Celtics Make Final Call On Ime Udoka Punishment: Report

Joe Mazzulla Expected to Become Interim Head Coach

With Udoka being removed from the sidelines for the upcoming season, it appears that assistant coach Joe Mazzulla will be entrusted with leading the team moving forward.
“Assistant coach Joe Mazzulla is likely to become Boston’s interim coach for the season, sources tell ESPN,” Wojnarowski reported on September 20. 

Mazzulla has been with the Celtics since 2019 and has developed a strong relationship with the Celtics playing staff, most notably with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. We also saw Mazzulla displaying his coaching skills during the 2021 NBA Summer League, where he led Boston to the Summer League Finals before they lost to Davion Mitchell and the Sacramento Kings.

Still coaching an NBA team is a significant step up from coaching a Summer League roster, and Mazzulla will need to get the Celtics players to buy in to his methods and ideas quickly if Boston wants to get off to a better start than they did last season.

Brad Stevens Not Rushing New Additions

Beyond dealing with the current Udoka issues, Stevens is still responsible for finalizing the Celtics’ current roster, which is in need of some new additions following Danilo Gallinari’s ACL injury and Robert Williams undergoing a second surgery on his knee.

However, it seems as though Stevens is willing to play the long game here, and doesn’t see an upside in rushing out to sign the best available free agent – because his focus is more on team fit than individual talent, which makes perfect sense.

Speaking in a recent interview with the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn, Stevens shared his thoughts on how the team can improve and why he’s currently looking toward some of the younger talents that are fighting for a roster spot during training camp.

“We’re going back and forth on it. We don’t want to overreact to Rob’s [injury] just because it’s a short-term thing here. We feel good about some of the guys who have been in the gym for the last few weeks. We’ve had a bunch of guys in, a lot of the guys that have been added to the roster recently…We’re obviously super aware [of our need] but we want to make sure we add the right people. We can do that through guys who can make our team; we can do that through guys that are available as free agents and we can do that through trades down the road,” Stevens told Washburn during the interview.