How much upside does Joe have?

[Phantom255x]

Undefeated in his postseason career so far 

[Goldstar88]

I can't believe this guy is a COTY finalist 

That being said, Mike Brown deserves the award. How he turned that Kings team around, man, phenomenal.

I mean if your team has the 2nd best record in the NBA and you are #2 in offense/#2 in defense thats pretty good.

Its only people on this board who are down on Mazulla. Now

I think it's because as fans that are much more emotionally tied to the team, we tend to overlook the good and focus on the bad. So even if the team won 57 games, we focus on the bad ones among the 25 lost. If the team dominated a game in the first half but played poorly in the second half, we focus on the second half even if we won. (I'm sure if we played poorly in the 1nd half but turned it around and played well in the 2nd people wouldn't be so mad). We love stories of recovery and overcoming adversity - not so much cruising and then having to fight off a spirited comeback.

Each coach in the NBA has its own fans as its harshes critics. Not to say that Mazz doesn't deserve criticism, he certainly does. I feel it's just magnified a little because we as fans are anxious for this team to win. Ultimately that's what he will be judged on - winning an NBA championship. Probably not fair given he's a first year coach who took over in difficult circumstances but life isn't always fair 

Ozgod, will you please stop being so rational. I can’t take it. 

[#1P4P]

Mazz is a good HC. He handled the regular season well considering the circumstances of being suddenly thrust into the position and inconsistent player availability.

He’s done great at putting players in position to succeed and motivating the players to play well without burning the candle at both ends (like Udoka, Tom Thibodeau, and Nick Nurse).

There is room for improvement mainly in two areas:

1) knowing when to diverge from Mazzulla ball in favor of “old school basketball” (posting up isn’t part of his system, but Tatum has proven to be one of the best post up players and the Kings game is a prime example of that);

and 2) knowing when to deploy the bench in favor of a change in energy (there are certain games (or moments in them) when players don’t have their best stuff, where it’d be better suited for a change; the numbers won’t tell you why Payton Pritchard should be in the game instead of Smart, Brown, Brogdon, or White, the HC has to know and pull those strings (Brad Stevens was excellent at that)). For a cross sport reference, Degrom and other top SP are great pitchers, but on the inevitable days that they get lit up a fresh Joe Schmo from the bullpen is better.

I’m sure that he’s good enough to bring us back to the Championship; hopefully he’s good enough to win it once we’re there.

[smokeablount]

I’ve raised questions about Joe this year, but I thought he coached a really good game yesterday. I don’t like being so reliant on him and on Rob’s health, but if Joe handles business and Rob stays healthy, I think we’re the favorite.

[cman88]

I’ve raised questions about Joe this year, but I thought he coached a really good game yesterday. I don’t like being so reliant on him and on Rob’s health, but if Joe handles business and Rob stays healthy, I think we’re the favorite.

Honestly, Robs health is #1 importance to this run. The Celtics poor stretch where they lost the #1 seed came with Rob out. Then he came back and they started dominating again.

You could see it yesterday. When our first line of defense fails, his ability to just cover ground and cover up those mistakes is amazing

[jpotter33]

So - in his first playoff test, Joe is an absolute failure down the stretch when it mattered. No adjustments whatsoever on the Al coverage, with Al being hunted virtually every possession. And that's not even considering the awful rebounding he was giving up.

Just no trust in this guy. It's such a clear adjustment that he can't even bring himself to make given how green he is.

[Goldstar88]

So - in his first playoff test, Joe is an absolute failure down the stretch when it mattered. No adjustments whatsoever on the Al coverage, with Al being hunted virtually every possession. And that's not even considering the awful rebounding he was giving up.

Just no trust in this guy. It's such a clear adjustment that he can't even bring himself to make given how green he is.

Wasn’t game 1 his first playoff test? The team didn’t show up today. Same guys were out there as games 1 and 2 with the addition of Grant, who most thought would be part of the playoff rotation anyway. Gave up 130 points. Also, how was the coach responsible for the players not rebounding well tonight? Tatum had the same amount of rebounds as Smart, White, Horford, and Brown combined. Did he only coach up Jayson on how to rebound before the game started?

