Joe Mazzulla believes basketball lessons aren’t just learned on the court. The Celtics head coach often draws inspiration from other sports, like soccer and mixed martial arts, to inform his teaching methods.
Football, too.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, with whom Mazzulla connected when they were up-and-coming assistants, revealed Friday that Mazzulla would sit in on defensive meetings during his visits to Gillette Stadium.
During those sessions, Mazzulla was struck by New England’s ability to trick opposing offenses by disguising its coverages and blitz packages — a concept that translates to the hardwood.
“I think you can learn a lot from those,” Mazzulla explained. “Pre-snap communication, how they disguise their defenses — start one, flex into another one — what their different situational defenses are. All those things are super important, and it’s been great being able to see how you can factor those into disguising what your defense looks like at the beginning of a possession. Maybe you go to something different later in the possession. How are you able to adjust on the fly based on what the other offense is doing, and teaching your guys all the if/then scenarios that kind of go into what each offensive possession can bring to the table.
“Our guys do a great job of just processing the information that the offensive possession gives you each and every time, and how do we just continue to adjust to them?”
Mazzulla also sees similarities between his and Mayo’s coaching styles.
“I’ve learned from him relationship management is important, communication is important, and just being innovative in how you go about it,” the Celtics bench boss said. “There’s never one way of doing it, so it’s good seeing him in his environment being able to learn from that.”
