Joe Mazzulla officially named head coach
- Thread starter Beale13
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It really is. I saw that interview live. The players at the table, both current and former, looked awestruck at his explanations. JM speaks in paragraphs.
When your five players on the floor are thinking as one, it’s a beautiful thing. At both ends, everyone was ultra coordinated. Designing a strategy and executing it fully are two different things. By the time the Celtics got to the Finals, they were ready to pull it all together. Red Auerbach would have loved this team and how it came together in one of the most dominant Finals victory ever.
I’m interested to see if a team can mind meld on both sides of the ball consistently through the long NBA season. If so, we could be looking at a 70 win team.
I’m interested to see if a team can mind meld on both sides of the ball consistently through the long NBA season. If so, we could be looking at a 70 win team.
Watching it live, my thought was frequently, "that looks like great defense. They're ready on every pick and roll and the corners are never open." But the in-game analysts rarely get deep into why/how (to be fair, they have limited time) and only about 5% of the talking heads are capable/interested in doing so.
I'm not sure why, but I love that Joe picked up some of his approach from the D-2 level.
CJM should get a ton of credit for his coaching in the Finals, blowing out your opponent when your top 2 scoring options aren't shooting well has broken most NBA Media narratives.
My biggest takeaway from the playoffs was the JAYs defensive intensity (something we shouldn't expect in the regular season). Tatum gumming up offenses/5s and Brown's on-ball/denial pressure was spectacular
Here is one more Thinking Basketball (Ben Taylor is excellent) clip that hasn't been posted here.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZrj06fHsY
This is why the Pacers series was so valuable. They were an inferior team that executed so well and at such a fast pace. Celts upped their focus on execution and pace to insure they beat the Pacers and it carried over into the Finals. Couldn’t have asked for a better ”tuneup” in the ECF.
Well put. The NBA media seems to have heavily underrated the Pacers because we swept them, but I think the consensus around here was that they were probably our fiercest, most-diverse and most well-organized playoff opponent of the four we faced. ECF Games 1 and 3 had to be absolutely soul-crushing experiences for the players and Carlisle - Jaylen and then Jrue just ripped their hearts out. But they'd earned coin-flip game endings against the Celtics on a night where we showed up, which itself is a very, very difficult task to even get into that position.
Yep. Pacers were an excellent team and perfect tune-up. I'll go to my grave thinking that they gave us a much harder time than Dallas. Stopping Dallas's offense really wasn't that hard.
I'll guess the more uncomfortable this tube is the more he likes it since he's a legit sicko.
View: https://twitter.com/CTabatabaie/status/1814703153075405097
Here’s Joe Mazzulla’s $23,000 home hyperbaric chamber
View: https://twitter.com/CTabatabaie/status/1814703153075405097
Here’s Joe Mazzulla’s $23,000 home hyperbaric chamber
If that is the behavior of a sicko, I guess I am one too. BTW, before we do the normal SoSH thing of "if I am unfamiliar with it, I don't like it and therefore it must be absolutely bad", both KG and Pierce claimed that hyperbaric chambers extended their careers. If I had Mazzulla money, I'd get one too.
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-get-facts
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-get-facts
With MRob and Hartenstein crashing the offensive boards (+ no jump shot) not surprising the NYKs are on the bottom.
Is that mostly a function of how much you run fast breaks (where the opposing center is likely lagging the play)? I'd think a little differential in fast break frequency would create a pretty big difference in this stat, but how the stat is presented makes you think it's all about halfcourt spacing. Would much rather see this for just halfcourt possessions.
Again, tapping the y-axis sign. The Celtics are a lot better than the field, but the % difference looks a lot bigger because of the truncation.
As for the gap: 50% of the C's center minutes are KP, who spaces way further behind the line than any C in the league. The rest of the minutes are Horford, who is one of the best-shooting Cs in the league, albeit from the normal distance.
Most teams have a starting C who is Horford gravity at best, and then a backup C who plays traditionally or isn't a volume threat from 3.
As for the gap: 50% of the C's center minutes are KP, who spaces way further behind the line than any C in the league. The rest of the minutes are Horford, who is one of the best-shooting Cs in the league, albeit from the normal distance.
Most teams have a starting C who is Horford gravity at best, and then a backup C who plays traditionally or isn't a volume threat from 3.
Excellent points. I wonder how much different the C's rating would be if you looked at all the games without KP. Then you have Horford and a bunch of " backup C who plays traditionally or isn't a volume threat from 3."
Getting back to JMazz, some Reddit user put together a compilation of great CJM quotes here: Joe Mazzulla might be the GOAT of headlines & quotes : r/bostonceltics (reddit.com).
There's going to be a book with his quotes someday. I'm looking forward to what he adds this year.
My favorite (both action and quote): "Joe Mazzulla just walked past Marcus Smart in the locker room, did a full somersault in front of him, turned and said ‘you can’t do that.” Then walked out. "
View: https://twitter.com/adamhimmelsbach/status/1618026958180483072?t=xS_uVF5EILublrmyiGcBMQ
There's going to be a book with his quotes someday. I'm looking forward to what he adds this year.
