Celtics News

[Celtics2021]

Joes update on Tatum:

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ncnUs-TF8QI

Joe does not suffer foolish questions.

[trickybilly]

Celtics over the last 3 years have 3 of the 10 top offensive ratings in NBA history.

Joe Mazz might be the best offensive coach ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1kG7FR48v0

Joe also has the best coaching win pct in league history by a fairly wide margin.  And it's not so small of a sample anymore.

Pfft.. He stinks

TP.

[tonydelk]

Joes update on Tatum:

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ncnUs-TF8QI

Joe does not suffer foolish questions.

That's pretty [dang] funny.

[keevsnick]

Just realized that starting tomorrow February 23 the Celtics have 5 games in 7 nights in 4 different cities. They have two separate back to backs with travel (PHO->DEN, BOS->MIL).

Tuesday: PHO
Wednesday: DEN
Friday: BRK
Sunday: PHI
Monday: MIL

Kind of a brutal 7-day schedule just travel/rest wise.

[Donoghus]

Just realized that starting tomorrow February 23 the Celtics have 5 games in 7 nights in 4 different cities. They have two separate back to backs with travel (PHO->DEN, BOS->MIL).

Tuesday: PHO
Wednesday: DEN
Friday: BRK
Sunday: PHI
Monday: MIL

Kind of a brutal 7-day schedule just travel/rest wise.

Still have a shot at 40/20 club (which is insane to think) but, yeah, that schedule is doing them no favors.

[slamtheking]

Just realized that starting tomorrow February 23 the Celtics have 5 games in 7 nights in 4 different cities. They have two separate back to backs with travel (PHO->DEN, BOS->MIL).

Tuesday: PHO
Wednesday: DEN
Friday: BRK
Sunday: PHI
Monday: MIL

Kind of a brutal 7-day schedule just travel/rest wise.

Still have a shot at 40/20 club (which is insane to think) but, yeah, that schedule is doing them no favors.

it's a tall order particularly with the PHX/Denver b2b but it's not impossible.  if they miss it, I strongly suspect it'd be losing to Brooklyn after winning in PHX and Denver.

[Silas]

Just realized that starting tomorrow February 23 the Celtics have 5 games in 7 nights in 4 different cities. They have two separate back to backs with travel (PHO->DEN, BOS->MIL).

Tuesday: PHO
Wednesday: DEN
Friday: BRK
Sunday: PHI
Monday: MIL

Kind of a brutal 7-day schedule just travel/rest wise.

Agree the schedule is brutal, but all the games are definitely winnable, and I hope that's what happens.

[Vermont Green]

Just realized that starting tomorrow February 23 the Celtics have 5 games in 7 nights in 4 different cities. They have two separate back to backs with travel (PHO->DEN, BOS->MIL).

Tuesday: @PHO
Wednesday: @DEN
Friday: BRK
Sunday: PHI
Monday: @MIL

Kind of a brutal 7-day schedule just travel/rest wise.

Agree the schedule is brutal, but all the games are definitely winnable, and I hope that's what happens.

@DEN on the second of a B2B, that is a tough game.  Mile high, 4th road game in a row, that is the tough one in my mind.  They are all winnable in theory, BOS has been beating everyone, but 4-1 would be very good in this stretch of games.  The final game @MIL, B2B and travel, is tough if Giannis is playing, not sure his status.

The team has held up very well all season.  Very few missed games due to injury.  Want to make sure a stretch like this doesn't impact that.

[Celtics4ever]

We should beat Phoenix and the Nets soundly.   Some of the other games area little tougher and the travel/schedule is bad but DEN is the only hard game on that schedule folks.

[SparzWizard]

If they can sweep the Western trip that would be golden. The Nuggets look pretty vulnerable as of late. Phoenix is up and down. Both games winnable but I can see Boston dropping the Denver game due to b2b and high altitude.

That Brooklyn game is gonna be the trap game and unfortunately may be loss #20 or #21 before win 40 hits.

[Roy H.]

Interesting perspective on the Celtics view of tanking by NBA agent Bernie Lee:

will give you a real-time example of this: the Boston Celtics. There isn't a person among us who didn't watch them lose earlier in the playoffs than expected last year see their best player go down to a catastrophic injury who didn't expect them to purposely take a step back. Also working against them, along with these two things, was the implementation of the hard-cap world we now live in in the NBA, which made all the contracts they had recently signed under the old system unsustainable, to the extent that the owners of the team sold the franchise.

Leading into the draft and free agency, we began to see them make cost-cutting moves to lower their team salary and seemingly accept their fate: 2025-2026 would be a reset year for the Celtics. Immediately, history would have shown us that "forward-thinking" teams take the opportunity to lower payroll, bottom out, and chase a Top 3 draft pick in what we can all see is a transformational draft. The reality is, we have seen teams around them with a fraction of the accomplishments not only do this for one year but multiple years to a mixed bag of results and still be undeterred.

I, like everyone else, assumed they would do the same thing. When free agency began, they requested a meeting with a client I had at the time who had underperformed for years and was going to be on a vastly reduced contract, with the thought that if he could prove he was healthy, his value would return. I looked at it as a great opportunity for both sides, but I also had my eyes open and expected in the meeting to be told of a different directive than competing for a championship in 2025?2026. That was until our meeting began at 6:01 p.m. on July 1st. I have done this agent thing for over 20 years, and I have participated in countless free-agent meetings for players of all levels, and I can honestly tell you I have never in my entire career been more impressed with a coach than I was with Joe Mazzulla.


Up until this point in time, I had only met him in passing and never had something of substance to work with him on, so I didn't know him much. In the NBA, we do this thing where we exist in each other's orbits, and everyone kind of knows everyone else, but you don't ever truly know someone until you have to work with them on something. For 20 minutes, I was lucky enough, along with my client, to listen to Joe speak, and I quickly realized that he was a human being who creates his own reality. If I or anyone else thought for a second that he was a person who didn't look at what the Celtics were facing this year as an opportunity versus an impossibility, then it probably explained why I watch for a living and he's the man in the arena.


By the end, I coult tell: 1. The amount of alignment and respect from Brad Stevens to his coaches was unparalleled; and 2. If anyone asked Joe to do anything other than compete like the world was about to end, they would probably only get the chance to ask him once. Fast-forward 58 games, and not shocking to me, Joe was right. If I am lucky enough to do this another 20-plus years, I highly doubt I will ever see another midstream pivot with this amount of success, and most importantly, a group that was built through adversity versus giving in to it. And that, to me, is the principle that all of this has to be built on. Period. End of sentence.

Also, the player being talked about is very likely Precious Achiuwa.