How good is Coach Maz? (Update: Interim Removed)

[jpotter33]

I think coach Maz is an excellent coach who took over a bad situation and made it work!

“Bad situation” is an overstatement.

Yes, he was thrown in there on short notice due to the Ime situation, but he was gift wrapped the best roster in the league who has been the favorite for the title since day one. That’s hardly that bad of a situation.

I think the team’s success and highly talented roster definitely have covered up some of his mistakes and inexperience. On the flip side, I do think some of his mistakes have been magnified due to when they occurred at the end of games, and I and others have probably been a bit too hard on him given the timing and visibility of his mistakes, which are at least explainable as a first year coach.

I think he’s a decent coach, but it’s hard to really judge how good of a coach he is given the roster he was given. Hopefully he continues to improve moving forward, as I definitely have seen improvements. But he’s still got a long way to go regarding in-game management before many of us are truly comfortable with him leading us in the playoffs.

[angryguy77]

If we flame out in the ECF, it will be interesting to see this thread revisited.
Hopefully we won't, hopefully he proves some like me had bad takes over the year.

[Goldstar88]

I think coach Maz is an excellent coach who took over a bad situation and made it work!

“Bad situation” is an overstatement.

Yes, he was thrown in there on short notice due to the Ime situation, but he was gift wrapped the best roster in the league who has been the favorite for the title since day one. That’s hardly that bad of a situation.

I think the team’s success and highly talented roster definitely have covered up some of his mistakes and inexperience. On the flip side, I do think some of his mistakes have been magnified due to when they occurred at the end of games, and I and others have probably been a bit too hard on him given the timing and visibility of his mistakes, which are at least explainable as a first year coach.

I think he’s a decent coach, but it’s hard to really judge how good of a coach he is given the roster he was given. Hopefully he continues to improve moving forward, as I definitely have seen improvements. But he’s still got a long way to go regarding in-game management before many of us are truly comfortable with him leading us in the playoffs.

You could say that about Ime as well. Brad took the C’s to the ECF, following year the team started tuning him out, then Ime was hired in the off-season. Udoka took over a very talented team.

[Donoghus]

For whatever it is worth at the moment. 

After 59 games.

'21-22: 34-25

'22-23: 42-17

[jpotter33]

I think coach Maz is an excellent coach who took over a bad situation and made it work!

“Bad situation” is an overstatement.

Yes, he was thrown in there on short notice due to the Ime situation, but he was gift wrapped the best roster in the league who has been the favorite for the title since day one. That’s hardly that bad of a situation.

I think the team’s success and highly talented roster definitely have covered up some of his mistakes and inexperience. On the flip side, I do think some of his mistakes have been magnified due to when they occurred at the end of games, and I and others have probably been a bit too hard on him given the timing and visibility of his mistakes, which are at least explainable as a first year coach.

I think he’s a decent coach, but it’s hard to really judge how good of a coach he is given the roster he was given. Hopefully he continues to improve moving forward, as I definitely have seen improvements. But he’s still got a long way to go regarding in-game management before many of us are truly comfortable with him leading us in the playoffs.

You could say that about Ime as well. Brad took the C’s to the ECF, following year the team started tuning him out, then Ime was hired in the off-season. Udoka took over a very talented team.

I mean, there’s a *significant* difference in the situations the two came into.

Ime had the Jays, sure. But they were coming off a first round embarrassment to the Nets - a full year after the ECF visit - and there was significant roster turnover and uncertainty - Kemba out, Al in, White in, Smart elevated. Ime completely transformed the culture of the team, implementing the two big lineup that led to us becoming defensive juggernauts. There’s also the fact of them coming off a long tenured coach.

Joe is ultimately just continuing the dominance that Ime and Brad built a year ago. He should get credit for that, but it’s a significantly different accomplishment than what Ime did for this team, particularly coming off the Finals, having the Jays progress even more, and having a significantly better roster and culture handed to him.

I think people forget how bad the culture and environment seemed like before Joe took over.

[liam]

I think coach Maz is an excellent coach who took over a bad situation and made it work!

“Bad situation” is an overstatement.

Yes, he was thrown in there on short notice due to the Ime situation, but he was gift wrapped the best roster in the league who has been the favorite for the title since day one. That’s hardly that bad of a situation.

I think the team’s success and highly talented roster definitely have covered up some of his mistakes and inexperience. On the flip side, I do think some of his mistakes have been magnified due to when they occurred at the end of games, and I and others have probably been a bit too hard on him given the timing and visibility of his mistakes, which are at least explainable as a first year coach.

I think he’s a decent coach, but it’s hard to really judge how good of a coach he is given the roster he was given. Hopefully he continues to improve moving forward, as I definitely have seen improvements. But he’s still got a long way to go regarding in-game management before many of us are truly comfortable with him leading us in the playoffs.

A bad situation is your head coach getting suspended for the year right before training camp.

[nyceltsfan]

I think coach Maz is an excellent coach who took over a bad situation and made it work!

“Bad situation” is an overstatement.

Yes, he was thrown in there on short notice due to the Ime situation, but he was gift wrapped the best roster in the league who has been the favorite for the title since day one. That’s hardly that bad of a situation.

I think the team’s success and highly talented roster definitely have covered up some of his mistakes and inexperience. On the flip side, I do think some of his mistakes have been magnified due to when they occurred at the end of games, and I and others have probably been a bit too hard on him given the timing and visibility of his mistakes, which are at least explainable as a first year coach.

I think he’s a decent coach, but it’s hard to really judge how good of a coach he is given the roster he was given. Hopefully he continues to improve moving forward, as I definitely have seen improvements. But he’s still got a long way to go regarding in-game management before many of us are truly comfortable with him leading us in the playoffs.

