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

[tenn_smoothie]

Unfocused and lazy yes, along with stupid and just bad basketball. This veteran team should be smarter by now, but Tatum and Brown especially are making the same dumb mistakes they made early in their careers.

As for Mazzulla, those post-game quotes are just plain embarrassing.
The guy is stupid and stubborn and that is a bad combination.
Brad can make all the smart roster moves he wants, but until he gets his head out of his ass and fires Mazzulla, our chances for another title are severely handicapped. Does Brad recognize that there is a problem ?

As for our title window, we have to hope Tatum recovers and comes back at least close to his past level. We have a free season to make needed changes. Remember when Red drafted Larry Bird a year early and waited patiently to rebuild the team. His quote was, "Do you know how short a period of time a year is" ? Never be another like him.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Unfocused and lazy yes, along with stupid and just bad basketball. This veteran team should be smarter by now, but Tatum and Brown especially are making the same dumb mistakes they made early in their careers.

As for Mazzulla, those post-game quotes are just plain embarrassing.
The guy is stupid and stubborn and that is a bad combination.
Brad can make all the smart roster moves he wants, but until he gets his head out of his ass and fires Mazzulla, our chances for another title are severely handicapped. Does Brad recognize that there is a problem ?

As for our title window, we have to hope Tatum recovers and comes back at least close to his past level. We have a free season to make needed changes. Remember when Red drafted Larry Bird a year early and waited patiently to rebuild the team. His quote was, "Do you know how short a period of time a year is" ? Never be another like him.

[Roy H.]

I think Joe might be enjoying some shrooms in Vegas:

Joe Mazzulla: ?I don?t want to come off as dark, but I think there?s a lot of lightness in the dark. I think a lot about the duality of life and death, and the decisions you make? the balance of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and how that mirrors the rise and fall of dynasties, organizations, yourself, your family. I think about that probably 30 times a day? The duality of competition, what that means, your own mortality, and how to play your part in that while going after something.?

Does he start saying things like "time is a flat circle"?

[Vermont Green]

Mazzulla started as head coach under a difficult situation.  The previous coach, liked by the players and successful, had just been fired weeks before the start of the season.  The players were blindsided.  Assistant coaches tapped out.  It was tough.

After the first year, the roster went through some changes but the core was still intact. The core players seemed to buy in. The new additions (Holiday and Porzingis) bought in.  A title was won.  Last season, the roster again remained largely intact but the team was a playoff fail.  Brown was not 100%, Porzingis was about 20%, but the team still should have done better.

This version of the team is going to be a tougher challenge for Mazzulla.  Many new pieces to deal with.  There will be a lot less winning.  More chance of players tuning out or looking for "theirs" vs. sacrificing for the team.  It probably won't be pretty which reflects on the coach.

[Jiri Welsch]

I think Joe might be enjoying some shrooms in Vegas:

Joe Mazzulla: ?I don?t want to come off as dark, but I think there?s a lot of lightness in the dark. I think a lot about the duality of life and death, and the decisions you make? the balance of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and how that mirrors the rise and fall of dynasties, organizations, yourself, your family. I think about that probably 30 times a day? The duality of competition, what that means, your own mortality, and how to play your part in that while going after something.?

Does he start saying things like "time is a flat circle"?

I think I get what Joe is pointing toward with these comments. Most of us are just smart enough not to outwardly process these thoughts in public until they become a little bit more coherent than... whatever the heck that was!

[SparzWizard]

Mazzulla started as head coach under a difficult situation.  The previous coach, liked by the players and successful, had just been fired weeks before the start of the season.  The players were blindsided.  Assistant coaches tapped out.  It was tough.

After the first year, the roster went through some changes but the core was still intact. The core players seemed to buy in. The new additions (Holiday and Porzingis) bought in.  A title was won.  Last season, the roster again remained largely intact but the team was a playoff fail.  Brown was not 100%, Porzingis was about 20%, but the team still should have done better.

This version of the team is going to be a tougher challenge for Mazzulla.  Many new pieces to deal with.  There will be a lot less winning.  More chance of players tuning out or looking for "theirs" vs. sacrificing for the team.  It probably won't be pretty which reflects on the coach.

The previous coach was suspended indefinitely once that was found out, just weeks after the NBA Finals loss. The P/R or front office team didn't do a good job handling this and if it was found out that time, they should have just canned him right then and there and started searching for a new, experienced head coach.

