Fire Joe! ... or critique Joe ... or defend Joe... or worry about Joe's coaching

[Goldstar88]

The players are playing the system they?ve been instructed to, and all year long Joe has pushed more, more, more from three just trying to spam the numbers game, which has led to terrible habits. All you have to do is look at White?s shot selection and what he?s been allowed to get away with all year long.

Yes, clearly the players have to hit shots. But it?s unreasonable to expect them to ALWAYS hit shots (especially the highly variable three point shot), and any good offense should have ways to counter those nights when we?re not hitting. But we clearly do not, and Joe readily admits this when he always points to margins and whether the shots go down as the indicator of what went wrong. He?s set in his ways and dogmatic to a fault.

Of course, Tatum and Brown both have to be better with their shot selection, decision-making and aggressiveness. Same with White and Jrue?s decision-making and shot selection. But our problems stem just as much from our one-dimensional gameplan and lack of adjustments from the coaching staff - let alone the obvious tactical errors that Joe has consistently made with play-calling (or lack thereof), fouling, timeouts, and rotations.

But Potter, they took less and less threes last game. Went from 60 all the way down to 40 which is well below their average. Still shot 36% from the field. Still lost the game. 🤷‍♂️

The fouling of Robinson and getting into the bonus with more than 2 minutes left was a brainddead decision and should be a very firable offense. Just give it up...stop defending Joe pleaseee lol

Yep. We?ll never win a championship with Joe Schmo! 

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

The players are playing the system they?ve been instructed to, and all year long Joe has pushed more, more, more from three just trying to spam the numbers game, which has led to terrible habits. All you have to do is look at White?s shot selection and what he?s been allowed to get away with all year long.

Yes, clearly the players have to hit shots. But it?s unreasonable to expect them to ALWAYS hit shots (especially the highly variable three point shot), and any good offense should have ways to counter those nights when we?re not hitting. But we clearly do not, and Joe readily admits this when he always points to margins and whether the shots go down as the indicator of what went wrong. He?s set in his ways and dogmatic to a fault.

Of course, Tatum and Brown both have to be better with their shot selection, decision-making and aggressiveness. Same with White and Jrue?s decision-making and shot selection. But our problems stem just as much from our one-dimensional gameplan and lack of adjustments from the coaching staff - let alone the obvious tactical errors that Joe has consistently made with play-calling (or lack thereof), fouling, timeouts, and rotations.

But Potter, they took less and less threes last game. Went from 60 all the way down to 40 which is well below their average. Still shot 36% from the field. Still lost the game. 🤷‍♂️

The fouling of Robinson and getting into the bonus with more than 2 minutes left was a brainddead decision and should be a very firable offense. Just give it up...stop defending Joe pleaseee lol

Yep. We?ll never win a championship with Joe Schmo! 

you have yet to rebutt any substantive evidence and/or justified points here criticizing whether joe has put us in the best position to succeed with his ridiculous draconian philosophies. Your account is just for trolling right? it is just a shtick right? 

[Goldstar88]

The players are playing the system they?ve been instructed to, and all year long Joe has pushed more, more, more from three just trying to spam the numbers game, which has led to terrible habits. All you have to do is look at White?s shot selection and what he?s been allowed to get away with all year long.

Yes, clearly the players have to hit shots. But it?s unreasonable to expect them to ALWAYS hit shots (especially the highly variable three point shot), and any good offense should have ways to counter those nights when we?re not hitting. But we clearly do not, and Joe readily admits this when he always points to margins and whether the shots go down as the indicator of what went wrong. He?s set in his ways and dogmatic to a fault.

Of course, Tatum and Brown both have to be better with their shot selection, decision-making and aggressiveness. Same with White and Jrue?s decision-making and shot selection. But our problems stem just as much from our one-dimensional gameplan and lack of adjustments from the coaching staff - let alone the obvious tactical errors that Joe has consistently made with play-calling (or lack thereof), fouling, timeouts, and rotations.

But Potter, they took less and less threes last game. Went from 60 all the way down to 40 which is well below their average. Still shot 36% from the field. Still lost the game. 🤷‍♂️

The fouling of Robinson and getting into the bonus with more than 2 minutes left was a brainddead decision and should be a very firable offense. Just give it up...stop defending Joe pleaseee lol

Yep. We?ll never win a championship with Joe Schmo! 

you have yet to rebutt any substantive evidence and/or justified points here criticizing whether joe has put us in the best position to succeed with his ridiculous draconian philosophies. Your account is just for trolling right? it is just a shtick right?

