The Boston Celtics are staring down a tough road back to contention next season. After entering last year as title favorites and aiming to defend their 2024 championship, the past few months have unraveled quickly. Even before Jayson Tatum’s devastating Achilles rupture, Boston was teetering on the edge of a disappointing playoff run. Now, with their franchise cornerstone expected to miss the entire 2025–26 season, head coach Joe Mazzulla is left with no choice but to adapt on the fly and reconfigure his approach.
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On the Games With Names podcast, former New England Patriot Julian Edelman asked Mazzulla how he plans to deal with the upcoming adversity Boston will face next season, considering many new faces will fill out the roster. Edelman recalled when his former coach, Hall of Famer Bill Belichick, would remind the team at the end of the season that it would be the last time that particular group of guys would play together.
While NFL rosters typically shuffle more than NBA teams, Mazzulla is facing a problem similar to the pressing issues many football coaches face. The 37-year-old will be running his offense through a different star next season, likely Jaylen Brown, while heavily relying on a cast of newbies after trading away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.
Mazzulla may face an uphill battle next season, but he understands that dealing with different rosters and play styles is part of the job. “I think at the end of the day, you sign up for the journey,” Mazzulla told Edelman. “I don’t think you sign up for the short-term approach for one year.”
The third-year head coach has been nothing short of resilient throughout his time leading the Celtics. After failing to return to the NBA Finals in his first year with the franchise in 2023, Mazzulla locked his team in and paved the way for them to make, and win, the 2024 NBA Championship. He appeared to have them ready to repeat in 2025 before their playoff run went sideways.
Mazzulla has always had a stacked team at his disposal, a stark contrast to next year’s gutted Boston roster. For a basketball junkie like Mazzulla, though, figuring out how to get the best of what he has is simply part of what he signed up for. He knows he can’t expect to win a title every year.
“If that was the case, I would have retired after year two,” Mazzulla joked. “So I think you sign up for the journey, and you don’t just sign up for one person’s journey. I think you take on the journey of everybody, you know, in the organization, all of your players, all of your coaches, all of your staff members. For however long you’re together, you’re on this journey.”
The NBA’s youngest head coach, Mazzulla is just getting started. That’s easy to forget, considering all he has accomplished in his short stint with Boston. The Celtics may not come close to another NBA title next season, but there’s no doubt that Joe Mazzulla will have his available players ready to compete.
