Joe Mazzulla will return as Celtics head coach following disappointing playoff exit

The Boston Celtics are on their third head coach in three seasons, and the organization will not be making another change. 

On Thursday, Celtics team president Brad Stevens told reporters Joe Mazzulla is the right man for the job following Boston’s Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. 

“Yeah. I think he is,” Stevens said when asked if Mazzulla was the best head coach for the team moving forward. 

“He’s a terrific leader,” Stevens added. “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.” 

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Mazzulla became head coach of the Celtics just days before the start of training camp after Ime Udoka was suspended for the entire 2022-23 season for “violations of team policies.” 

Mazzulla took over a team coming off an NBA Finals appearance in which Boston took the Golden State Warriors to six games. 

The Celtics started the season 21-5, finishing with the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. 

“I think when you consider the position he was thrust into and the overall accomplishments of the group, I thought he did a really good job,” Stevens said of Mazzulla to start the press conference. “I mean, when you look at it, in the big picture, and having a team that was second in offense, second in defense, won 57 games, and has a chance to go to the NBA Finals on your home court, there’s a lot of direction and organization that goes into that. I thought that he did a good job.”  

Despite having the second-best record in the NBA, the Celtics struggled during the NBA Playoffs before eventually falling to Miami. 

In the first round, Boston needed six games to defeat the Atlanta Hawks after blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead in Game 5. 

Against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round, Boston required a fourth-quarter comeback to steal Game 6 on the road before Jayson Tatum put up a historic performance in Game 7. 

Boston then became just the fourth team in NBA history to force a Game 7 after falling behind 0-3 in a series before being blown out Monday at home in the Eastern Conference finals. 

The Celtics now enter an offseason with difficult decisions ahead of them with Grant Williams about to enter restricted free agency and Jaylen Brown eligible for a supermax contract extension after being named second-team All-NBA.