round in 2021, the fact is that our core group of guys made the ECF in 2017, 2018 and 2020 so it's not like Udoka took over some crap team that had never gotten out of the 1st round - he took over a team with a core group who had played in 3 conference finals together.

Then Udoka benefitted from the fact that the roster was much better with Al than it was previously with Kemba.

Udoka also had a healthy Rob, whereas Rob has been out for pretty much all of the games Mazzulla has coached so far.

Also, I disagree with people who say "oh, Mazzulla took over a team that went to the NBA finals" yeah, you know what? The Suns had the best record in the league last year, they're 20-18 now..we're 26-12. The warriors won the NBA finals last year, now they're 20-18. We're 26-12. The Heat were the #1 seed in the east last year, now they're 20-18, we're 26-12. We had same record as the Bucks last year, yet now we're 1.5 games up on them and blew them out on Christmas, etc. And none of those teams (Suns, Warriors, Bucks, Heat) have a 1st year head coach who just got the job the day before training camp.

Lastly, nowhere did I say Mazzulla is a better coach than Udoka. I'm simply pushing back on the notion that Udoka is the right coach for this team and Mazzulla is not - which is what your post said.