Boston Celtics Head Coach Joe Mazzulla Media Day Press Conference FULL
Joe, you guys have played a certain brand of basketball with the same roster for the past two years. What goes in to the process of figuring out what style of basketball suits this new group, even with the carryover of guys who were still a part of that other group? Yeah. Uh, you know, I think you just taken always trying to regardless of what your roster is, you’re just trying to maximize it. So, uh, you play to the strengths, uh, of your roster. You also play to the the strengths and and you know, an awareness of the environment. you know what wins uh night in and night out over the course of the NBA. I think the NBA is always changing, so you have to stay up on the trends. At the same time, you got to maximize the uh personnel and the roster that you have. So, uh hopefully that’s something that, you know, we’ll do every year regardless of who we have. Joe, um going into this season, is there any extra motivation? because obviously uh the talk is that you guys are going to take a step back and there’s a rebuild and all the terminologies for not being as good as you were personally. Is there more motivation? Do you need any more motivation? Like how was your mental approach entering this season? Yeah, I mean I think when it I think if I ever get to the point where I start um you know basing my motivation on the expectation of others and people that I’ve never met before, I’ll retire and quit. So, um, to me it’s like you wake up every day and you have a standard and an expectation for your family, for your household, and then when you come in for the building, and you know, regardless of who’s on the team, that’ll never change. So, uh, it doesn’t guarantee you anything, but I think uh, you know, you got to be able to push yourself, you got to be able to hold yourself to a standard, and, you know, that’s not only at home, that’s that’s when you come to work every day. So, uh, that’s really the focus, you know, I think is, uh, not allowing others to, uh, put expectations onto you. But if you don’t have high expectations for yourself, you’re not going to get to where you want to get to. So, every season picks up a life of its own. Every journey is different. Every team is different. Uh, and I think you have to kind of look into that as you head into any season. So, the goal is to win a championship. Every every year should be. I mean whether you lose a year before but I don’t know if it’s it’s not to w it’s it’s to do everything to go after the process of winning a championship because I think there’s a ton that’s out of your control but at the end of the day the process of of winning is the ultimate goal and uh that will forever be uh the goal as long as you know you coach. I think when you don’t have that you shouldn’t do it. Um, I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I do know we’ll treat it as such that we will have the process of winning every single day. And, you know, what happens from there happens from there. Joe, we uh we talk a lot to the players about what they’ve done in this offseason to change themselves and improve their game. What have you done as a as a coach and as a person to improve yourself and be ready for the season? Yeah, just I think a part of that comes into learning the league. I think there’s a ton of great coaches. There’s a ton of great players. There’s a lot of trends, a lot of things going on, a lot of new ideas coming into the league. You want to stay up on that as much as you can. Figure out where the game is going. You know, not only this year, the next 3 to 5 years. And then obviously, you know, just, you know, growing as a person, obviously getting better. I think uh every year you’re in it. You want to learn about yourself. I think the season exposes yourself to yourself as far as kind of how you’ve gotten better as a coach, as a person. You know, the the ideas that you have, the creativity, your ability to think under pressure, all those things. So, uh, you know, just kind of take a holistic approach to that and and, you know, continue to keep an open mind to getting better. Joe, how does this year’s training camp differ from last year? You had a lot of cohesion last year. This year’s a lot of new names, new, you know, probably have to do a lot more teaching. H how do you approach this differently? What’s what’s the the goal that is that any different? Uh, no, it’s not different. I mean, at the end of the day, we have a core of guys that have been here a long time that understand, you know, Celtic basketball, kind of how we do things. And we got a group of guys that have been here for 6 weeks, our staff and uh, you know, the guys have done a great job being here playing, you know, and understanding that system. I think again, you can’t take for granted uh, the cohesiveness, whether you’re together for five years or one year, you can’t take that for granted. And so, you got to build that regardless. And so, I think that’s important piece. And then you know I understanding the game is something that you have to teach all the time. Their habits, their mindset. So if you know the the the same video session that we showed uh two years ago is the same one we showed this year. Some of the clips are different but the themes remain the same. You know you got to have a process to winning. You got to stick to the things that impact winning. You have understanding of what those things are on a nightly basis and then you have to have an ability to uh play for something bigger than yourself. So uh all those are the same. It’s a matter of maybe finding different ways, you know, year in and year out to to working to achieve those on and off the court. Cassidy, hi Joe. Uh, I’m just wondering, I think Jason spoke a little bit about just you being there for him throughout the re rehab process. I was just wondering, I guess your, you know, just your thought process and just being him for or being there for him throughout that. Um, yeah, I mean, I think, uh, it’s your responsibility as a coach to be there for you guys. So, uh, you know, whenever I could lift with him, whenever I could be there for treatment, whenever I could rebound for him, I think it was important, uh, to do that. You know, I think as a guy that’s, uh, going through stuff, you you have to know that, um, going through it together. And I think that’s a a piece that’s important. So, uh, I was there for the first time he walked. I was there for the first time he ran. I was there for the first shots that he took. So, uh, I think it’s important, you know, and you try to do that for