i'd buy the 'Joe was terrible in the playoffs last year' argument if the team hadn't fallen to the same exact tendencies we had seen under Brad and under Ime at different times in the playoffs. those other coaches had more support at the time, including by their coaching staff, than Joe did.
when i hear Mazzulla criticism, it often follows an assumption that he is a bad coach and then it becomes easy, crystal clear even, to confirm that as true. tough for me to take confirmation bias as evidence.
the guy was certainly in a tough position last year and was almost destined to be better in his second and third years of coaching (see Brad and Spoelstra for other young head coach examples). even if his coaching was particularly to blame last year, it is nonsensical to use his first year to inform opinions about this year when the evidence of those weaknesses is relatively lacking to this point. he'll be a liability when he becomes one. until then, there's no reason to focus on the coaching staff as a weakness because it is based on presupposition.