CANTON — The Boston Celtics all said the right things at media day.
They love Joe. They respect Joe. They’re glad Joe is the guy. Joe Mazzulla knows the system which should make it an easy transition.
Obviously, that’s a good place to start from as Mazzulla takes over on the Boston bench for Ime Udoka, who is suspended for at least the 2022-23 season. But everybody is always positive on media day.
Practice starts Tuesday and the 34-year-old elevated assistant coach is in a near impossible position. He’s been named the interim head coach, the ultimate stuck-in limbo title. Maybe Udoka is coming back next year. Maybe the team will go another direction altogether with time to run a proper search. There are no guarantees, which makes it hard to command respect from the players.
Even if he was the permanent head coach, leading this team, this year is hard. He has to help heal a group wounded by this unexpected upheaval. At the same time, he has to continue to push a collection of players, who have historically needed a little prodding. It’s a challenging contortion to put your arm around someone’s shoulder while kicking them in the keister. This Celtics team needs both.
If the Celtics still thrive and make another deep postseason run, he’ll be the guy that was dealt a winning hand. If they fail, he’ll be blamed for messing it up.
He’s taking over for a coach that led the team to the NBA Finals. Whatever Udoka did off the court, he was a terrific leader on it. After a rocky start, the buttons he pressed and the levers he pulled turned into victories.
If the Celtics have a rocky stretch early, it’s going to remind players that Mazzulla isn’t Udoka.
The most impressive thing Joe Mazzulla said as he spoke to reporters at Monday’s media day is that he knows he’s not ready.
“Listen you’re never really ready. I’ve been a head coach before, and what I learned from year one to year two from that standpoint was that I wasn’t ready,” he said. “It wasn’t because I didn’t work at it. It wasn’t because I didn’t prepare. It was because there’s certain things that you have to learn on the job. And so year two was much different than year one for me, and I’m really able to pull from those experiences. ... I’ve worked for a lot of great head coaches and played for great head coaches, and I think it’s about taking a formula of what worked for those guys and how I can make it into making these players better.”
More than likely, a large chunk of Joe Mazzulla’s success or failure will be tied to how much Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart trust him and how much leeway they give him if they don’t agree with a decision early.
They bought in and trusted Udoka and it worked. Mazzulla needs them to do it again.
Ad Choices