“Second Row Joe” no more: The case for Joe Mazzulla to win Coach of the Year

As the Boston Celtics (60-16) have just clinched the NBA’s best record for the 2023-24 season, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore Joe Mazzulla for serious Coach of the Year consideration. While many assume that Mazzulla will not be awarded COTY on account of Boston’s supreme talent, I believe that Mazzulla is most deserving of the award this season.

The three finalists for NBA Coach of the Year are likely to be Mark Daigneault (Thunder), Chris Finch (Timberwolves), and Mazzulla.

Mark Daigneault and Chris Finch have strong cases

The argument for Daigneault centers around OKC’s success-to-youth ratio. OKC entered the 2023-24 season as the NBA’s second-youngest roster with an average player age of 24.12 years old (Spurs were the youngest at 23.52). The fact that Daigneault has positioned such an inexperienced team to win a historically crowded West is truly remarkable. The Thunder have outperformed expectations more dramatically than any team this season, and Daigneault’s now been stamped with the elite head coach label, for good reason.

Chris Finch has also exceeded expectations in Minnesota. The Wolves are talented at the top of their roster, but Anthony Edwards is only 22 years old, and no one assumed an Ant-led team would be challenging for West supremacy this early. Finch deserves a ton of credit for constructing the NBA’s most formidable defense around Rudy Gobert and finding perfect roles for guys like Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid to flourish in. Minnesota has also maintained a shot at the top seed over the past several weeks without Karl-Anthony Towns, a testament to Finch’s culture. No one would be shocked to see Finch or Mark Daigneault win Coach of the Year, as they are both deserving.

Fringe candidates: Malone and Mosley

In my view, Orlando’s Jamahl Mosley and Denver’s Mike Malone find themselves just outside the threshold for top-three COTY Finalist status, which does nothing to take away from the brilliant jobs they’ve done in 2023-24.

Regarding expectations, Malone has been in a similar position to Mazzulla this season with a championship roster (literally speaking) and a title-or-bust agenda. Given the fact that Malone has the best player in the world on his team and an elite assortment of players, the Nuggets would have had to separate themselves out West as the clear No. 1 seed (as Boston’s done in the East) for Malone to garner more COTY buzz. Denver is still battling for the top spot in the West heading into the final few games of the season, and while it would be difficult to argue that the Nuggets haven’t lived up to expectations, they certainly haven’t exceeded them.

Mosley looked like a surefire COTY candidate during the early stages of the season as Orlando found themselves hovering right around the East’s top spot, to everyone’s surprise. Like Daigneault, Mosley has defied expectations with an impossibly young core. However, the Magic did fall back down to Earth in December (6-8 record) and struggled in January (6-10), which is why they are still just 2.5 games clear of dangerous Play-In territory with six to play.  If Orlando had not suffered a winter drought, Paolo and Co. would likely have a 2-seed or 3-seed locked up at this point, and Mosley would be difficult to ignore for COTY Finalist.

What separates Joe Mazzulla

Expectations. This is the metric by which Coach of the Year candidacy is apparently measured. Defying expectations as Daigneault, Finch and Mosley have done usually gets the most attention from Coach of the Year voters. Just last season, Mike Brown became the first unanimously voted COTY primarily because the 2022-23 Kings were the prototypical example of expectations defied. With Brown’s win, we were reminded of the most predictable formula to win Coach of the Year — take a young team and lead them to a much better record than everyone expected.

Yet, as expectations and COTY are eternally married to one another, not enough praise is given to coaches who are burdened with high expectations and nonetheless live up to these standards, or even exceed them. Meeting or outperforming expectations in a Boston or a Denver can be just as challenging a coaching project as legitimizing an OKC or Orlando ahead of schedule.

Mazzulla and Malone deserve a lot of credit for maintaining stability and consistent excellence on ships that everyone assumes are headed to the promised land. Over the course of what many would argue is an unnecessarily long 82-game NBA season, the allure of complacency becomes the most dangerous foe for teams like Boston or Denver. To overcome complacency and consolidate one’s dominance (Boston currently holds an astounding 13-game lead atop the East), teams must exhibit supreme discipline and find creative ways to motivate themselves, duties which are reflections of a team’s head coach, staff, and overall culture.

