Brad Stevens on Boston Celtics DIFFICULT offseason, Jayson Tatum injury, Joe Mazzulla’s job
Can the Boston Celtics navigate the financial maze of the new CBA while managing key player injuries? With Brad Stevens at the helm, the Celtics face tough decisions that could reshape their future. John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal breaks down Stevens’ insights on offseason strategies, including potential trades involving players like Sam Hauser to avoid luxury tax penalties. The episode also covers Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury and Jaylen Brown’s meniscus issue, highlighting their impact on the team’s dynamics. Karalis passionately defends head coach Joe Mazzulla, arguing that his approach aligns with modern NBA trends. Discover how these developments could influence the Celtics’ path forward. Tune in for an in-depth analysis of the Boston Celtics’ challenges and strategies.
2:00 Intro: Brad Stevens discusses offseason injuries
5:38 Financial challenges for Celtics this offseason
12:54 Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown injuries
23:33 Brad Stevens defends Joe Mazzulla’s coaching
29:40 Criticism of Mazzulla and championship expectations
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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.
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44 Comments
Celtics took 60 3s in the preseason and I thought it was just a fun gimmick for preseason. I never expected the team to do it over and over at bad efficiency. That is Mazzullas problem
Like championship windows, this transition period, too, shall pass.The Celtics will come back stronger, even if some of the players do not.
Go Celtics go we will be back soon 🔜
With all due respect, I really appreciate your Celtics analysis — it’s sharp and consistent, and I thank you for the great content.
That said, I respectfully disagree on the way the team plays.
Losing two home games in a row with 20+ point leads and plenty of time left is unacceptable. It shows a lack of in-game adjustments and flexibility from Joe Mazzulla. It’s always Plan A, and when that fails, there’s no real backup.
Everyone is shooting threes constantly — that’s clearly a coaching instruction, not just players doing whatever they want. Maybe he’s too passive with his players, I don’t know… but something’s missing. Same thing happened in 2023 playoffs..
I’m not saying he’s a bad coach — and if Brad Stevens keeps backing him, he must see something we don’t. But as a fan, it’s frustrating to see such a talented team lose this way.
We’ve had so many deep playoff runs in the Tatum/Brown era — we should have at least one more ring by now. And I just don’t feel like Mazzulla is the right guy to take us all the way.
Anyway, thanks again for your work — I’ll keep tuning in every day! Let’s hope we get that championship next year.
Can we trade Tatum to the mavericks to get the first pick in the draft? Cooper flag
No disrespect but you’re making felger and mazz’s point. They run a chuck up as many 3s as possible offense led by the coaching staff of Joe. So when it doesn’t work they don’t know what to do. Barkley , Kenny smith they all see it. They were lucky to win one last year with an all star team and the easiest path possible. If the offense doesn’t change, Joe will be fired in 2-3 years assuming the cs extend him when they lose again to some inferior talent team doing the same as when they lost to Miami and this year the knicks
Keep Tatum, Brown, White, Porzingis and Pritchard. Re-sign Kornet.
Trade Holiday, Horford retires. Maybe have to let go of Hauser as well.
Keep Porzingis over Holiday because he is 4 years younger and it’s very hard to find another Porzingis (when healthy).
Scheierman becomes the replacement for Hauser minutes.
Hear joe mazulla 😂😂😂
Who to trade? Who not to trade?
Joe Muzzula must Go! He has to Go!
last yr name one team they played that wasnt injured? They were all and now Boston got injury bug. for Playoff the Celtic averaged 14 out 39 per game on average in playoffs at 36%. I can name at least 3 games against knicks they shot in 25%. They got outcoached. Thib made changes and Joe did not. Idea is if missing the 3points do something else. Attack the rim. Tatum was attacking until injured because he was missing 3 pointers.
I would not give up on Tatum and Brown. I think they need to build around them. I still believe in them
John you’re going to have to continue to repeat this over and over how messy this will become.
