Mazzulla will return as coach despite stumbles

BOSOTN — Joe Mazzulla went through growing pains, expectedly, as a first-year head coach with the Celtics this season. He certainly made mistakes in the playoffs. But given the challenging circumstances of his promotion, suddenly thrown into the job days before training camp after the suspension of Ime Udoka, the Celtics were happy with the job he did.

Though the Celtics failed in their goal of winning a championship, they view Mazzulla as the man for the job going forward. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, not surprisingly, confirmed Thursday that Mazzulla will remain the head coach.

“I think when you consider the position he was thrust into and the overall accomplishments of the group, I thought he did a really good job,’ Stevens said. “When you look at it in the big picture and having a team that was second in offense, second in defense, won 57 games and (had) a chance to go to the NBA Finals on your home court, there’s a lot of direction and organization that goes into that. I thought that he did a good job.”

The Celtics have remained confident in Mazzulla ever since September, when they put him into an almost impossible task in getting the Celtics ready for training camp with nearly no time, a job Stevens – who was once an NBA coach who needed an entire summer of planning — said was Thursday was “remarkable.” Mazzulla gave the Celtics enough confidence to give him a contract extension in February before he ever coached a playoff game.

The playoffs were certainly a challenge for Mazzulla, who admitted costly mistakes along the way. Outsiders called for his job, and the noise was loud after

the Celtics fell into a deep 0-3 series hole in the Eastern Conference Finals. But in helping the team respond to force a Game 7, he showed many of the qualities that made the Celtics comfortable with him throughout a mostly successful season.

“Everybody’s going to overreact to the best players and

coaches after every game,” Stevens said. “That’s always the way it is. We know that going in so we have to be able to judge things on the whole. And he’s a terrific leader. He’ll onlygetbetteratanythingthat he can learn from this year because he’s constantly trying to learn.”

While Mazzulla was imperfect, Stevens recognized that they need to continue to support him moving forward. The Celtics virtually lost three coaches from their staff this season. Udoka was dismissed. Will Hardy departed before the season to be the head coach of the Jazz. In March, top assistant Damon Stoudamire — who Mazzulla relied heavily on as a rookie – suddenly left to become Georgia Tech’s head coach.

All three were incredibly valuable to the Celtics’ operation last season, and none of them were replaced. Stevens said he tried to add to the staff before the season and when Stoudamire left, but it was difficult. The Celtics moved forward with Ben Sullivan, Aaron Miles, Tony Dobbins and DJ Macleay as Mazzulla’s assistants.

“Those timings are tough for people to up and move or up and join a new team that they don’t know anything about or don’t know,” Stevens said of trying to bring in an assistant before the season and during. “But that was just to be supplemental, because we believed in the people that were here.”

Stevens on Brown: Stevens can’t speak about contracts publicly yet but he made one thing clear on Thursday: He wants Jaylen Brown to stay in Boston.

Brown earned an ALL-NBA second team selection this season, which means that beginning on July 1, the Celtics

have the opportunity to lock in their star to a five-year supermax extension worth about $295 million, which would start in the 2024-25 season. Asked if he would offer that extension, Stevens couldn’t answer directly but expressed his commitment to the two-time All-star who he once coached.

“I’ve had nothing but great conversations with Jaylen, but we can’t talk about all that stuff,” Stevens said.