The Celtics‘ locker room never really got over Ime Udoka‘s sudden departure as the team’s head coach, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on Monday during an appearance on NBA Countdown (YouTube link). Udoka was suspended and then dismissed after he engaged in what was described as an improper relationship with a female staffer, and Celtics players never got the full story about what happened, according to Wojnarowski.
“These players did not accept the organization’s reasoning for doing it. They thought it was a wild overreaction. There were a lot of the people on the outside who thought it was an overreaction, (that) it was an HR matter,” Wojnarowski said (hat tip to RealGM). “I think for this team, and talking with management, they never got any more answers than the public was getting on this. That doesn’t mean they haven’t accepted Joe Mazzulla as head coach, but this is a team that really believed in Ime Udoka (and) had a strong connection with him.”
As Wojnarowski notes, the Celtics lost top assistant Will Hardy last spring to Utah, then promoted Mazzulla in September and saw another assistant, Damon Stoudamire, leave for a college job in March. The lack of veteran experience on the staff to support Mazzulla, a first-time head coach, may have been an issue during this postseason, according to Wojnarowski, who suggests Boston perhaps should’ve made it a priority to add a seasoned assistant.
The Celtics are reportedly looking at candidates such as Frank Vogel and Stephen Silas for possible roles on their staff for next season.
As Boston prepares for Game 4 and aims to begin climbing out of a 3-0 hole in the Eastern Conference Finals, let’s round up a few more Celtics notes…
- A veteran scout who spoke to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com believes that Mazzulla is taking too much of the blame for the Celtics’ disappointing showing vs. Miami, arguing that many of the team’s current issues were problems under Udoka and Brad Stevens too. “Sharing the ball, ball movement, just dribbling out the clock, lot of isolation basketball, defensive lapses,” the scout said. “All these things have existed for years.” A coach who spoke to Heavy agreed that Boston’s struggles aren’t Mazzulla’s fault: “At this stage of the playoffs, your weaknesses are exposed. They were exposed last year in the Finals.”
- With the Celtics facing elimination on Tuesday, David Aldridge of The Athletic takes a look at two paths available to the franchise this summer, arguing that Boston would be better off staying the course than blowing up its roster.
- Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari tore his ACL last August in international play before he appeared in a single game for Boston. Could Gallinari – who missed the entire 2022/23 season and will likely exercise a ’23/24 player option to remain with the C’s – return from that injury for Italy at this year’s World Cup? He spoke to Joe Vardon of The Athletic about that possibility, pointing out that he’s still not taking “game-type” contact and would need the Celtics’ blessing to suit up for the Italian national team.
Anonymous NBA Scout and Anonymous NBA Coach have the best Celtics takes that anyone has given so far.
Idk why everyone seems to get blamed except Udoka. He’s the one that messed up.
Not to mention his team also caved last year, just in a later round.
Joe Mazz isn’t prefect but he gets more blame than he deserves.
Agreed, lost in the finals, lost in the ECF, whatever.
If Udoka messed up then I “mess up” every single day, loll
virgin
This is probably the best take I’ve seen you have all year…
Udoka is also responsible for how this season ended in the fact that it was his assistants that took over for him… Which meant his cancerous culture wasn’t going to be fixed this year…
Celtics clearly have some type of chemistry/relationship issues between Tatum, Brown and Smart. Draft picks in consecutive years. Came up together in the league …. You don’t have a true “bond” among each other, and Quit the way they did in Game 3.
Agreed. This is the final year for the 3 of them together. They’ve maxed out.
They need a strong PG who facilitates at a high level… Smart is a geat defender but isn’t someone that Brown or Tatum would defer to and they ended up with ISO ball as a result…
No! Not Silas!!
Those issues only exist b/c of the lineups they use on the floor, and lack of spacing at times. A lot of those issues were alleviated when they got Horford back
Not only was it an overreaction, but it was completely unfair. It takes two to have an alleged relationship, yet only one gets fired, hmmm….I wonder why?
All well I guess going with the wife beater is a much better look.
No one mentioned in the article is a wife beater. Jason Kidd’s in Dallas.
Joe M has a similar histoy…
Lol looks like Kurits here has never held a real job…
The one in senority always gets fired in these cases… Otherwise the company faces a lawsuit when it ceases to be consenual and the senior in the company can’t accept it… As was the case with Udoka…
Udoka is a cutlure cancer and it was little surprise that he got a job with a team that has a dumspter fire of a culture from the top down…
People who think sexual harassment is “cool” or “funny” are generally people who haven’t actually had sex (incel, is another term, though not my own).
Harassing someone is the only way they can actually picture it happening to them, so they make light of it and act like it’s no big deal.
“Sharing the ball, ball movement, just dribbling out the clock, lot of isolation basketball, defensive lapses,” the scout said. “All these things have existed for years.”
Us fans have noted this terrible lapses for years. Why can’t we fix them? Go Celtics!
The reason I believe the Celtics and Ime got things straightened out just before the break is that the players relaxed and let the former player in him come out onto the floor and coach them.
The over comfortable blanket Steven’s provided them was taken away and they didn’t like it.
They fought the change which beget the first half fights. Once they relaxed and let him into the locker room that’s when things changed.
This allowed the player in him to come out onto the flood and guide the team much in the same way Doc drove the Sixers.
The Celtics are missing that transcendental 6th man factor.