A new challenge for Joe Mazzulla

If there is one word to describe the 2025-26 Celtics, it would be “lacking” — lacking their best player, lacking at the center position, and lacking with point of attack defenders.

If there is one place that the Celtics shouldn’t be considered lacking, it is with their head coach. Although there are many Celtics fans who are not fans of Joe Mazzulla, I think Mazzulla is an elite coach. This season presents a new challenge that Mazzulla has yet to see in his tenure as the Celtics coach as he handles a roster with a lot of flaws.

Despite raising Banner 18, Mazzulla has had his fair share of rough patches, namely the Knicks series this past year or the Heat series in 2023, a pair of losses where the Celtics lost to a team that they were better than. To me, that doesn’t make Joe a bad coach. He led the Celtics to a championship in which they dominated all season for a reason.

However, I’m not sure if the Celtics are going to be good this season. I honestly don’t think they will be and I wouldn’t be surprised if they missed the playoffs for just the 2nd time since 2007. However, I don’t expect this team to enter the season with any ideas other than to win. Mazzulla, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser are championship pieces and are not just going to roll over for an entire year.

This is going to be a more challenging puzzle night to night than what Mazzulla has ever had to deal with. He is going to have to do more things to put the pieces in the right places to generate wins for the Celtics.

Not having Jayson Tatum to lean on will be something that the entire Celtics coaching staff will have to adjust, too. He has become a crutch and can hide a lot of their problems.

There also is not a hot seat for Mazzulla this upcoming season. He just signed a contract extension and got a big stamp of approval from Brad Stevens at Stevens’ press conference at the draft.

“We want Joe to be around here for a long time,” Stevens said. Mazzulla is going to be the Celtics coach when Tatum gets back, no matter what happens on the court next year. He and the team have next to no pressure on them. That doesn’t mean the Celtics can’t be fun to watch and can’t win basketball games.

They will continue to get up their three pointers. They have shooters with White, Pritchard, Hauser and new addition Anfernee Simons, the Celtics won’t be lacking in the three point department. Rebounding and interior defense are my biggest concerns for this team and I am excited to see how Mazzulla is able to help out those areas.

I am excited to see how Mazzulla adapts throughout the season. This is something that he hasn’t seen as the Celtics coach. Boston will be more reliant on Mazzulla night to night than they have in years past and it will be fun to see how he adjusts to that.