Beautiful basketball in Boston

Joe Mazzulla’s culture construction in Boston has been something to marvel at. Like a divinely built chapel, it’s difficult to know where to begin in describing the different details of its beauty.

Let’s start by examining the contagious aura of selflessness that Mazzulla has presided over this season. Every single Celtics player has completely bought into Boston’s singular goal, in most cases to the detriment of their own stats or chances at individual recognition. It’s widely acknowledged that Jrue Holiday has sacrificed shots, that Jayson Tatum has sacrificed MVP candidacy, that Al Horford has sacrificed a starting role, (the list goes on) and yet none of these sacrifices have ruffled feathers within the locker room or become a problem for Boston. In fact, selflessness has become Boston’s constant solution and prevailing identity.

The selflessness of the 2024 Celtics is not just a reflection of the above narratives, either; it’s something palpable that anyone watching how Boston moves the ball can notice. The C's are virtually unbeatable when they swing the ball around at breakneck speed. They are 21-2 this season when they record at least 30 assists, and 37-4 in 30+ assist games dating back to last season. Sublime ball movement has become a staple of the Mazzulla Era in Boston, and the Celtics (plus anyone watching their games) are benefitting as a result. Indeed, watching these Celtics defer to each other endlessly for the best possible shot possession after possession after possession is a form of basketball heaven.

In a league of massive egos and even more massive max contracts for players, establishing a selfless culture such as Boston’s current system is no small feat. We should also acknowledge that it’s taken more than just Mazzulla to build such a masterpiece. Players like Holiday or Horford deserve a ton of credit for being the high-character guys that they are, and Brad Stevens (an obvious choice for Executive of the Year) has constructed a roster overflowing with character and devoid of any problematic egos, which has allowed for the kind of seamless, collaborative atmosphere of sharing and team success within which the Celtics are thriving.

Even so, in a 60-16 season such as Boston’s, the many highs of the campaign are often overly attributed to the work of players, while the few lows are almost always attributed to the team’s leader: in this case, Joe Mazzulla.

An important bullet point on Mazzulla’s resume for COTY is the way in which he’s navigated the ruthless and never-ending parade of Boston sports media, a wondrous monstrosity that is one of its kind in the NBA. Expectations for Mazzulla and his team are overwhelming coming from all corners of the league’s media, but nowhere is this pressure felt more uncomfortably than within Boston. Mazzulla has faced intense and unrelenting local media pressure since taking over as Celtics head coach two weeks before last season in the wake of Ime Udoka’s controversial departure. It's the kind of pressure that is unique to the Boston Celtics franchise with its 17 championships and heavy expectations for what all of New England views as a grossly overdue eighteenth banner.

Mazzulla has been doubted and doubted again since the moment he rose to the podium as Celtics leader, with some pundits using the nickname “Second Row Joe” as a pejorative to point to Mazzulla’s lack of experience (Mazzulla was not a lead, "first row" assistant for Boston prior to being vaulted into the role of head coach). However, amidst all the doubt, criticism, and borderline disrespect from the local media, all Mazzulla has done is win. He’s transformed “Second Row Joe” into a notch on his belt: how impressive it is to have risen from NBA coaching obscurity to the heights of NBA coaching royalty in a span of less than 24 months, all with just two weeks' notice before the journey even began.

Since being hired, Mazzulla has established the highest winning percentage for a head coach in NBA history.

It's plausible that Mazzulla, a Finalist for COTY last season, falls short once again in the eyes of voters this season. The Celtics are loaded, and Daigneault and Finch have had great success with less talent and experience, voters will argue. Boston owning the NBA’s top offensive rating, top net rating, third-best defensive rating, and top 3-point percentage is all a result of the Celtics’ elite roster, not Mazzulla, voters will declare.

Most likely, Mazzulla couldn’t care less. In the end, it’s not Coach of the Year that Joe Mazzulla is chasing, just as Jayson Tatum is not chasing MVP. The 2023-24 Boston Celtics, currently boasting a top-10 net rating of all time, are not really chasing their contemporaries as much as they are chasing history itself. If the C's can stay healthy and execute in June, a championship will almost surely manifest. Scarier still, none of Boston’s core four (Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, White) has turned 30.

Sooner or later, Mazzulla will get his flowers.