Celtics players believe Joe Mazzulla should win award he thinks is ‘stupid’

Mazzulla also gave a different interpretation of the award compared to other times he’s spoken about it. Instead of dismissing it altogether like he did earlier, Mazzulla spoke about how he wants the league to change it up.

“I would like to see that changed to staff or organization, for sure,” Mazzulla said. “I think those things are important. I think if it was Staff of the Year, it’s different, if it’s Organization of the Year. But at the end of the day, I haven’t made one basket all year. Our staff hasn’t made a basket. We haven’t got a block. We haven’t ran back on defense. We didn’t play a back-to-back. We didn’t have to play hurt.”

Even if Mazzulla doesn’t win the award, it’s clear he’s one of the best coaches in the NBA. He led the C’s to the 2024 NBA title in his second full season. But his work this year has impressed, guiding the Celtics to a top-2 seed in the playoffs despite an overhauled roster and no Jayson Tatum for the majority of the season.

“Everybody just comes in and it doesn’t matter if it’s training staff, weight room,” Pritchard said. “Everybody knows their job and they come in on a high level and they produce every day. Even like the player development staff, they’re on-court probably more than us working their butt off. It definitely starts with Joe and the expectations he has and the standard that he holds people to.”

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