Instead, they rolled with an interim coach whom lacked experience that was announced as the HC during All-Star Weekend. Result- get eliminated by a #8 seeded team in the ECF, including 3 home losses in the playoffs. Also had players like Marcus Smart calling out on the coach, Grant Williams acting up etc

The 23-24 season, they picked up guys who were just talented and mostly healthy enough to compete, and also, combined with a fortunate of an easy playoff run beating up banged up teams and the Nuggets being eliminated in the 2nd round.

24-25 season? It was just a carbon copy of the 22-23 run, but I guess somewhat worse.

[tenn_smoothie]

I think Joe might be enjoying some shrooms in Vegas:

Joe Mazzulla: I don't want to come off as dark, but I think there's a lot of lightness in the dark. I think a lot about the duality of life and death, and the decisions you make? the balance of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and how that mirrors the rise and fall of dynasties, organizations, yourself, your family. I think about that probably 30 times a day. The duality of competition, what that means, your own mortality, and how to play your part in that while going after something.

30 times a day ?

Hey Joe, how about contemplating the duality of good offensive basketball and bad offensive basketball and leave the rest of these issues to Nietzsche.

[SparzWizard]

I can't believe I have to revive this thread of 2023. Very prevalent though.

Lost 4 of your last 6 home playoff games, including back2back home games this year. Blown 3-1 series lead. Let a 13-point lead evaporate in Game 5 and get blown out instead. Show up in Game 6 and put up a dud performance. Made no adjustments and had zero sense of urgency. Uninspiring basketball. Lazy. Flat out quit. About to bow out of the playoffs 3 of his last 4 years here, including losing to an 8-seeded Heat team and 7-seeded 76ers team as a 2-seed in both times. Folded two 20-point leads in Games 1 and 2 as home favorites to New York in 2025 and lost in 6.

Joe needs to go now.

[jpotter33]

Oldy but a goody!

But, yeah, at some point you do have to look at the results with the proof being in the pudding. If things continue down this path and we lose game 7, that will be three out of four years that we've underperformed relative to expectations in the playoffs, which is unacceptable.

Maybe we'll get a Dwyane Casey situation - COTY to firing all in one season! 

(Seriously, though, he does get props for the regular season coaching job, but you don't get that praise without the criticism for not backing it up in the playoffs.)

[jambr380]

Like it or not, Joe will be given a pass on this year. Brad knows he screwed him by depleting the roster and Joe did overperform during the regular season.

Part of that is because we played a lot of injured teams (Tatum was injured, too), but also because he had total buy in from a bunch of scrappy unproven players. If he wins Coach of the Year, he?ll deserve it, but he also deserves to be questioned for his lack of performance in the playoffs

[Roy H.]

Let's see how Game 7 goes.

[Phantom255x]

Is anyone hearing his postgame presser? BGL, anyone? I hope these reporters pester him with all kinds of questions about his philosophy, rotations, etc. Even if he gets annoyed by it. Enough. You can't act smug and act like a know-it-all when you're now close to blowing a 3-1 lead

[SparzWizard]

Like it or not, Joe will be given a pass on this year. Brad knows he screwed him by depleting the roster and Joe did overperform during the regular season.

Part of that is because we played a lot of injured teams (Tatum was injured, too), but also because he had total buy in from a bunch of scrappy unproven players. If he wins Coach of the Year, he?ll deserve it, but he also deserves to be questioned for his lack of performance in the playoffs

That is 3 years too many in the postseason then. Especially two years bowing out to vastly lower-seeded teams and I'm not talking about losing to 4-6 seeds. These are play-in teams for crying out loud. How do you lose to Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin and trail a series 0-3 as a favorite? Same thing with this series.

I am not giving him the benefit of the doubt for last year because this team blew two 20-point leads at home. The Tatum injury does not excuse it.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Is anyone hearing his postgame presser? BGL, anyone? I hope these reporters pester him with all kinds of questions about his philosophy, rotations, etc. Even if he gets annoyed by it. Enough. You can't act smug and act like a know-it-all when you're now close to blowing a 3-1 lead

i turned it off. i am done with him. brad needs to fire him now.

[tenn_smoothie]

Let's see how Game 7 goes.

Even if we win game 7, it does not change the overall incompetency consistently displayed by Mazzulla.
We aren't winning any more titles with this guy. The 2024 title was in spite of Joe with great talent and a relatively easy path in the playoffs.
The surprising success in the regular season may turn into a bad reason to keep Joe. His playoff struggles have to be the only criteria.