The Boston Celtics are expected to struggle during the 2025-26 NBA season.
While that may be true during the regular season, the Boston Celtics are off to a solid 2-1 start in the preseason.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzula recently gave his honest reaction to the preseason. In it, he urged the NBA to make major changes to its format.
Mazzula uses the preseason to bond with his players, but the 2024 NBA Championship-winning head coach simply doesn’t see the benefit of preseason games.
Instead, Mazzula hopes to extend NBA training camps and replace preseason games.
“I want to practice every day without having preseason games. I hate preseason games. I wish I could practice for a month straight,” Mazzula told Celtics reporter Bobby Manning.
“At the end of the day, this is a preseason game. For me, you come here to practice and work,” he added.
It may be a bold statement from Mazzula, but the Celtics head coach has his reasons for wanting to eliminate exhibition games.
Even though preseason results don’t carry over into the regular season, some teams, like the Miami Heat, have historically had poor records.
result? Teams may enter the regular season with low morale. With that in mind, Mazzula always strives to make the preseason as close to practice as possible.
“The goal is to make the preseason games as close to practice as possible,” Mazzula continued.
“Because you’re always going through things, who’s on a minutes restriction, who might be out, trying to save yourself for the regular season, all of those things are important,” he said.
Despite agreeing that these things were important, Mazzula concluded that 30 consecutive practice sessions were necessary during the preseason.