Yeah it's a completely valid point. If you had a choice to keep a coach or keep a superstar player, you'd be bonkers to keep the coach. Maybe it's because Tatum loves Mazzulla, and even Brad is supportive of this 3-point philosophy (which is another issue).
But this team had great regular season success with Jaylen leading the way and playing with an attack mindset instead of just chucking 3s. Their regular season 3-point shooting and attempts actually went down a bit, and they played inside a lot more and were fine even settling for jumpers which helped JB's scoring average go up nearly 5-6 points.
However, when Tatum came back and in the Sixers series they just seemed to revert back to the 3 point philosophy and maybe that also caused Jaylen to have some iffy games.
I don't hate Mazzulla but he absolutely has to be on the hot seat this season. 3 of the last 4 seasons have still ended in disappointment especially the last two seasons, and if they feel they need to trade Jaylen but keep Mazzulla and this philosophy then that's not good.
The Knicks part is true too. Maybe the coaching change helped. They made the ECF, Thibs was great and they upset Boston. They still fired him, got another guy and it might have put them over the top. Mike Brown's rotations and in-game adjustments after Game 3 of the Hawks series were good and he usually went with the hot hand and occasionally sat guys who were struggling like Bridges early on in the postseason as needed.
As we saw in the Finals, taking high volume 3's caused the Spurs' downfall. Ironically, following the same downfall plan as the Celtics when they faced the Knicks back in 2025.
As for this 3-point philosophy...if this doesn't die out then I'm afraid we may also need to cut ties with Brad (on top of Mazzulla). Be reminded of Brad's resume with the Celtics
-Since 2013-2014 he took on the HC role and not one Finals appearance. Burned out at the end of 2021.
-Transitioned to GM in 2021.
-Ime Udoka took the team to their first Finals appearance in 2022 for the first time in 12 years.
-Canned Udoka and Joe Mazz was appointed head-coach midseason of 2023 and folded badly to the 8-seeded Miami Heat.
-Won Finals in 2024 finally with presence of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and with a little bit of luck in the playing field as all the other teams were banged up.
-3-point philosophy caused Boston's downfall in 2025
-Blown 3-1 series lead with more 3-point shooting in 2026
All that for only two Finals appearances and going 1-1? C's should have won both those Finals series and also get some appearances in 2018, 2020, and 2023.
