What Brad Stevens said about Joe Mazzulla’s growth in year two

The Celtics head into this year’s playoffs with the No. 1 overall seed locked up, six more wins than last year, and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.

They also have a more experienced head coach. For the first time, Joe Mazzulla had a full offseason to implement his programs. He has a year under his belt instead of running into certain things in the playoffs for the first time last year.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said he’s seen plenty of growth in the second-year coach.

“I said this at the end of last year, I said at the beginning of this year, Joe did a really good job last year and then just picked right up on it this year,” Stevens said. “Everybody in that second year of being a head coach learns a lot about navigating the season, the schedule, the team and all the challenges that go along with that.”

“I don’t think that’s unique to him, but I do think he’s done a really good job,” Stevens added. “I think he’s as good as there is at getting a group on message and staying on that message and being able to hone in on this task at hand. This group was very consistent with that through 82 games.”

The Celtics are the only team ranked in the top three of the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency. The balance on both sides of the ball has led to the highest winning percentage in the NBA.

“It should be different every year if you take and learn from your experiences,” Mazzulla said. “It doesn’t need to be about last year or this year. At the end of the day, every year you should learn from your experiences.”

“We had time over the season to develop a shared approach towards how we wanted to go about doing things and every day we come in and do that,” Mazzulla said. “So, the only difference is timing. Had time to iron out the system, iron out shared mental approach towards winning and what it looks like and working at it every single day.”