Celtics' Joe Mazzulla Won't Tell Players if They're Playing Or Not

Matt Levine | Dec 7, 2024

Eric Canha-Imagn Images

The Boston Celtics are one of the best teams in the NBA and are coming off winning the championship last season. They are doing something right both on and off the court due to all the success they have seen over the past few years.

The team is led by head coach Joe Mazzulla and the players take signs from his style of leading them all. Mazzulla is the youngest head coach in the NBA but he has emerged as one of the more skilled ones around the entire league.

Mazzulla has an interesting way of doing things as a head coach and this includes playing some mind games on his players ahead of games. The Celtics coach revealed that he doesn't even tell his role players when and if they will play in games.

"I just feel like if you give a guy an idea if he's going to or not going to, it changes his preparation on a daily basis," Mazzulla said. "I want our guys to come into the arena every day thinking that their process is important towards winning.

"They have to be ready to go and they got to treat every single game as if they are going to impact winning," Mazzulla continued. "By not telling them, it allows them to treat every single day as if it's the most important day and they do a great job of embracing that."

Mazzulla wants his players to be ready for anything and everything so he keeps them on the edge. The coach knows what games are unpredictable so he wants his players to be ready at a moment's notice to enter a game.

It's an interesting strategy but it has seemed to work out very well for Boston so far. The Celtics have established one of the better cultures around the NBA and it's been reflected in their play on the court.

The role players of the Celtics know their roles even if Mazzulla hasn't laid them out fully. They know that they are there to help the two stars out and do whatever it takes to build toward a title.

If things continue the way they are for the Celtics, more titles could be coming down the line.

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