Last season, the Boston Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals under head coach Ime Udoka. Shortly thereafter, Udoka was suspended for the entire 2022-23 season, and the Celtics announced that assistant coach Joe Mazzulla would assume head coaching duties on an interim basis.
In February, the team announced it was dropping the interim tag and officially named Mazzulla the 19th head coach in franchise history.
Udoka eventually moved from Boston and was named the head coach of the Houston Rockets.
Meanwhile, the Celtics had a successful regular season under Mazzulla, earning the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But the team was unable to return to the Finals.
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Danny Ainge addresses the media as Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward are introduced as the Boston Celtics on September 1, 2017 at the TD Garden in Boston. (Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)
Despite what happened, Danny Ainge, the Celtics’ former president of basketball operations, believes Boston is better off with Mazzulla as coach.
Ainge worked in the Celtics’ front office for 18 years and shared some of her thoughts on the state of her former team in an interview with The Boston Globe.
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Ainge said that she thinks Mazzulla is a better coach than Udoka.
«This team found joy. They were inconsistent, but they had each other’s backs. Everyone was defending Joe in the media,» Ainge told The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy.
«You see the toughness and stubbornness of Joe. He’s a tireless worker. He has a passion for learning. Joe is a leader, and I think this was a difficult situation with the high expectations that the team had. I don’t think there’s anybody out there who doesn’t I think Joe is better than Ime (Udoka) as a coach.»
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla walks the court during the first quarter of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat at TD Garden on May 29, 2023 in Boston. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Ainge acknowledged that he is biased on the issue because he hired Mazzulla as an assistant coach.
After Ainge resigned from his Boston front office position, Brad Stevens moved from his head coaching position to president of basketball operations. Stevens then named Udoka the Celtics’ head coach before the start of the 2021-22 NBA season.
Head coach Ime Udoka of the Boston Celtics during Game 3 of the 2022 NBA Finals on June 8, 2022 at TD Garden in Boston. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
Ainge is now a top executive with the Utah Jazz and helps oversee basketball operations. He works closely with Jazz general manager Justin Zanik.
Mazzulla interviewed for the Jazz head coaching job last year, but former Celtics assistant Will Hardy was hired.
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Mazzulla was criticized during the playoffs for some of his decisions, with some detractors citing his lack of coaching experience.