Joe Mazzulla returning for 2023-24 season

[Who]

This reminds me of OKC with Durant & Westbrook. Wasting their title window on Scotty Brooks (young inexperienced head coach) who was clearly out of his depth but management (Presti) stayed loyal to him instead of bringing in an experienced accomplished head coach to take them to the mountain top.

Then when Presti finally does move on from S Brooks, he replaces Brooks with a college head coach who has never coached in the NBA. For a title contender! Durant leaves the next summer.

It was complete mismanagement by Presti and it may have (likely did in my opinion) cost them a Championship(s).

I see PBS doing the same thing here with Mazzula.

[Who]

I believe that Brad and Joe and everyone else involved wants to win titles, but I also get the impression from them that they're like, "Yeah, we want titles, but what we care most about is putting a good product on the floor and creating a pleasant atmosphere for our players and fans ... and if we happen to win any titles, that's great too."

Yep. I see the same thing.

Process is king. Focusing on process has many benefits but it shouldn't be your only view point. This group appear to be trapped by a singular view; one that lacks urgency and fails to capture the opportunities of the moment.

[Who]

Some people talk about process, and things taking time, and there's a lot of truth to that, but this team needs to grow beyond being a team that just gets to the ECF (and a one-off NBA Finals loss). I know, I'm just an entitled fan. I get it. But this is the Boston Celtics, for Pete's sake. Since the last Bird title ('86), the Celtics have 1 championship ... and the Lakers have 8. EIGHT. I get that L.A. is a more attractive locale than Boston to many people, but please find a way to correct this injustice.

Good post, but I want to highlight something interesting that I read somewhere else on the Coaching/GM/Ownership triangle: that coaches care about process, owners care about results, and executives care about a mix of the two. I'd link to iut, but unfortunately I can't remember where I read it.

If we take this as a reasonable breakdown, Stevens obviously leans more towards the process, Wyc & company are probably happy enough with the results (aside from the opening matches of the ECF) given the circumstances - losing in 7 vs winning in 7 - and the thought process is that having continuity at the head coaching position is important, especially with the slap dash nature of the coaching circle this season.

I understand wanting stability, but I think they made a mistake by giving the reins to Joe in the first place, and compounded it by extending him. I feel like the price of this stability will be a retarded growth process for the team as they wait for their coach to catch up.

Stability is a pointless goal when you have incompetent people (like Mazzula) at the helm.

Quality first. Then Stability.

[ozgod]

Brad Stevens just announce that Joe Mazzulla will return for 2023-24 season, so there’s that

Not surprised. I always felt he was a very long shot to be fired. Stevens is a very deliberative person and he probably focused less on what Joe just missed out on but more on what Joe achieved and nearly achieved, and what his potential to learn and grow is. I don't think he hires and fires coaches with a championship or bust mentality - he probably thinks about whether Joe can overcome his flaws and if there's some runway there for him to take off. The only scenario where I saw Joe being fired is if he had done an Ime and violated a Celtics rule that made keeping him untenable, or if he had lost the trust and support of the players. Neither happened, so Brad was more than willing to give Joe a pass on the season (which when we look back at it was successful relative to all but 2 other teams in the league) but I think this year Joe will be graded on a steeper curve after a year in the NBA, particularly in terms of learning from his mistakes.

[ozgod]

Some people talk about process, and things taking time, and there's a lot of truth to that, but this team needs to grow beyond being a team that just gets to the ECF (and a one-off NBA Finals loss). I know, I'm just an entitled fan. I get it. But this is the Boston Celtics, for Pete's sake. Since the last Bird title ('86), the Celtics have 1 championship ... and the Lakers have 8. EIGHT. I get that L.A. is a more attractive locale than Boston to many people, but please find a way to correct this injustice.

Good post, but I want to highlight something interesting that I read somewhere else on the Coaching/GM/Ownership triangle: that coaches care about process, owners care about results, and executives care about a mix of the two. I'd link to iut, but unfortunately I can't remember where I read it.

If we take this as a reasonable breakdown, Stevens obviously leans more towards the process, Wyc & company are probably happy enough with the results (aside from the opening matches of the ECF) given the circumstances - losing in 7 vs winning in 7 - and the thought process is that having continuity at the head coaching position is important, especially with the slap dash nature of the coaching circle this season.

My take in it would be: Mazz cares about process, Wyc cares about revenue and cash flow, fans care about results and championships, and Brad cares about a mix of the three 

[Who]

Some people talk about process, and things taking time, and there's a lot of truth to that, but this team needs to grow beyond being a team that just gets to the ECF (and a one-off NBA Finals loss). I know, I'm just an entitled fan. I get it. But this is the Boston Celtics, for Pete's sake. Since the last Bird title ('86), the Celtics have 1 championship ... and the Lakers have 8. EIGHT. I get that L.A. is a more attractive locale than Boston to many people, but please find a way to correct this injustice.

Good post, but I want to highlight something interesting that I read somewhere else on the Coaching/GM/Ownership triangle: that coaches care about process, owners care about results, and executives care about a mix of the two. I'd link to iut, but unfortunately I can't remember where I read it.

If we take this as a reasonable breakdown, Stevens obviously leans more towards the process, Wyc & company are probably happy enough with the results (aside from the opening matches of the ECF) given the circumstances - losing in 7 vs winning in 7 - and the thought process is that having continuity at the head coaching position is important, especially with the slap dash nature of the coaching circle this season.

My take in it would be: Mazz cares about process, Wyc cares about revenue and cash flow, fans care about results and championships, and Brad cares about a mix of the three 

I look at these three levels as:

Owner = CEO = defines long term goals aka win a title

Front office / GM = upper management, take the CEO's long term vision (aka win titles) and make medium to long term plans (3-5yrs) to make that vision a reality.

