The Celtics‘ embarrassing Game 3 loss to Miami could lead to significant changes this offseason, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Boston entered the conference finals as the odds-on favorite to win the NBA title, but the team didn’t look anything like a champion in Sunday’s 128-102 defeat. The Heat seized control of the game late in the first quarter and led by as many as 33 points before the night was over.
The most obvious questions center on the future of head coach Joe Mazzulla, who has been overmatched by Heat mentor Erik Spoelstra in the series. Windhorst states that Mazzulla seemed well-positioned to return for another season before Game 3, but the Celtics’ lifeless performance makes his job much less safe.
Mazzulla accepted blame for the loss, repeatedly telling reporters, “I just didn’t have them ready to play,” and adding, “I have to get them in a better place ready to play, and that’s on me.”
Windhorst believes Mazzulla went too far in trying to protect his players with his post-game comments, stating that they were so “over-the-top” that they came off as “transparent.”
President of basketball operations Brad Stevens remains a strong supporter of Mazzulla, Windhorst adds. Stevens selected Mazzulla to run the team after Ime Udoka was suspended last fall and then appointed him as permanent head coach in midseason.
However, Windhorst cites a “rising expectation” that Mazzulla will become the fall guy for the disastrous playoff ending it appears the Celtics are headed toward. He was given an undisclosed contract extension when the “interim” was removed from his title in February, but the organization may decide that a 34-year-old with no prior head coaching experience isn’t the right person to run a team with championship aspirations.
The recent firings of high-profile coaches such as Mike Budenholzer, Nick Nurse and Doc Rivers, who have all led teams to titles, may make Mazzulla’s future even more tenuous.
Boston also has to determine this summer whether to give Jaylen Brown an extension worth more than $280MM that he qualified for by earning All-NBA honors. Brown has been particularly bad against Miami, shooting 2-of-20 from three-point range, including an 0-of-7 performance Sunday night.
Windhorst states that questions are re-emerging about whether Brown and Jayson Tatum should be the foundation of the team. It will eventually cost the Celtics more than $50MM apiece annually to keep them together, and the front office has to determine whether that’s the best pairing for the future.
Barring an unprecedented turnaround, the Celtics will enter the offseason haunted by the feeling that the team wasn’t prepared for the Game 3 challenge and quit when things got tough. Another loss Tuesday night could set the direction for a summer upheaval.
I really don’t see Mazzulla as HC material, but he’s not fully to blame for how poorly the Celtics have played in this series. Their roster construction is lopsided towards iso-ball and matchups. Marcus Smart tries, but he’s not a good floor general, and Tatum can’t make up that lack. The Celtics win by stacking good players on top of each other, but they have little to no synergy. Their on-court leadership is basically “toss the ball to Tatum/Brown and let them solve the problem”, which isn’t actually leadership. Further proof that you can’t just throw a bunch of good players together and expect them to win a chip. Same reason the Nets failed with Durant, Harden, and Irving. Doesn’t work that way.
Honestly, they look better when Brogdon and/or White try to lead.
The Celtics have a pretty balanced roster. They are just not playing with any urgency, which must elude to something happening behind closed doors. Those Nets teams failed because of injuries. If they stayed healthy, they probably would have won in 2021.
It’s balanced on paper, but it tips over the minute you watch them actually play. Like I said, they have no synergy. Most of the players on that team don’t actually play together effectively.
And I’m *really* not convinced on those Nets being able to win anything. I watched them be fully healthy and get slapped around by Colin Sexton. They were top heavy, and all it took was one of their Big 3 to have an off-night to unbalance them. They didn’t actually play together enough to make anyone believe. On paper? Absolutely. But not in actuality.
They have a top tier roster, they reached the finals last year. The problem is the coaching and the J. Brown situation in my opinion.
I agree that the offense seems disconnected and full of iso, 5 out and kicking out with little movement overall, that is coaching 100%.
Given that they had a lot of the same problems last year when they reached the finals, I don’t think it *is* 100% coaching. Udoka was a better coach, so he was better able to mask and deal with the problem, but it still existed.