everybody. I think uh one of the things in the offseason that I like to do is you know build different relationships with the guys and do different things. So each guy has their own way about how you go about doing that. This summer that was a way to build a relationship with him and you know it was different for everybody throughout the summer. You know Chris got baptized this year got to go to that. I thought that was really important and uh just a lot of other you know things throughout the offseason. Hi Joe. Um Derek said that you’re going to love this season because people are doubting you. Um, do you agree? And if so, what is it about that mentality um that you think will apply this year? Yeah, I mean, again, I think, you know, for the longevity, you want to be able to push yourself to the standard that you set for yourself. You know, at the same time, I think that’s a long-term, you know, intrinsic motivation that you have to have to do this. I do think you need bits and pieces of, you know, short-term extrinsic motivation along the way of a long journey. Um and so I think you know having an understanding of your environment um you know paves the way for that and you know internally the standard will remain the same. Obviously you can’t control the external approach to that but uh you know you enjoy the moments um you know of kind of those short-term exttrinsic things that uh you know you can can you know leverage for yourself you know as the journey continues. Joe, Payne obviously had a massive season last year. What are you expecting him to provide for you guys as he takes another leap here and how how have you gotten to know Anthony since he’s arrived to the team? I see what you did there. Build that correlation between Pton and Anthony, which I’m sure you’ll try to do the entire season. Uh so I nipped that in the bud immediately. Uh those two there’s don’t go hand in hand. They’re completely different guys. But as far as Payton, I think I had the expectation he’s going to grow as a player all the time. I mean, that’s just kind of what he does. But at the same time, I think expectations uh again, they change, right? You night in and night out. I think the most important thing is being open-minded to have an understanding of how you impact the game uh on a nightly basis and what gives us the best chance to win that night. Uh as far as like his holistic development, I think, uh Payton’s done a great job of just balancing his game out. You know, you’ve seen over every year he’s taken something and have gotten better at. So, uh I expect he’ll do the same this year. At the same time, you know, if it calls for scoring, he can do that. If it calls for defense, he can do that. So, just, you know, whatever we need on any given night, uh, he’s able to give us. And, uh, you know, I’ve gotten to know Anthony very well. Um, excited to have him. You know, he’s he’s been in this league a long time and, uh, he’s shown that he can do some things and and, uh, just brings another piece, uh, to our team, to our roster. And again, the message is the same, like uh, don’t put yourself in a box about how you can impact the game. you need to be able to impact it in different ways and you have to have balance and you you know you have to be able to go to different things on different nights and uh just you know understanding that and making sure he plays with the uh you know the utmost confidence uh you know because you know what he can bring to us uh is important. Last two questions Justin Joe you prioritize having a relationship with your players. What has the process been like this summer with so many new faces around the building and building that relationship? Yeah, I mean I think it’s again just uh everybody does it in different ways. Um, some people, you know, you go visit them, some people you just see here, some people like dinner, some people like coffee, some people don’t like doing anything at all. So, I think it’s just having an understanding of what’s important to each guy and finding that that correlation that you can make with them and and build on that. Not just for the players, we’ve had some turnover in the in the building as well, right? You know, and so in those moments, you rely on the alignment. Uh, you know, the Celtics have been a a successful culture uh for a long time. and they will be they were in the past they are now and they will be long you know when we’re all out of here so relying on the foundation of that at the same time you know getting to know people meeting where they’re at have an understanding uh that you know they impact winning you know one of the things that I’ve learned in three years is like you know practice starts at 11:00 by the time you get to practice there’s already been five six interactions that the players have had with people in other departments of the building you know and if you don’t win those interactions you can’t get the best to practice so you know the people in the building are actually much more important than I am because they see the players first, you know, whether it’s kitchen, whether it’s security, whether it’s medical or strength and conditioning. Like those interactions uh play a huge part in making sure by the time we get to the court, we’re, you know, ready to go. So, uh that’s kind of how you build it is the empowerment and the ownership to understand that everyone plays a part in winning and, you know, to go about that every day. When it comes to what you saw from Nene at Eurob Basket, whether it’s his confidence in being more vocal on the court or something with his game, what do you think he can take from that that will translate to an NBA setting? Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a physical game, uh, you know, obviously. And then, you know, I think the physicality of the game, the talent of the game, I mean, his pool was they had a lot of talent on there. And so, and then I think just the the passion in with which you represent your country is uh, you know, very similar to playing for the Celtics. And so I think being able to leverage those things, but just reps, you know, I think uh reps under duress, uh doing it every other night, he’s proven that he can do. And now we have the confidence that he could do it every night. And it’s just the details over and over again. Thank you.
Joe Mazzulla spoke to the media ahead of 2025 Boston Celtics Media Day to discuss an offseason of change and what’s to come in this campaign.
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1 comment
Joe lost some luster with his poor coaching in the Knicks series. This is a big year for him.