Joe Mazzulla officially named head coach

lars10

lars10

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InstaFace said:
I wonder if his relative lack of that same relationship background with Smart (Who predates Mazzulla in the organization by several years, while CJM and the Jays arrived roughly at the same time) was a factor in needing to ship Marcus out in order to unlock the best potential of this team. I didn't see too many signs last year that Smart didn't buy in, he mostly was just playing the way he always had... but maybe in retrospect, that itself was a sign that Mazzulla wasn't getting through to him, while both of the Jays have improved in very visible, measurable ways each of the last few years.
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I think part of the Marcus smart experience was a tendency to sow chaos and go off script. He also very clearly went against the idea of doing as much as possible to find the best shot… as he very often preferred his own.

I also think he saw himself as a leader and as a peer of Tatum and Brown rather than someone that should defer to them… which also meant he wouldn’t/didn’t take kindly to a smaller role.. and wouldn’t allow DWhite to expand his role as was very clearly needed.

I think any coach would struggle under those circumstances and Smart was the one who had to go do that Joe could become the main voice in the room.
 
ZMart100

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Adding KP was what mattered. I think a KP, JT, JB, DW, Smart and Al top 6 would be nearly as good as this team.
 
wade boggs chicken dinner

wade boggs chicken dinner

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InstaFace said:
I wonder if his relative lack of that same relationship background with Smart (Who predates Mazzulla in the organization by several years, while CJM and the Jays arrived roughly at the same time) was a factor in needing to ship Marcus out in order to unlock the best potential of this team. I didn't see too many signs last year that Smart didn't buy in, he mostly was just playing the way he always had... but maybe in retrospect, that itself was a sign that Mazzulla wasn't getting through to him, while both of the Jays have improved in very visible, measurable ways each of the last few years.
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I don’t think it was that Marcus wouldn’t buy in but trading MS for KP was a massive upgrade at 2 spots - 5 and 1 (to use old-school terminology). I think it was as simple as they really couldn’t sit MS for DW in crunch time and not have issues; MS had good value on the trade market; and getting KP was a no-brainer given what happened in MIA.

Though I often wonder if BOS had beat MIS in G7 and heard everything about being the 1st team to come back from 3-0 and then lost to DEN in say 6 games, would POBOBS still have gotten KP?
 
bankshot1

bankshot1

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My 2 scents.

1) Marcus Smart as an agent of chaos was a reflection there was no leadership on the court or on the bench. He saw a vacuum and he filled it. He was the NO, NO YES! guy because all too often no one else stepped up. And he saw the rudderless ship and probably should have STFU, but he got shit for it and got traded. BUT it was a great trade. I wholly underestimated the impact of KP. I watched him mostly in NYC and he isn't the same player. He's a lot better. I only hope he doesn't break.

2) I'm still not all in on CJM. He's had a real good year, matured in many ways, and upped his game, but I still have my reservations about his ability to adjust his in-game coaching when coaching and putting your team in advantageous positions, matter. But we'll soon find out. I hope my concerns are overblown.

Last year, after coming back from 0-3 to the Heat, I knew he wasn't getting fired, but I wonder if Derrick White's miraculous G6 South Beach buzzer beater was 0.1 seconds later, if CJM would have a one and done in Boston.
 
Montana Fan

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A few weeks ago Mazzulla made the comment that he calls timeouts when the team isn’t playing well, not just based on runs by the other team. Since then I’ve watched the timing of his TO’s and while other team‘s runs sometimes coincide with the C’s not playing well, he’s also calling TO’s when they get out of sync, regardless of whether there’s a run or not. Learn to like him, he’s greatly improved over last year (the reasons, i.e., support staff are well documented in this thread) and he’s going to be here for a while.
 
lovegtm

lovegtm

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Eddie Jurak said:
If the Celtics disappoint in the playoffs, I think firing Mazzulla will not be the most likely move in response.
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Agree. This regular season has validated how much it matters to collect top-end, well-meshing talent. If that talent doesn't translate to the postseason, Brad's response will likely be to change the talent.

The NBA is a player's league; it's not the NFL. If your coach is reaching the players motivationally and designing solid schemes for them, you treat that as a constant and use picks/salary to give him the best roster you can.
 
Auger34

Auger34

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lovegtm said:
Kerr either needs a better assistant, or is doing it for player emotional support reasons ("let's show Dray we have his back and challenge the call")
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I would bet a very large sum of money that those challenges were done for Steph/Klay/Dray
 
slamminsammya

slamminsammya

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lovegtm said:
Kerr either needs a better assistant, or is doing it for player emotional support reasons ("let's show Dray we have his back and challenge the call")
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I was just thinking the same thing.

I think a successful challenge is generally worth something like 1 point, so the differences in success rate seem pretty minor. The number of challenges shows a much larger variance. It seems like malpractice to me that Spo only has 15 (? the viz is difficult) attempts
 
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