I think Mazulla could be a good coach in a few years, maybe his next stop as a coach. He is very young and green in terms of professional coaching and was thrown into a weird situation with a team with finals expectations. The bigger issue is that between Stevens, Idoka, and now Mazulla it doesn’t seem Tatum and Brown are stepping up the way they need to.
Mazzulla isn’t fully the problem but should have just kept Udoka.
Problem is, Udoka can’t keep it in his pants.
Mazzulla is a direct result of the terrible cutlure that Udoka cultivated…
“Brad Stevens remains a strong supporter of Stevens,”
Thats good I suppose.
Celtics have a good roster. They just don’t use it. I would play a complete 2nd unit. The subs don’t get a chance to do much as long as either Tatum or Brown is on the floor with them. Subs showed life all year when replacing injured stars, but have been forced to watch during playoffs.
Nets failed because Irving is toxic, Harden disappears when needed most, and Durant can no longer carry a team.
Celtics should break up the Brown and Tatum combo.
Rockets seem like an obvious choice to send Brown to. Picks and young players especially front court depth.
I like the idea of Sengun+picks or something like that for Brown. Sengun with Rob W. sounds like a good frontcourt.
I like JB but he is not worth a super max IMO. He hasn’t shown that value yet, maybe he can develop his full potential in Houston.
Yes…ha ha ha…YES!
On the road energy and confidence is key and Boston didn’t have it. That’s on the players. That said, Mazulla should have went to the bench early to get an energy boost from players watching and itching to play. It would also send a message to his regular rotation that they need to rethink their intensity immediately. Pritchard didn’t see the floor until the game was over. I remember when Udoka subbed Pritchard early in games sometimes to change the energy and it worked. Embarrassing loss for a stacked team. They are too talented to rely on 40 3pt attempts to win or lose. Ridiculous, but hey, Miami is playing amazing. No rookie coach is gonna beat them in a series.
Brown to Portland for Simons and #3.
Get one of the experienced coaches on the market and trade Brown,Smart and Rob Williams
Quinn Snyder made a huge error jumping the gun and taking the Atlanta job. It didn’t look like anything good was opening, and now you have Milwaukee, Philly, Toronto, Phoenix and maybe Boston.
I didn’t think about this before but it’s a great point
Snyder wife is from ATL
.. Boston needs hairy balls on the bench so Nurse is my pick
Dang, playoff Jimmy is going to get all the coaches fired.
PO Spo is an other masterclass … Would like to see him with an other organisation
Didn’t they extend him lol
Perhaps Memphis should see if Boston will bite on a Ja Morant for Jaylen Brown swap.
NOOOOOOOO!!!!
Depends if he insists on bringing his guns with him
I’m pretty sure Brad Stevens would have to get his ribs checked after he was done laughing…
I think Atlanta will make an offer for Brown. Portland too. Love Marcus but he is not a starting PG to win a championship. Green hair only goes so far. Maybe Frank Vogel will be lead asst for Joe.
It’s so obvious that Stevens will one day return as the Head Coach of the Celtics.
No it isn’t.
Brown and Tatum can definitely play together but the team needs to start using actual offensive plays and not just stand around waiting to be saved by Brown or Tatum.
They need some real accountability, toughness, and effort. That does fall partially on Mazzulla, but it is also a list of problems that existed way before Mazzulla. We were talking about the same things 2-3 years ago before Udoka. They’ve had 3 different coaches, so it can’t only be the coach causing it.
At this point the evidence shows that the players are part of the problem. And the only solution is probably new players.
Firing him would be a terrible idea, no matter how bad of a coach he might be. Three head coaches in three years isn’t what NBA franchises do, even the dysfunctional ones.
That’s a weird argument. All the successful franchises fired a coach immediately before being successful. Eg: Warriors firing Mark Jackson right before they began their dynasty.
The solution is definitely not to cling to a bad coach in the name of “consistency”. Continuity is important but you have to have the right people to do it with.
Except two of those firings would be due to a single act of misconduct that had nothing to do with the franchise itself.
Ime broke the rules. Fired
The inexperienced—and clearly overmatched—Mazzulla took over as a result. Fire him.
All the fault of one man.
Not saying he’s a good coach, but were two veteran coaches not out coached by a guy who may be the best doing it right now in Spo?