IMO john you are exaggerating things. The Cs dont need to have to be able to aggregate salaris post-trades. They just need to have enough room to sign their rookie, al and luke whil staying under the 2nd apron. In fact:
1. 1 of jrue or kp is enough to get under the 2nd apron and even have enough salary available to sign al, luke and the rook (around 12M) as long as boston is taking back close to minimum in the trade.
2. 1 of kp/jrue + sam is enough to get below the 1st apron/tax line. Again, the key is just to take close to minimum/rookie scale back.
3. We dont have to worry much about salary coming back. We can always rope in a 3rd team to take the salary. Here are the top 5 teams with TPEs:
1. atl (25M)
2. bkn (23M) + cap space
3. Chi (17M)
4. sac/mia (16M)
5. nola (13M)
we have multiple teams we can flip salary too. Never mind if teams like the jazz or detroit clear cap space.
Its not as bad as you think. We have multiple paths/options forward.
Sorry C’s fans but even before Tatum went down the Celtics weren’t winning this year. They are a good team not a great team. No player is a reliable closer. Haven’t had one of those since Paul Pierce. Moves need to be made. This team and core isn’t likely to win another championship
Fire mazulla… Cassell next coach
Trade all except white and brown sheirman walsh
First we need new coach… We always lost in third quarter and always brick 3$
They are in salary cap purgatory. They can get drastic and “rip off the band aid” for a reset that can get turned around within a couple of seasons or be more moderate, which will hamstring them and make them a perennial mid tier to low playoff seed. I prefer the former. Blow it up. In order, trade Holiday in a salary dump for some second round picks and a team’s expiring contract. Trade Jaylen Brown to rid themselves of that albatross contract. He’s a decent player, but flawed, and not a max type player. Trade Porzingis. This will be difficult with that salary and level of play. He’s on an expiring contract which may lead a team taking a flier on him, because he will be coming off the books. I hope they do all three which will make them a bad team for a couple of years. But free up huge money to go after Banchero who’s a free agent in 2 years. Then you have White, Tatum, and Banchero.
Dear John, Love your content and think you're awesome. That said, please never mention how gamblers might be mad about anything. The best possible outcome for everyone is every sports bettor loses every single bet the place.
Bring in Sam Cassel to be the new head coach and was a great player that won back to back championships with the Rockets and the Celtics back in 2028 finals
Great point about Joe
30:48 Thats because they have way too much talent to get one title. They get credit for that one title but its a huge dissapointment to only get one over tne course of 8 years with all that talent.
Only reason y'all didn't jack up a million threes vs orlando is because they made a point to take it away. Short of that y'all jack up a million threes a game sometimes without the ball even going inside the paint
John, just a reminder that the ridiculous takes and knee-jerk opinions comes from a small fraction of Celtics fandom. Most longtime fans (I watched Bird play) know we have the right core personnel and philosophy to keep winning. ☘️
People keep forgetting by we have 2 very good prospects on the bench. Jrue should train with Walsh for defense. With Walsh’s length and skills he is very Reggie Lewis ish. A lot of potential. And scheierman just needs more attention and help growing. JT and JB are still the future for the Celtics.
John, your non-sick voice is strong and has a rich timbre and it is ALWAYS recognizable. Embrace it.
Definitely gonna need to see a pod with Keith. He’s extremely busy this time of the year but would be great to see what options the Celtics have – if they cop the tax or if they look to dip under it for the upcoming season.
Out ： Joe / KP / JB
The more Kornet play the more his flaws get revealed. In his current role he is a allstar.
John, I did not even think of that. Because I don’t bet at all. I’d rather throw my money in the stock market, which is kind of betting lol. But anyway, yeah that’s a good point if I had made a bet on Jaylen Brown without Knowing he was injured, I would be pissed for sure
Listen to Brad. They’re not “dumping” players for no value. That doesn’t help them rebuild the team around JT.
