Celtics' Brad Stevens Talks Joe Mazzulla's Future After Playoff Exit

Despite the team winning the NBA title last season, after the Boston Celtics were eliminated from the postseason, questions started to surround the future of head coach Joe Mazzulla. While nobody really believed that Mazzulla was on the hot seat, there were some whispers around his future with the team long-term.

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Celtics president Brad Stevens shut that down very quickly at his end-of-the-year press conference. Stevens said that he has complete belief in Mazzulla going forward.

"We're lucky to have Joe. We're lucky to have the staff we have here.", he said.

Mazzulla is one of the better coaches in the NBA, and he has seen plenty of success with the Celtics. Despite the playoff exit, Boston should be trying to keep him around for a long time.

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The Celtics won 61 games this season and looked like one of the best teams in the entire NBA. Boston just ran into a roadblock offensively against the Knicks, and New York took advantage.

Additionally, the reigning NBA champion hasn't made it out of the second round of the playoffs since 2019. New York was simply just better over the six-game series.

Mazzulla even acknowledged this fact and praised his team for how they fought throughout the series.

"I told the guys in the locker room, one of the honors of my life was to be able to coach this group of guys," Mazzulla said. "So you go down the list, every one of these guys is a champion, a warrior, and they've done a lot of great things in this league. It's an honor to be able to share the locker room with them, be next to them on the court and be in the arena with them. So I'm grateful for that, and to me, it just shows who they are as people, who they are as players. But that's really what it's all about, is those guys.

"They came in, we had a legit shot at it, and they gave everything they had to try to go. But we ran into a better team."

Boston could look a little different next year due to salary restrictions, but they will likely still be a factor in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics have a solid foundation in place, and a lot of that has to do with the leadership of Mazzulla.

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