It’s already been a whirlwind of an offseason in terms of coaching changes in the NBA. The Bucks, Raptors, Rockets, Pistons, Sixers, and Suns have all moved on from their head coaches. At the time of writing, only the Raptors and Suns are yet to announce a new head coach.
However, many were speculating as to whether Boston Celtics would join the coaching hunt. Despite entering the playoffs as the second seed, the Celtics never played like a second seed. They needed six games to beat the Hawks, and seven to eliminate the Sixers. Then, they found themselves in a 0-3 hole to begin in the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite miraculously tying the series at 3-3, the Celtics were embarrassingly blown out in Game 7. This led to further speculation that head coach Mazzulla might be looking for a new job.
Stevens Backs Mazzulla
“He’s a terrific leader, he’ll only get better at anything that he can learn from this year, because he’s constantly trying to learn. And he’s accountable. Those leadership qualities are hard to find. I know they’re easy to talk about, but when you can show all those through the expectations and the microscope that he was under, that’s hard to do,” Celtics GM Brad Stevens told reporters. “Our players, our staff, everybody around him believe(s) in him, and we’ve got to do our best to support him going forward. Yeah, I think he is (the best head coach for this team),” Stevens said. “I thought he did a really good job with this group. Everybody’s going to overreact to the best players and coaches after every game. That’s always the way it is. We know that going in, so we have to be able to judge things on the whole.”
However, it also came out Thursday that a number of Boston assistants will be leaving to join former head coach Ime Udoka in Houston. “First of all, Joe’s experience now, you can probably measure in dog years, right?” Stevens said. “Because now he’s been in three Eastern Conference Finals and an (NBA ) Finals, and he’s been now the head coach throughout one of those runs. I mean, that’s an experience in and of itself,” Stevens argued. However, he did also note that the team would hire “at least one” new assistant.
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