{"id":1957119,"date":"2026-05-26T23:39:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1957119"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:39:50","slug":"celtics-joe-mazzulla-wins-stupid-nba-coach-of-the-year-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1957119","title":{"rendered":"Celtics\u2019 Joe Mazzulla wins \u2018stupid\u2019 NBA Coach of the Year award"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BOSTON \u2014 Despite what Joe Mazzulla thinks<\/a> of the Coach of the Year award, it now belongs to him.<\/p>\n

Mazzulla, who has called the award \u201cstupid,\u201d won it Tuesday after leading the Boston Celtics to a 56-26 season and the Eastern Conference\u2019s second seed. The NBA announced that Mazzulla beat out the other finalists for the award, Detroit\u2019s J.B. Bickerstaff and San Antonio\u2019s Mitch Johnson. Boston fell to the 76ers in the first round of the playoffs in a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThank you to the Lord for the platform he has given me, and to my wife and family who support me on this journey,\u201d Mazzulla said in a statement. \u201cThank you to our players who compete and give it everything they have each night. I am grateful for every member of the Celtics organization whose dedication impacts winning every day. This award belongs to our staff, who are there for the guys every day. Their relentless work ethic improves our team daily. This award should be named Staff of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics earned the No. 2 seed in the East despite playing most of the season without injured star Jayson Tatum and losing nearly half their rotation during a cost-cutting summer. They still finished second in offensive efficiency, fourth in defensive efficiency and fourth in net rating while winning at least 50 games for the fifth straight season. Mazzulla has served as the head coach during four of those campaigns.<\/p>\n

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Mazzulla\u2019s job this season changed in some ways. The Celtics needed to find several new contributors to replace the departed Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet. Much of their supporting cast had never played a regular role in the NBA. The team dropped its first three games, but quickly righted itself to re-establish its place near the top of the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is well-deserved recognition and a testament to both Joe and his staff,\u201d Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. \u201cWith all of our unknowns entering the season, Joe did a fantastic job building and growing a team. He pours everything he has into competing at a high level while helping players find the best versions of themselves within the framework of a team. On top of all of that, Joe leads with an authentic care for the Celtics and everyone he works with \u2014 players, coaches, and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Several players, including Jaylen Brown, cited the importance of the coaching staff\u2019s focus on teaching the game. After losing so many key veterans, Mazzulla recognized the need to speed up the learning process for his younger players. Otherwise, he understood, the loss of collective basketball IQ would have been too great for the Celtics to overcome.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think that was the number one point of emphasis this offseason,\u201d Mazzulla said in December. \u201cAfter losing all that experience that we had, all that continuity that we had, just creating a better learning environment throughout the building, creating a better learning environment in the film room, on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust different ways to make sure that our language and system philosophies are getting across. At the same time, guys are able to retain information at a fast level so that we can get to the best version of ourselves as fast as we can to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trying to give his team an edge, Mazzulla was hard on the Celtics from the start. During the preseason, he spent time yanking any player who gave up an offensive rebound. Throughout the regular season, he altered his rotation depending on who was producing more at the time. Luka Garza, one of the players whose role fluctuated the most, said Mazzulla\u2019s approach to playing time helped the entire roster stay ready at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing the opportunity\u2019s coming, I think gives you a little bit more confidence versus a situation where you might lose hope or don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to play,\u201d Garza said. \u201cBut by seeing how he coaches and how he\u2019s gone to different guys in different situations, you know it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Celtics were faced with another major adjustment when Tatum returned in early March. They handled it almost seamlessly, finishing the regular season 13-3 with Tatum in the lineup, before failing to close out a 3-1 lead in the first round of the playoffs. Tatum missed Boston\u2019s 109-100 Game 7 loss with left knee stiffness after suffering the setback during Game 6.<\/p>\n

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The Celtics actually won fewer games than they did in any of Mazzulla\u2019s first three seasons. Still, given the degree of difficulty, Mazzulla received widespread praise for keeping his team so competitive during the regular season. He typically tried to deflect such praise, but his players believe he deserved it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t like the attention on him and making it about himself,\u201d Derrick White said on April 20. \u201cBut obviously, he\u2019s done an amazing job this year, and when he wins, it would definitely be well deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Despite what Joe Mazzulla thinks of the Coach of the Year award, it now belongs to him. Mazzulla, who has called the award \u201cstupid,\u201d won it Tuesday after leading the Boston Celtics to a 56-26 season and the Eastern Conference\u2019s second seed. The NBA announced that Mazzulla beat out the other finalists for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1957119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1957119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1957119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1957119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1957119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}