How is the team looking lifeless in game three anything more than the players not being motivated to compete. If the players can’t get up for the most important game of their season, then that’s the players, not the coach.
Where was the 51 from Tatum yesterday night? Anyone remember what happened when Grant got Jimmy angry? Didn’t Jimmy just takeover at that point?
At some point it has to also fall on the players, but of course, we don’t want to bruise their little egos and have them demand a trade.
Correcting the players is the responsibility of the coach, so even if it is the players, that still falls on the coach. If the players aren’t ready to play it is the coach’s job to correct that behavior. It’s pretty clear that type of thing has not happened at any point this year.
If the players aren’t ready to play, SOME of the blame should fall on the coach. But it shouldn’t take 4 full quarters of getting pants’d for supposed professional “superstars” to realize they’ve won games before, and try a little harder or something different.
We’re do quick to worship Tatum when he drops 51, but it’s on the coach when everyone shoots 27% from 3, but continues jacking them up because…nobody wants to run actual plays.
It’s weird how in these situations you tend to get some folks who only blame the HC or only blame the players when, clearly, both are to blame.
The thing is, it’s easier to replace the HC than it is to replace key talent. So you have to start from there and see what happens.
The Cs don’t have enough 3pt shooters to support Tatum. When Tatum goes, so goes the Celtics. Brad Stevens should be fired. Wic needs to find better people to run this organization. If he keeps Brad and Joe, he’s just another dispassionate owner who only cares about his balance sheet.
Celtics have 3 point shooters. They brought in Muscala to do that. Grant Williams shoots 40%. Pritchard shoots 35%. Hauser shoots 40%. White was 6 for 10 in first two games. Brogdon was one of the best in the league. Unfortunately Brown, Tatum, Smart and Horford were taking all of the shots, and none are great 3 point shooters. And when players don’t get into games, it’s pretty hard to make shots.
It takes talent to coach talent. Fire the coach! Get a proven winner and then get a true point guard! Trade Brown if you have to but only for a young true point guard.
BOS’s problem isn’t about its HC. At least, this particular one vs the one they had last year.
BOS had the EXACT same problem in the playoffs last year, it’s just that they were able to escape in each series they played until the Finals. This years’ early playoff series look very much like last years’ (inexplicable lapses in focus and effort in key games). They are just paying the price one round earlier. All’s well that ends well? Not really, you just don’t have think about the problems when things end well.
Agreed. People are way exaggerating the differences between the 2022 Celtics and the 2023 Celtics. They were pretty soft last few years too. They just played in an easier conference. They barely beat the Bucks team that didn’t even have Jrue healthy. And they were one shot away from losing to the Heat last year.
This ain’t nothing new.
I mean, it wont be new next year either, Boston will be one of 6 or so teams that have a shot. It ain’t easy to win it all.
100%
This is an underlying issue with this team, be it Tatum, Brown or the culture that got worse under Udoka… Something hasn’t beed right for years…
Whatever you think of Mazzulla, the bottom line is little of this is explicitly his fault. He was never meant to be a head coach at his age, and he was not surrounded with enough veteran coaching talent. The mistakes he’s made are somewhat to be expected from a 34 year old with little coaching experience.
Maybe he resurfaces in the future with a longer resume, but the Celtics need to either move on or completely rework the rest of the staff. Probably better to go the former route at this point.
This year’s Celtics are the exact opposite of last year. Under Udoka they started out as a group of individuals and were unwatchable. Then they realized he was serious about playing defense and passing the ball, and became nearly unbeatable. This year, with the exception of a couple of games against Cleveland and Chicago, they started as the team that ended last year, but under Mazzulla, morphed into the individual players who don’t play defense. I also heard all kinds of statements about how deep their roster is. Then they play 7 players. Terrible coaching by Mazzulla in using his roster and in requiring discipline and team play.
They still crumbled under Udoka…
There’s very little difference between this season and last season…
This season is also largely Udokas fault… It’s his staff and the remnants of his cancerous culture remain…
This guy is like 34. Why is he coaching anyway. We miss you Larry brown, Hubie brown and every real coach of the past. Someone hire Nate McM