The Boston Celtics can have an interim head coach on the sidelines this upcoming NBA season, and everybody exterior of the Northeast could also be questioning:
Exactly who is Joe Mazzulla?
In the wake of Celtics coach Ime Udoka being suspended for the whole 2022-23 season for having an intimate relationship with a feminine member of the franchise’s workers, Mazzulla has been elevated from assistant to interim head coach of the defending Eastern Conference champions.
The transfer continues a meteoric rise for Mazzulla inside basketball teaching circles. In three years, he has gone from teaching in Division II to the helm of a staff projected to have the most wins in the NBA this season, in accordance to Caesars Sportsbook.
Mazzulla, 34, is the youngest head coach to take over a staff that reached the NBA Finals the prior season since Lawrence Frank in 2003-04, per ESPN Stats & Information analysis. (That yr, Frank took over midseason when the New Jersey Nets — who had made the Finals the prior two seasons — fired head coach Byron Scott.)
He is additionally the youngest to be in that place to begin a season since late Celtics legend Bill Russell, who turned player-coach of the franchise in 1966-67 at 32 years outdated.
Mazzulla and Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy — who was Udoka’s lead assistant final season, earlier than being employed in the summer time by former Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge to change Quin Snyder — are actually tied for the distinction of being the youngest head coach in the NBA.
The two of them, nonetheless, could not have totally different expectations coming into the season. Shortly after hiring Hardy, Ainge traded away Rudy Gobert and then Donovan Mitchell, sending the Jazz right into a full-on rebuild consequently.
Mazzulla, in the meantime, takes over a championship contender coming off a magical run to the Finals — and does so with solely two years of head-coaching expertise (at a small faculty) underneath his belt.
Here’s a take a look at the younger coach’s previous expertise, together with the job ahead of him this season:
Mazzulla’s highway to the NBA
Mazzulla made his identify enjoying 145 video games for West Virginia from 2006 to 2011, first for John Beilein and then Bob Huggins.
After faculty, Mazzulla spent 5 years as an assistant coach in the Division II ranks — with Glenville State from 2011 to 2013, and Fairmont State, positioned roughly 20 miles southwest of Morgantown, West Virginia, from 2013 to 2016.
The Celtics had been excessive on Mazzulla — who is from Warwick, Rhode Island — for a while. They initially introduced him into the NBA’s orbit in 2016, after they employed him as an assistant for the G League’s Maine Red Claws. Two years later, then-Celtics head coach Brad Stevens employed Mazzulla.
Following his one season in the G League, Mazzulla returned to Fairmont State as its head coach in 2017, going a mixed 43-17 throughout two seasons earlier than coming to the Celtics in 2019.
When Udoka got here aboard in June 2021, Mazzulla remained on the Celtics’ workers.
“He was a guy that there was a consensus, yes,” Udoka mentioned the day earlier than Game 6 of the NBA Finals in June. “Somebody that [the players] all worked with closely, believed in and understood his upside.”
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Mazzulla was a finalist for the Jazz head-coaching job this summer time — a place that finally went to Hardy, Udoka’s high assistant final season. (The Jazz wished Mazzulla to be part of Hardy as an assistant, however the Celtics saved him in Boston.)
“I love Joe,” Jayson Tatum mentioned of Mazzulla earlier than Game 6 of the Finals. “You could tell how passionate [he is] about the guys and his craft. He’s gotten so much more knowledgeable, more detailed, just vocal. More comfortable in his role as a coach. You’ve seen growth from his first year.”
During his faculty years, Mazzulla was arrested twice — as soon as, in 2008, for underage ingesting and aggravated assault, a case by which he pled responsible and paid a high-quality, and then in 2009 for home battery after an incident at a bar, a case that was settled out of court docket.
When requested throughout Friday’s press convention about the incidents, and how they factored into the choice to make Mazzulla the staff’s interim coach, Stevens mentioned he vetted them totally when he employed Mazzulla as an assistant with the Celtics in 2019.
“I believe strongly in Joe’s substantiveness as a person,” Stevens mentioned. “He’s been very open with me about how those moments impacted him in every which way and you can see it in the way he carries himself. You could see that for a long time. We’ve had years to get to know him. . ..
“He’ll be the first to inform you, he is 110 p.c accountable for that, and I’ll be the first to inform you that I consider in him.”
What lies ahead for Mazzulla and the Celtics?
It is impossible to know how Mazzulla will approach the job. But while people will immediately think about what Udoka’s suspension will mean from an in-game perspective, it is behind the scenes, and in the locker room, where his absence could be felt the most.
From the moment Udoka arrived in Boston last summer, he made a point of challenging the team’s best players, All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, to improve. Udoka pushed the duo to become better playmakers and creators for others, and he wasn’t afraid to say publicly how he felt about the team’s play.
“It’s a scarcity of psychological toughness to struggle by these antagonistic occasions,” Udoka said after Boston blew a 25-point lead to the New York Knicks in January. “A relaxing presence to gradual it down and get us what we would like is actually what you want at that time. And typically all of us get caught up in it.”
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Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens tackle the choice to droop Ime Udoka for the upcoming NBA season.
During the Celtics’ gradual begin, Udoka’s criticism was at occasions seen as a detriment. But Boston dramatically turned its season round throughout the second half of 2021-22, ending the season 51-31, the finest report ever for a staff that was underneath .500 at the midway level. They turned the first staff underneath .500 midway by the season to attain the Finals since the Houston Rockets in 1981, in accordance to ESPN Stats & Information.
The mixture of Udoka’s suspension and Hardy’s departure has left a void of expertise on Boston’s bench. Stevens spent a number of extremely profitable years in the position, however he has his palms full operating the staff’s entrance workplace. Perhaps Boston will look to add a veteran assistant coach to present some perception, as nicely.
But no matter what the Celtics select to do, it was just a few weeks in the past that Boston was deemed the winner of the offseason by a plurality of NBA coaches, scouts and executives.
Now, the Celtics discover themselves beginning over on the eve of coaching camp. Not solely are they reeling from the sudden lack of Udoka, however additionally they noticed their high free agent signing, Danilo Gallinari, tear an ACL whereas enjoying for Italy throughout a FIBA World Cup qualifying sport final month. Meanwhile, beginning middle Robert Williams III underwent surgical procedure this week on the similar knee that triggered him bother all through the 2022 playoffs.
As a end result, a staff that was seen as certainly one of the clear favorites to advance to the NBA Finals just some weeks in the past has seen its offseason thrown into absolute chaos mere days earlier than the begin of coaching camp.