Celtics
“We’ll see how all the pieces shakes itself out with what the workers seems to be like.”
One of many first dominos of the Celtics’ offseason fell on Thursday afternoon when Brad Stevens confirmed that Joe Mazzulla will return as Boston’s head coach for the 2023-24 season.
Now, the onus falls on Stevens and Boston’s administration to present the 34-year-old coach some reinforcements on the bench.
“We’re going to search for at the least one addition to the bench, and he’ll lead this cost,” Stevens stated Thursday. “We’ll search for someone that has a whole lot of NBA expertise for certain.”
Mazzulla was already thrust right into a troublesome spot this season, taking the reins of the roster as a first-year coach simply earlier than coaching camp. Nevertheless it didn’t assist that the Celtics suffered from a big mind drain all year long when it got here to established teaching assets.
Past the dismissal of Ime Udoka, the Celtics misplaced prized assistant Will Hardy final June when he was named the pinnacle coach of the Utah Jazz.
Boston didn’t add one other assistant to its workers as soon as Mazzulla was promoted to interim head coach. In a while, fellow assistant Damon Stoudamire left the group in March to take the head-coaching gig at Georgia Tech.
As soon as once more, Boston was unable to fill Stoudamire’s emptiness, particularly with the NBA playoffs proper across the nook.
Add in stories that Celtics assistant coaches Ben Sullivan, Aaron Miles, and Mike Moser are anticipated to hitch Udoka’s workers down in Houston, and Boston will doubtless be a principally clear slate as far Mazzulla’s workers in 2023-24.
“I feel one of many issues is clearly we had a change in coaches 5 days earlier than the season began,” Stevens stated of Boston’s lack of ability so as to add coaches throughout the 2022-23 season. “And we did attempt to add to the workers at the moment. However you’re additionally weighing, like, you’ve received lots of people which are actually proficient in right here. I’m certain you’ll see, as we’ve talked about, our assistants this 12 months and our assistants just about yearly are going to be known as and requested by a whole lot of groups. So we’ve a superb workers, and I feel that’s one factor that form of will get misplaced within the shuffle, as a result of we did have lots of people that we misplaced, too.
“However the workers we had was good. And we did attempt. Dropping Damon in March we once more tried. However these timings are robust for individuals to up and transfer or up and be part of a brand new group that they don’t know something about or don’t know. However that was simply to be supplemental as a result of we believed within the people who have been right here. So, transferring ahead we’ll have at the least—we’ll see how all the pieces shakes itself out with what the workers seems to be like. However we’ll at the least have one addition that we’ll make now that we’ve a summer time to make it, after which we’ll go from there.”
The addition of a former head coach like Frank Vogel or Stephen Silas as a prime authority on Mazzulla’s workers may alleviate a few of the strain on Boston’s head coach.
Much like how Hardy was an important useful resource for Udoka final season, having one other reliable coach to regular Mazzulla ought to yield stronger returns on the bench transferring ahead.
Though Boston ought to profit from having a full offseason so as to add to its teaching workers, Stevens additionally reiterated that Mazzulla himself ought to enhance now that he’s been granted a complete summer time to refocus and craft a brand new sport plan for the 2023-24 marketing campaign.
“I imply, I may need stated this in September, I couldn’t have executed that,” Stevens stated of Mazzulla getting elevated to go coach simply earlier than coaching camp. “I all the time wanted a complete summer time of planning, a complete summer time of considering and organizing ideas and having the ability to catch your self prepared to emphasise what you wish to emphasize every day.
“There’s no query that will likely be a giant deal. To do what they did in 5 days and prepare for the season and to begin the season the way in which we did was slightly bit extra outstanding than individuals exterior the constructing would have thought. I actually was leaning on the management at that time, that was not a straightforward factor.”
Join Celtics updates
Get breaking information and evaluation delivered to your inbox throughout basketball season.
E-newsletter Signup
Keep updated on all the newest information from Boston.com
Originally posted 2023-06-01 21:22:52.