Boston’s Joe Mazzulla has a strong case for Coach of the Year. Don’t tell him that

The NBA has started the process of lining up voters for postseason awards, and if form holds from recent years the ballots will be due shortly after the end of the regular season.

Some categories will be easier for those on the voting panel to fill out than others. Defensive Player of the Year might not take voters very long (spoiler alert, it’ll be San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama) and Rookie of the Year is basically going to be a two-contender race (a Duke guy will win; it’s TBD if it’ll be Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel or Dallas’ Cooper Flagg).

Advertisement

Other races will be tougher. When talking MVP, for example, logical arguments can be made for Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Wembanyama, Boston’s Jaylen Brown and probably a few others as well.

Another of those wide-open races? Coach of the Year.

There is no shortage of candidates. J.B. Bickerstaff is likely going to guide Detroit — a team that made headlines for losing streaks just two years ago — to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Mitch Johnson, in his first full season at the helm in San Antonio (he did coach 77 of the Spurs’ 82 games last season, but technically, this is full season No. 1), will have the Spurs in the No. 1 or No. 2 spot on the Western Conference bracket. Quin Snyder in Atlanta, Charles Lee in Charlotte, Jordan Ott in Phoenix and Darko Rajakovic should, at minimum, get some consideration as well.

And then there’s Boston’s Joe Mazzulla. The Celtics played most of this season without Jayson Tatum and were expected by some to be a fall-back-to-the-pack team this season because of Tatum’s injury and the departures of players like Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. Oops. The Celtics are at 50 wins, again, and Mazzulla has done an admirable job.

Advertisement

He was asked before Boston’s game on Monday about Coach of the Year, and specifically his place in that race. What happened next was … well, probably not unexpected.

“I don’t need it,” Mazzulla said. “I think it’s a stupid award.”

It’s probably now reasonable to think the Celtics won’t…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/bostons-joe-mazzulla-strong-case-085130342.html

Author : TIM REYNOLDS

Publish date : 2026-03-31 08:51:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.