Flavin Media

Something I didn’t touch on enough before the season is the Celtics’ ability to handle the natural complacency that comes with the past title and the depth they always have. Players can get burnt out mentally by thinking about basketball all the time in preparation for a repeat, but you also have to avoid them treating the basketball ins and outs less intensely, so it’s a balance that Coach Mazzulla is surely always working on.

Players are human; the mindset of players trying to repeat titles will never be exactly the same as that of teams around the league playing both for a title and their jobs. However, that speaks to the ability of the coaches, who are built to detach from this mental disparity and make sure the mental gap is close enough that skill wins the team another title.

Players win titles, coaches win repeats. Mazzulla is more than capable of this, but it’s wise and productive of Jaylen Brown to identify this dynamic.