You could say that about Ime as well. Brad took the C’s to the ECF, following year the team started tuning him out, then Ime was hired in the off-season. Udoka took over a very talented team.

I mean, there’s a *significant* difference in the situations the two came into.

Ime had the Jays, sure. But they were coming off a first round embarrassment to the Nets - a full year after the ECF visit - and there was significant roster turnover and uncertainty - Kemba out, Al in, White in, Smart elevated. Ime completely transformed the culture of the team, implementing the two big lineup that led to us becoming defensive juggernauts. There’s also the fact of them coming off a long tenured coach.

Joe is ultimately just continuing the dominance that Ime and Brad built a year ago. He should get credit for that, but it’s a significantly different accomplishment than what Ime did for this team, particularly coming off the Finals, having the Jays progress even more, and having a significantly better roster and culture handed to him.

I think people forget how bad the culture and environment seemed like before Joe took over.

I agree with much of what you said, but there are a couple of significant counterpoints:

1. Ime changed the defensive identity of the team with a healthy Robert Williams for most of the regular season.  Mazz took over this team with Timelord on the shelf and the defense was not nearly what it was last year for the first half of this season, which leads me to my next point:

2. Mazz transformed the offensive identity of this team.  The ball is whipping around the court faster and we are shooting earlier in the shot clock.  In addition to adding Brogdon (having nothing to do with Mazz, btw), he is getting more production out of White, Hauser and even Kornet, than Ime did.

This does not take away AT ALL from the job Ime did, but what Mazz is doing is extremely impressive in his own right, particularly how he worked with his personnel to make the offense better when the defense was forced to take a step back with Robert Williams out.

[Goldstar88]

I think coach Maz is an excellent coach who took over a bad situation and made it work!

“Bad situation” is an overstatement.

Yes, he was thrown in there on short notice due to the Ime situation, but he was gift wrapped the best roster in the league who has been the favorite for the title since day one. That’s hardly that bad of a situation.

I think the team’s success and highly talented roster definitely have covered up some of his mistakes and inexperience. On the flip side, I do think some of his mistakes have been magnified due to when they occurred at the end of games, and I and others have probably been a bit too hard on him given the timing and visibility of his mistakes, which are at least explainable as a first year coach.

I think he’s a decent coach, but it’s hard to really judge how good of a coach he is given the roster he was given. Hopefully he continues to improve moving forward, as I definitely have seen improvements. But he’s still got a long way to go regarding in-game management before many of us are truly comfortable with him leading us in the playoffs.

You could say that about Ime as well. Brad took the C’s to the ECF, following year the team started tuning him out, then Ime was hired in the off-season. Udoka took over a very talented team.

I mean, there’s a *significant* difference in the situations the two came into.

Ime had the Jays, sure. But they were coming off a first round embarrassment to the Nets - a full year after the ECF visit - and there was significant roster turnover and uncertainty - Kemba out, Al in, White in, Smart elevated. Ime completely transformed the culture of the team, implementing the two big lineup that led to us becoming defensive juggernauts. There’s also the fact of them coming off a long tenured coach.

Joe is ultimately just continuing the dominance that Ime and Brad built a year ago. He should get credit for that, but it’s a significantly different accomplishment than what Ime did for this team, particularly coming off the Finals, having the Jays progress even more, and having a significantly better roster and culture handed to him.

I think people forget how bad the culture and environment seemed like before Joe took over.

Tatum, Brown, Smart, Rob, Grant were already on the team that Brad took to the ECF. Ime took over a more talented team after Brad shipped out Kemba for Al and added White. The issue was the players didn’t believe in Stevens anymore and they needed a new voice. The core talent was always there and Brad added to it. Also, the culture under Udoka was not great for the first half of last year. The team was .500 and the players weren’t always getting along. If I recall it wasn’t until after the ASG that things improved. So was that Ime or more the players just figuring out how to play together.

[aefgogreen]

Surprised this happened (for strictly legal purposes).  Does this mean they settled with Ime?

[Celtics2021]

Surprised this happened (for strictly legal purposes).  Does this mean they settled with Ime?

My guess is Ime’s contract has language that allows them to re-assign him to a different role in the organization if they keep paying his salary.

[Ed Monix]

How good is Coach Maz? How good is Coach Maz?

I’ll tell you how good Coach Maz is, he is…aMazzing!

[aefgogreen]

Surprised this happened (for strictly legal purposes).  Does this mean they settled with Ime?

My guess is Ime’s contract has language that allows them to re-assign him to a different role in the organization if they keep paying his salary.

Do they want to do this?  I imagine he'll go to a different team next year.

[hwangjini_1]

The poll results here I kind of shocking. Plurality rank Maz in bottom third of NBA coaches, despite him being leading candidate for COTY.  Strange.

I think for some people they thing with the talent on this team anyone could coach it to this record. Mazz has made a few mistakes at the end of games not calling timeouts that could have lead to the loss.  If they win no one is saying anything but since they loss it's because he doesn't know what he is doing.  He's a very young first time head coach who will make many mistakes while he finds out what works for him.  If he was coaching the Magic no one would care.

Actually may have more to do that this poll was first conducted right after the Miami loss, when fans were upset that Joe didn't call a timeout. This was during a 3 game losing streak.  My bet is that most of the votes were cast shortly after that game, during that losing streak? 

I wonder if the results would be different if the poll were taken today. I would hope so.

I just voted and put him in the top 1/3, and would rank him higher if given the chance.   I am particularly pleased with how he has developed the bench play, and emphasized spacing and ball movement on offense. I think he is a better offensive coach than Ime. Ime is a better defensive coach.

which is one of the reasons why front offices pay little attention the decisions of fans. 

[ChillyWilly]

I'm surprised there are still Ime supporters here.

[liam]

I'm surprised there are still Ime supporters here.

Me too!