My favorite (both action and quote): "Joe Mazzulla just walked past Marcus Smart in the locker room, did a full somersault in front of him, turned and said ‘you can’t do that.” Then walked out. "
View: https://twitter.com/adamhimmelsbach/status/1618026958180483072?t=xS_uVF5EILublrmyiGcBMQ
It's an amazing quote and story all by itself, doubly so when you remember that of all the players in the league, Marcus Smart can absolutely do a full somersault:
View: https://youtu.be/_yCQe9vFiJg?si=9TS4M9ofnYWkPd97
Agree that it's great that CJM picked Smart to make the comment to.
My real favorite CJM quote of all time isn't on the list; I should have mentioned it above but it's the story he tells where his Dad takes him to a baseball field, locks the fence, and says, "The winner walks out here alive."
Amazing.
I'm planning on doing it to my son before he can beat the crap out of me, which means I have about two more weeks.
Joe Mazzullas dad took him to a baseball field as a kid to do the Alph... | TikTok
The non-sequitur insanity of this makes it my favorite:
As someone who played basketball with and against Dan Mazzulla this story doesn’t surprise me. Dan was a skilled played, but had sharp elbows and knew how to use them. He certainly toughened up his sons, and Joe played for a very tough minded high school coach, and then a very tough minded college coach.
The toughness, both mental and physical, by this championship team, was a quiet toughness, but it was present all season. They knew they were the best team, and 5e only way they were going to be ousted is if they were out-toughed. Mazzulla guided this team from day one so that wouldn’t happen.
I don’t think that graph is doing anything deceptive at all by truncating the y axis. Showing the full y axis can be more deceptive in certain contexts, which is the case here where there’s a natural lower limit on the avg distance from the basket which is higher than 0.
That's fair. My argument the other way would be that, when we're talking about physical distances on the floor, the distance between 10 and 11 feet isn't that big, and the graph makes it feel like a valley.
i.e. the Celtics are getting a big advantage by spacing KP+Al out, but it's not like it's yielding wayyyy more space than what OKC gets. (Although inches do matter in the NBA, and the Celtics do have a very real spacing edge here).
Yeah i think the hard part is interpreting what that chart says. it may just be “which teams centers post up the least” as much as its floor spacing.
I’d argue that 10% is quite a huge gap to describe the difference between the best and next best team (and more than 20% from mean even bigger), particularly when the rest of the group is so clumped together.
I also wonder why Denver isn't up there with Boston. Whoever is guarding Jokic spends most of his time above the foul line. Does that defender not count as the rim protector? It is an intriguing stat that does seem to be measuring something relevant, but it seems to mostly measure how far the offensive center stays away from the basket.
Jokic doesn't have nearly the range of KP (no other big man does), plus teams will often try putting their rim protector on Gordon so that they can cheat way off him.
I don’t know what Johnston looks like in 2024 but back when Joe was born that was as tough as town as you’ll find. Nobody was immune to throwing hands if there was an argument in like any part of that town. Sunday morning Rec leagues were probably more combative than some prison pickup games.
Maybe the rim protector is just defined as the defender closest to the basket. If that's so, then it does help explain how Boston's strategy of generally keeping 5 three point threats on the floor at all times effectively spreads the defense and creates more room inside for drivers and cutters. Interesting result of the evolution of the game. Maybe the Celtics would benefit from the international rule that allows defenders to knock balls off the rim since there are fewer defenders in a position to do that.
Denver opponents frequently play whoever they want protecting the rim on Gordon, who lives in the dunker spot like a non-spacing center a LOT. He's really dynamic from there, but he's still down there.
That's the primary defensive matchup advantage the Wolves have against them, playing two bigs lets them keep Rudy off Jokic, with KAT and Naz being stronger as pure post defenders anyway, and Gobert being mobile enough to get to Gordon when he attacks the rim even though Rudy is mostly playing off him to stay at the basket as help against Jokic/Murray/etc.
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Other than the viral quote about the "red dot," I thought the funniest part was Rick Carlisle being hit by strays (unintentional, I'm sure) as CJM said that BOS couldn't know that Carlisle wouldn't call TO to advance the ball in G! or to set up the 2 for 1 in game 3, both decisions leading to big plays for the Cs.
Karalis is (rightly so) trying to get all the exposure he can out of the interview so he has a third podcast recapping the first two podcasts. I think it's actually worth a listen, so I'm going to re-post it below. Note: Karalis (and Westerholm) are CJM fanboys, so it's almost all complimentary.
The two things that I thought were really interesting was that (i) their discussion how CJM likely channels his intense, contrarian personality into basketball and really helps him as a coach and (ii) CJM differentiating between "defending a championship" and "attacking a championship". The latter one is very CJM.
View: https://youtu.be/UEMfWR0lQI4?si=pOGFP2hMquz7tjFv
The two things that I thought were really interesting was that (i) their discussion how CJM likely channels his intense, contrarian personality into basketball and really helps him as a coach and (ii) CJM differentiating between "defending a championship" and "attacking a championship". The latter one is very CJM.
View: https://youtu.be/UEMfWR0lQI4?si=pOGFP2hMquz7tjFv
Latest practice approach: doing everything but scoring.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5795090/2024/09/26/celtics-joe-mazzulla-coaching-drills/?source=user_shared_article
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5795090/2024/09/26/celtics-joe-mazzulla-coaching-drills/?source=user_shared_article