Mazz on the Celtics: If they don’t win it this year…massive failure
The Boston Celtics wrapped up their preseason with a 127-99 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night and will now get set to kick off the regular season next Wednesday. On Friday’s Felger and Mazz, Mazz made his expectations known for the Boston Celtics this upcoming season.
Championship or bust for the Celtics?
Mazz: In some of these other years when you’ve looked at the Celtics this time of season, we would go into the year and we would say, “they’re close, they’re close. You know, are Tatum and Brown quite there yet they’re not 26 or 27 yet. They’re on the cusp, but they’re not quite there or they might not have this on the roster. Do they have that ability to close out games? Do they have the personnel as much as they were? Good going into these preseasons?”. There was always still in my mind, I don’t know, maybe not yours…..
Jim Murray: No, not these last two years. They should have won it these last two years.
Mazz: Okay. But I always felt like, are Tatum and Brown quite there yet? I don’t have any doubt now. They’re good enough to win. They’re good enough and physically they were good enough to win before. But now, I don’t think there’s any doubt. Like I look at it and say, not only are they good enough to win, they should win. And I know Felger felt this way before I did.
Jim Murray: They should’ve won last year. I definitely felt it about that team.
Mazz: Right. But I would say they lacked the discipline and emotional maturity to do it. So it wasn’t a talent issue, but they didn’t have the discipline or emotional maturity to accept what the responsibility was. Like they didn’t get it. They didn’t get it. Now they have Kristaps Porzingis. Now they have Jrue Holiday. Marcus Smart is gone. Tatum and Brown, the path has been cleared for. The coach is going into his second year. They even have a security blanket in coach waiting whether it’s Lee or whether it’s Van Gundy, whoever, they have options. They have checked every single freaking box that they wanted to check to make sure that even if something goes wrong, we’re prepared to handle it. They have done that in every freaking column. If they don’t win it this year….Massive failure. The good news is I think they know it. And the way Mazzulla and Stevens are talking, to me, sort of fortified some of that.