Head coach = lower level management = like a store manager. Concerned with the immediate running of the business. Only concerned with short term plans. Responsible for day-to-day running of the business.

[CelticSooner]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

[Who]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Yeah, I feel that too. Settling for being very good instead of pushing for being great.

You should be happy that we are very good and will be very good for a long time. Isn't that better than winning a title? Multiple 50+ win seasons and few bad season or more up and down with titles and more bad seasons mixed in. Not good. Better to have multiple 50 win seasons. Look how well we are run. We have more winning seasons than these other teams. We do not win titles, sure. But we win regular season games. We have good times every year. No great times. But good times. Good times are good.

You should not worry about titles. They are not important. It is about having fun. Not winning. That is toxic-competitiveness. Not good. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the road. The destination does not matter.

[trickybilly]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Yeah, I feel that too. Settling for being very good instead of pushing for being great.

You should be happy that we are very good and will be very good for a long time. Isn't that better than winning a title? Multiple 50+ win seasons and few bad season or more up and down with titles and more bad seasons mixed in. Not good. Better to have multiple 50 win seasons. Look how well we are run. We have more winning seasons than these other teams. We do not win titles, sure. But we win regular season games. We have good times every year. No great times. But good times. Good times are good.

You should not worry about titles. They are not important. It is about having fun. Not winning. That is toxic-competitiveness. Not good. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the road. The destination does not matter.

My friend who's a Nuggets fan agrees.

[SparzWizard]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Yeah, I feel that too. Settling for being very good instead of pushing for being great.

You should be happy that we are very good and will be very good for a long time. Isn't that better than winning a title? Multiple 50+ win seasons and few bad season or more up and down with titles and more bad seasons mixed in. Not good. Better to have multiple 50 win seasons. Look how well we are run. We have more winning seasons than these other teams. We do not win titles, sure. But we win regular season games. We have good times every year. No great times. But good times. Good times are good.

You should not worry about titles. They are not important. It is about having fun. Not winning. That is toxic-competitiveness. Not good. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the road. The destination does not matter.

You wanna be the Atlanta Hawks of 2008 - 2016? Always make playoffs but can't get over the ECF hump? Or the Detroit Pistons of 2003 - 2008 where you make it to multiple ECFs but lose? This is how this team looks like

[Indocelts]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Brad has been 10 years with the Celtics as the coach and GM with no championship banner. A very patient man who will wait until the moon and stars perfectly align.

[kraidstar]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Yeah, I feel that too. Settling for being very good instead of pushing for being great.

You should be happy that we are very good and will be very good for a long time. Isn't that better than winning a title? Multiple 50+ win seasons and few bad season or more up and down with titles and more bad seasons mixed in. Not good. Better to have multiple 50 win seasons. Look how well we are run. We have more winning seasons than these other teams. We do not win titles, sure. But we win regular season games. We have good times every year. No great times. But good times. Good times are good.

You should not worry about titles. They are not important. It is about having fun. Not winning. That is toxic-competitiveness. Not good. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the road. The destination does not matter.

Wow

[mr. dee]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Yeah, I feel that too. Settling for being very good instead of pushing for being great.

You should be happy that we are very good and will be very good for a long time. Isn't that better than winning a title? Multiple 50+ win seasons and few bad season or more up and down with titles and more bad seasons mixed in. Not good. Better to have multiple 50 win seasons. Look how well we are run. We have more winning seasons than these other teams. We do not win titles, sure. But we win regular season games. We have good times every year. No great times. But good times. Good times are good.

You should not worry about titles. They are not important. It is about having fun. Not winning. That is toxic-competitiveness. Not good. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the road. The destination does not matter.

You wanna be the Atlanta Hawks of 2008 - 2016? Always make playoffs but can't get over the ECF hump? Or the Detroit Pistons of 2003 - 2008 where you make it to multiple ECFs but lose? This is how this team looks like

Pistons had at least one title to show for it. This team have none. We are more like the 2000s New Jersey Nets than the Pistons

[kraidstar]

Listening to that Stevens press conference it's even more clear that this franchise doesn't take accountability. The term "better than most" now applies to the Boston Celtics. Are you truly committed to winning titles or just deep playoff runs? This isn't some small college team just happy with making a tournament run, this is professional basketball.

Yeah, I feel that too. Settling for being very good instead of pushing for being great.

You should be happy that we are very good and will be very good for a long time. Isn't that better than winning a title? Multiple 50+ win seasons and few bad season or more up and down with titles and more bad seasons mixed in. Not good. Better to have multiple 50 win seasons. Look how well we are run. We have more winning seasons than these other teams. We do not win titles, sure. But we win regular season games. We have good times every year. No great times. But good times. Good times are good.

You should not worry about titles. They are not important. It is about having fun. Not winning. That is toxic-competitiveness. Not good. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the road. The destination does not matter.

You wanna be the Atlanta Hawks of 2008 - 2016? Always make playoffs but can't get over the ECF hump? Or the Detroit Pistons of 2003 - 2008 where you make it to multiple ECFs but lose? This is how this team looks like

Pistons had at least one title to show for it. This team have none. We are more like the 2000s New Jersey Nets than the Pistons

We're the KD Thunder. No ball movement, not enough inside scoring, too much jump shooting. And, as "Who" noted, an inexperienced coach who lacks the ability and credibility to correct our problems.

[TheReaLPuba]

Joe is the best fit for this team.

Players know him.

There has to be some continuity guys.

We can the flipping coaches and schemes every year.

And if not Joe who else is there??

Doc Rivers anyone?