They won a championship. I would say he put the team in a good enough position to succeed and they did. I don?t think his coaching this season is much different than it was last year. The players just need to start performing.

[Phantom255x]

Better see some urgency today. I'm pro-Joe usually, but if they blow another 20 point lead or they continue to brick 3s in the 4th and don't adjust, that's not good at all. Saying it's all on the players is lazy, adjustments can still be made in-game and another part of it is after-timeout plays (or plays at the buzzer) which so far Mazzulla hasn't been great in either.

It's one thing to lose to CLE or OKC later on, but losing to NY in the 2nd round with HCA? That'll definitely be scrutinized heavily this offseason if it happens and Mazzulla won't escape that either.

[SHAQATTACK]

He is history

[Big333223]

I'm as big of a defender of Joe as there is but I'm really concerned that in the last two games there have been stretches where the team doesn't seem to even want to be on the floor. What's that about?

[No Nickname]

https://x.com/CamInTaunton/status/1920485459269922857/photo/1

This says it all.

Seeing a lot of the Kobe influence in Tatum these last few games.  And not the positive Kobe stuff.

I'm going to both criticize and defend Tatum here.  He is actually an excellent passer.  How  many games have we seen where he's not really cooking with his shooting but he goes into halftime with 8-9 assists?  A lot.

I think he was just so focused on the fact that he was wide open that he got tunnel vision and didn't see that Al's defender had fallen down.  Normally Tatum would pass in that situation.

Now for the criticism.  Tatum is anti-clutch.  Sure he's come up big in fourth quarters over the years, or in Game 6s and 7s.  But when the clock is winding down he his horrible.

I saw that earlier this year he hit his first-ever buzzer beating shot for a win?  He was something like 0-39 in his career before that? 

They have been trying to make Tatum into the second coming of Larry Bird for nine years now.  It's not going to happen.  We have done better when Tatum has been injured and Brown becomes our closer (not that HE'S much better, but he's better than Tatum). 

The dancing around the three-point line, or chucking up a crazy fadeaway shot, or actually making a brilliant drive to the basket only to blow the layup?  Tatum drives me nuts.

I thought that was why we got Jrue and Derrick, to have the ball in their hands in these pivotol moments because they have more Basketball IQ in their pinky fingers than Tatum and Brown combined.

We're so much better when we're passing, driving, kicking, and searching for the open shot as opposed to ISO-ball.

To be technical, I remember he spun his way in the lane for a game-winning layup against the Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 of the 2022 playoffs.

That play wasn't "clutch" and it actually proves my point.

Jaylen drove-and-kicked-it-out in that last sequence.  Then Smart drove-and-dished and Tatum (to his extreme credit) cut backdoor on his man and received an incredible pass from Smart, and spun and made a layup. I give Smart more credit for his pass than Tatum for making a layup here.

That's not putting the ball in Tatum's hands outside the three-point line and asking him to go make a clutch play on his own. 

That's what he has proven over and over that he's just not good at. 

Yes, against the Knicks in game 2 he made the dunk on the previous trip down the court, with 15 seconds left, but that was a set play, with Horford setting a pick on Tatum's man at halfcourt and Tatum's job was to just dribble downcourt as fast as he could, like he was on a fast break, and go to the rim.

There was no "See what the defense does and take the last shot after you dance around with the ball for a while."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPUXpH5Sww4&t=9s

[Goldstar88]

Pretty good first half by Joe. You gotta admit. He?s got the guys shooting 63% from 3pt!

[Phantom255x]

Pretty good first half by Joe. You gotta admit. He?s got the guys shooting 63% from 3pt!

[Vermont Green]

Coach of the year level coaching today by Mazzulla. Coached circles around Thibideau
.

[Goldstar88]

C?s Took the same amount of 3s this game as the last one and they won by 20+. How is this possible!?   

[Phantom255x]

I'll give Mazzulla credit. Yes, the 3s were falling today which helped, but there was definitely some urgency such as those timeouts he called today, which usually he'd let the lead dip to below 10 to call. He also had some nice ATOs and definitely made some adjustments with PP and Kornet. Thought he managed the rotations well.

Hope it continues. If the 3 doesn't fall though, I hope they have also learned to adjust and settle for the easy twos in the second half. The C's actually did that this time around, kept the lead around 19-23 for most of it.

[Donoghus]

A tale as old as time.

Coaches get too much blame for the losses and players get too much credit for the wins. 

[Goldstar88]

[Roy H.]

The team kept its composure and played hard to the end.  Joe didn't make any adjustments, but he didn't have to.

So, that makes 1/3 games that he's been a net positive.