Should Joe Mazzulla be an early favorite for NBA Coach of the Year?

Boston Celtics

Mazzulla has the Celtics positioned as the No. 3 team in the Eastern Conference.

COMMENTARY

By all accounts, this should have been a down year for the Celtics.

It’s not that there was any need for a rebuild; Boston still has an incredible foundation of young superstars that will keep its championship window open for years.

But when Jayson Tatum suffered his achilles injury in the playoffs last season, it was clear things were going to be different. And since Boston was already dealing with a salary cap conundrum, knowing Tatum’s status allowed Brad Stevens to make decisions geared towards the future — beyond 2025.

Thus, Boston’s championship roster from two seasons ago was partially dismantled. Stevens got rid of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, and other contributors like Al Horford and Luke Kornet moved on as well.

But any dreams Boston fans might have had about a lottery pick to pair with Tatum and Jaylen Brown in 2026 have faded away. Because Joe Mazzulla has the Celtics playing like a team that’s not ready to phone it in.

If the NBA season ended today, Boston would be the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. It’s riding a three-game winning streak and even with an underpowered lineup, Mazzulla has led the Celtics to some key wins early in the year.

Perhaps Mazzulla’s biggest signature win of the season so far came against the Raptors on Dec. 20th. Mazzulla did not have his leading scorer Jaylen Brown available, and still beat Toronto on the second night of a back to back in which arguably his most impactful players were Payton Pritchard, Hugo Gonzalez and Luke Garza.

Few if any coaches in the NBA are getting more wins with less talent in their lineups than Mazzulla. But is he doing a good enough job to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award?

Well, that depends on how voters weigh record vs. roster. The Oklahoma City Thunder are running away with the best record in the NBA, and could even give the 2015 Warriors a run for their money for the best record in NBA history. That makes OKC coach Mark Daigneault an obvious favorite to win Coach of the Year.

However, the Thunder have an incredible lineup that includes reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They also have one of the current favorites for Defensive Player of the Year in Chet Holmgren.

When Boston had its dominant season in 2023-24, Mazzulla could have very well won the award then. But the Celtics’ dominant lineup seemed to be a disadvantage to him in the eyes of voters. Boston was almost too talented with Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, Holiday, and Derrick White, and that seemed to make Mazzulla’s coaching efforts look less impressive.

This season has given many under the radar players an opportunity to shine that they didn’t have in the last few seasons. But it’s also allowed Mazzulla to showcase just how great of a young coach he really is.

At this stage, it’s relatively unlikely that Mazzulla will win Coach of the Year considering the dominance of the Thunder and the sudden rise of the Detroit Pistons. And there are other strong candidates beyond them. But by the end of the season if Boston keeps trending, the case could absolutely be made that Mazzulla is having the best coaching season of anybody in the NBA.