The Boston Celtics are expected to struggle during the 2025-26 NBA season.
Sure, that may be true for the regular season, but in the preseason, the Boston Celtics are off to a solid 2-1 start.
Speaking about the preseason, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla recently shared an unfiltered response. One where he urged the NBA to make a huge change to the format.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty ImagesJoe Mazzulla ‘hates’ the NBA preseason and wants it abolished
While Mazzulla is using the preseason to bond with his players, the 2024 NBA Championship-winning head coach simply doesn’t see the benefit of preseason games.
Instead, Mazzulla would prefer extending the NBA Training Camp and replacing preseason games.
“I’d rather have no preseason games and practice every day. I hate preseason games. We should just have practice for a month straight,” Mazzulla told Celtics reporter Bobby Manning.
“At the end of the day, it’s a preseason game. To me, you come in here and practice, and you work,” he added.
It may be a bold statement from Mazzulla, but the Celtics head coach has his reasons for wanting to get rid of exhibition games.
Joe Mazzulla says the ‘idea’ is to make preseason games close to practice
Even with the preseason record not carrying over to the regular season, there are teams like the Miami Heat, who are having a historically bad run.
The result? The team may begin the regular season with low morale. Keeping that in mind, Mazzulla always tries to ensure that the preseason is as close to practice as possible.
“The idea is to try to make the preseason game as close to practice as you can,” Mazzulla continued.
“Because you’re always going through things — who’s on a minutes restriction, who may be sitting out, trying to save yourselves for the regular season, all those things which are important,” he stated.
Despite agreeing that these things are important, Mazzulla still concluded with wanting 30 straight practice sessions over the preseason.