Also, they are $20m over the 2nd Apron. That’s less than KPs expiring deal. Absolute worst case scenario is their 2032 pick gets bumped to 30th & they have 2 “frozen” firsts.
They will make moves to alleviate cap penalties. They’re not going to fire sale talent for no return. That’s not how you set yourself up to build the next iteration of the team.
Think we are letting Joe off the hook for blowing all those leads.
I also respectfully disagree and I also appreciate and watch your content all the time
Celtics had a easier path last year and those are facts. No one is making that up, so of course we would expect for them to truly be tested with other teams that had their star players back.
And yes, it is Joe‘s fault, these teams that made it this year to the final four, none of them are jacking up three-pointers like the Celtics
Joe May know a lot about basketball, but that doesn’t make him a great coach he doesn’t make adjustments in real time, he’s OK with iso ball, there’s no ball movement, I mean, let’s be real. The guy has to go. He had an easy pass last year and all of a sudden he’s this great coach?
Rick Carlisle, now that’s an excellent coach, you see how the Pacers move the ball, how they play fast, how they know went to slow it down and take the right shots in the paint and also know when to take the three-point shot, those guys play with heart and they are trained to take the right shot for real, none of this Jayson Tatum, or Jaylen iso ball while everybody is standing around
It’s ridiculous, Joe gotta go
Don’t knock Denver playing the 8th seeded Miami Heat you lost to that 8th seeded Miami Heat lol should of been Denver Boston in 2023
Joe head coach 3 years 2 years he's lost the lower seeds including the 8 seed his first year. The year they won every team in the east best player got hurt during the series or before. In the finals Luka doncic's turned into a pumpkin. The guy can't recognize when he needs to change anything or when to call timeouts. The fact he could not figure out that Kristoff porzingis was a negative in these playoffs and kept playing him. Even though every time he came in the game they lose the lead or they would go down further. That's a sign of a bad coach who is too stubborn to change what his game plan was going into the game. If he was better I would Praise Him for being better. How is it every one of the the reporters who cover basketball think anyone that has a bad opinion of a coach doesn't know basketball but if we praise him we know what we're talking about. I wish reporters didn't get sensitive. So the Lakers were wrong for firing their head coach who had won a championship and brought in Pat Riley they did the wrong move huh?
You are so wrong the league is not take 19 out of 20 shots from 3 and one quarter. But for some reason Joe was just fine with them taking 19 out of 20 shots from 3. No other coach would have allowed that to continue, name me another team who did that once all year and tell me one team that shot 60 3 in one game this year😮
Thanks for your analysis John. What worries me about the C’s is always losing the leads when it matters most and not being able to close out quarters successfully. Who is more at fault for that?
Wow, so the coach has zero saying what the players do. Why even have a coach then😅
Tank for AJ, bring the man Home!!!
Even if tatum comes back 100 perce t no garuntee brown doesn't get hurt in That time frame. 1st year of browns max contract 2nd round exit and hurt. 1st year of tatums injured. 2 years of each damanhed goods. I dont see the team exstending broen even if he stays.
They def dont just chuck up threes but the flow of game pace and swinging the ball up the court and side to side thing issss what really didnt happend and is why they really lost… Should of learned that lesson from warriors series
I'm going to bet my house that Brad is fully aware of the late game issues and already has at least 2 potential paths forward. He needs to see what develops around the league, what trades occur, he needs to get budgetary guidance from Chisholm. I'm not sure what he'll do. I don't see what Brad sees. But he made moves after 2023 when he knew changes were required. Personally, i don't like what Westerholm was talking about yesterday. You have to take advantage of every year, every window. Don't "take a step back" to recalibrate and "get the players healthy". Sorry Tom, that's nonsense. JT will be back by March, the east is open with no dominant teams, push all the chips in.
It HAS to be a reset year. Trade Jaylen Brown, Porzingis, Jrue and of course some bench players. Let Tatum rest all season. Build around Tatum for when he comes back.