[jpotter33]

So - in his first playoff test, Joe is an absolute failure down the stretch when it mattered. No adjustments whatsoever on the Al coverage, with Al being hunted virtually every possession. And that's not even considering the awful rebounding he was giving up.

Just no trust in this guy. It's such a clear adjustment that he can't even bring himself to make given how green he is.

Wasn’t game 1 his first playoff test? The team didn’t show up today. Same guys were out there as games 1 and 2 with the addition of Grant, who most thought would be part of the playoff rotation anyway. Gave up 130 points. How was the coach responsible for the players not rebounding well tonight? Tatum had the same amount of rebounds as Smart, White, Horford, and Brown combined. Did he only coach up Jayson on how to rebound before the game started?

It was the first test for him because it was the first major adjustment. They really started attacking Al virtually every time down the court, which they hadn't done before. I didn't really notice any major game adjustments by either team that required a major response from the other team.

Clearly this isn't all on Joe, or even really primarily on Joe. But down the stretch - yes, he failed tonight. That's an obvious adjustment that should've been made when they consistently killed Al.

[SHAQATTACK]

Since there are no KG types on C’s ,  it’s up to the coach to toss a chair , or whatever it takes to get them to focus and not take the night off .  The coach is their leader , he needs to step up and light the fire demand attention to detail on the court.  He failed against the Hawks

[ozgod]

Since there are no KG types on C’s ,  it’s up to the coach to toss a chair , or whatever it takes to get them to focus and not take the night off .  The coach is their leader , he needs to step up and light the fire demand attention to detail on the court.  He failed against the Hawks

Smartacus says hello 



Though I don't think any of us would like a repeat of those bad old days 

[Sophomore]

The one time Joe really had me scratching my head last night was his decision to play Muscala. Hawks are a pick and roll team with a quick PG - no way he could keep up. Hawks attacked him three times in a row and it bent our defense easily - everyone was scrambling to make up for him. Good news was: after about a minute he’d seen enough and pulled him out. Let’s not make that mistake again .

[Vermont Green]

It doesn't seem that Joe can win here.  We loose, it is Joe's fault, should have called more time outs.  We win, it was in spite of Joe's coaching.  We have a bad game, Joe should have thrown a chair in the locker room.

I don't know how good a coach he is right now and I don't know how much upside he has.  But to me, he is doing just fine in his first season, after being thrown into it under difficult circumstances.  Sure, he inherited a really good team, but so didn't Ime.

One thing I do believe is that no matter what Joe does this season, next season should be better, maybe much better.  And this season hasn't been all that bad, rather it has been really good. 

It is really hard to judge a coach on one season or one playoff run.  Maybe the players are carrying the coach.  The coach is just rolling the ball out there.  Maybe the team is just really bad (look at Pop in SAN the last few years).   But how bad can Joe be even in the worst case, based on the results of this season so far?

[Phantom255x]

I thought Mazzulla had a pretty good game last night, and pushed a lot of the right buttons.

I guess if anything, I thought he let some of the ATL runs go on too long, but there were times when he called timeouts when he didn't have to and I thought those were smart timeouts (and so did others on the GDT). I mean, if your expecting him to be 100% perfect all the way, then I'm with @Vermont Green, he can't win here on these Forums lol. And by that logic, every coach in the league sucks.

I saw his speech postgame to the locker room, and it does seem clear to me the team buys into him and loves him. It's not like CBS when they clearly tuned him out, and frankly even with Ime it took him a few months before the guys bought in around the 2nd half last season. I don't think it's an issue of "buy-in" or if "he's their guy". Tatum in particular seems to love him which I think is key.

[Ed Monix]

Stephen Silas watching Celtics practice, perhaps he’s joining Mazzulla’s staff?

[jpotter33]

And another blown 4th quarter lead with no timeouts or adjustments from incompetent Joe. How anyone has any trust in this  guys whatsoever is beyond me. He literally sat there in the fourth quarter and watched us give up a 15-4 extended run with 4 TOs without making any adjustments or calling any timeouts to set up a good shot until 9 seconds left in the game and already critically behind.

So ridiculous. SO many of us were told that "this is just an early season tactic to build trust in his guys" and it wouldn't happen in the postseason. So much for that.