The year-long suspension of former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka was a bombshell that shocked the NBA world and left the Green Team utterly bewildered. But despite the untimely chaos his punishment posed, the Celtics are 22-7 during their 2022-23 campaign, as they have the top seed in the Eastern Conference and the league's best record.
With interim coach Joe Mazzulla at the helm, Boston's offense is humming and proving too potent for many opposing teams. Although Mazzulla — who's just 34 and had never previously been more than an assistant in the NBA — has the C's looking great so far, Boston's superstars won't forget what Udoka did for them last season.
In a recent interview with The Athletic, MVP-hopeful Jayson Tatum spoke to Udoka's important role in the current iteration of the Celtics:
“Ime deserves as much credit as anybody. Ime deserves a lot of credit for how he got us playing, and Joe [Mazzulla] has stepped up and found his own voice and obviously has got us rolling now. But I feel like Ime, especially last year, righted the ship to get us playing the right way.”
For much of the 2021-22 campaign, Boston looked lost, as it held a mediocre 20-21 record at the exact halfway point of the regular season. Through Udoka's help, the C's bounced back in a historic fashion, as they entered the playoffs with a 51-31 overall record before advancing to the NBA Finals.
While Boston didn't achieve their ultimate goal of winning a championship, Udoka got them closer to the promised land than any other Celtics coach could in the last 13 years.
The other burgeoning star on the C's, Jaylen Brown, also discussed how integral Udoka was to the success of the team:
“I think Ime did a good job when he came in and built the system around us. Like, he built it around our individual talent of what we did well and what (were) our superpowers. Like, Rob (Williams), gave him the freedom to make plays. He let me and Jayson be who we are, but in a combination of moving the ball and doing other things. Defensively, he told us, ‘See a play, make a play.’ The system was built around us and that was just a different coaching style than we were used to previously. ”
This season, Mazzulla has seemingly adopted Udoka's philosophy of playing around Tatum and Brown. The dynamic duo has led the way for the Celtics this year, because outside of them, no other player has been the team's top scorer in 29 games.
The offense flows through the two All-Stars, as they both average over 26 points per game and are among elite company when it comes to scoring pairs, joining the likes of Kobe Bryant/Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Durant/Steph Curry.
In their last game on Tuesday night, the duo outshined LeBron James and Anthony Davis in an insane OT thriller that saw the Celtics narrowly defeat the rival Los Angeles Lakers.
If the C's can continue to build off of the stardom of Tatum and Brown, they could be as much of a powerhouse as they were with Udoka in the second half of last season. And while it'd be simpler to give all the credit to just one person, Brown believes the team's current winning ways are a result of multiple coaches:
“So it’s just been like a gradual addition from Brad Stevens to Ime, everything’s kind of just building on top of each other. It’s not like one guy’s responsible for everything, but everybody’s contribution is what we’re being able to see now.”
As for Udoka, despite nearly becoming the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, his past inappropriate behavior seems to be preventing him from an NBA job this year. His future with the Celtics is dubious at best, yet with his success in Beantown, it wouldn't be a shock to see another organization take a chance on him next year.
Meanwhile, the Celtics will continue with Mazzulla as the interim coach and depending on how this season ends, possibly elevate him to a more permanent role.
Follow Us
Subscribe