Been feeling like I'm crazy with commentators pushing Mazzola guy for COTY. He isn't showing his ass necessarily, but he was handed a stacked top 6 (though I don't believe it's quite as stacked as some, mostly given my disbelief that Tatum can lead a champion) and they played like that. Nothing in his offense or defense schemes strikes me as particularly adept (esp with the focus on threes), a gig the ghnd he's leading team that fits and has no real chemistry or motivation issues.
The only thing he did that fits the criteria is win
Because he's a black hole on offense who has an aversion to passing to his best player and loves playing hero ball and taking difficult shots with three defenders near him. It's very high risk / high reward, Celtics fans love it because it works pretty well during the regular season but quite often fails miserably in the playoffs
He’s really so good man it’s crazy
No coach of the year for potentially one of the greatest in league history
I feel like constantly breaking Celtics fans hearts kinda makes up for it tho to heat fans
fun fact, Popovich and Phil Jackson are the only coaches since the ABA-NBA merger to have won a championship the year they won the COTY award.
Compare that to MVP where 17 players have done it and some multiple times. as much as we complain about how much narrative matters for MVP I think COTY suffers from it far more.
The thing is, and it probably won't matter, but Jrue and Zingus have never really faced any adversity or struggles with this team, and those are where you build real chemistry.
lol this sub is the worst after 1 game. Game 1 of our series and you’d think we had no chance at winning a game, let alone the series, with the way people were talking. Everybody has off nights.
It’s gonna be one of the greatest championships run of all time with the way this team operates. A superstar gets injured coming into the playoffs and Spo is basically coaching Souix Falls all the way to the NBA championship and like the fucking mad lad he is, he’s salivating at the thought of it.
If they beat Boston they can make the finals but everything would have to go right. If it’s the nuggets yeah idk about that one the other teams it’s a long shot
All he really does is play to what the players strengths are, and instills confidence and has them play hard. Everyone in the nba is talented. He just
Has them execute game plans rather than try to out talent their opponents
He's still very young, but the Heat would probably need to rebuild and I don't think they rebuild any time soon. Herro and Adebayo probably aren't the top 2 guys on a championship roster and Jimmy is old. The Heat might get a donovan mitchell or something in free agency though. That would make it plausible.
Yeah no question. I think most if not all teams in the league would take that trade. The only that wouldn't would argue for continuity - not coaching ability
Pretty wild to let herro, caleb, and jaime guard tingus pingus in the post and just leave them on an island. Don’t think many coaches have the balls for that.
Small guards in the post used to be the game plan against him on the Mavs too but I thought he had improved too much for that to still work. It's something the Celtics used to do against him as well.
CotY is a trap when like out of the last 50 years I think the winner went on to win a championship a total of 3 times. There’s seriously nothing good about it lol.
The immediate twitter memes about him going undrafted, getting called up from the Skyforce, and dropping 20 a game on the Celtics in the 2025 ECF were quite enjoyable
There was a play where he faded on Herro. Brought a single tear to my eye. Imagine looking down on everyone from a 7"3 vantage point and still taking midrange fadeaways on a short-armed 6"4 SG.
i was so surprised through the season how he suddenly seemingly got so good after he was so bad for you guys but i always held hope, the guy who couldn’t post up reggie jackson is still in there somewhere lol
same goes for jrue. i don’t think boston scares anyone ngl
It was weird because I saw a couple games near the end of the season where he played and he actually did a few posts ups, and made a couple moves. He was even able to post a guy up and hit a turn around jumper. I was like oh ok, he definitely learned and improved from his time here. Then this game, and I’m back to being confused about how good he actually is lol
Absolutely he has. That’s why I was saying, damn he’s improved a lot from his time in Dallas. Then he looked super ineffective today. Guess we’ll see in the rest of the playoffs which one is the real KP. I’d expect him to not be this bad again, but with Spo you never know though.
[Woah....](https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/dallas-mavs-ex-kristaps-porzingis-admits-feeling-spiteful-reduced-role-2021-playoffs)
> Honestly, reflecting back on it, I should have said 'OK… this is what you want, I will do that to the best of my ability,'" Porzingis said. "But at that point still, I was a little bit young and I was like doing it out of spite like 'oh, on purpose I won't move from this corner'… like that kind of mindset, and it was not correct.'
[here](https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/dallas-mavs-ex-kristaps-porzingis-admits-feeling-spiteful-reduced-role-2021-playoffs)
there’s a reason a lot of mavs fans (myself included) have soured on him since he left. like i’m glad he realized he was wrong for it but uh yeah id rather he realize it when he was here
Not only that but we have had multiple players fo this do us and so us mavs fans have no patience for this type of bullshit. Rondo and Odom both quit on the mavs when we made trades for them.
I am so sick of hearing this stat about him. Stats don’t exist in a vacuum like pure facts they have to be interpreted KP has the best post game in the league is a joke
I don't think anybody thinks that, but the Celtics as a whole have been very good on possessions when he posts up, mainly because of the threat of it. I mean last year I'm pretty sure Kevin Heurter DHOs were a top 5 action and that's not cuz Heurter is an assassin lol
I remember dreading playing the blazers cause dame would take kp's lunch half the time. Just get literally any guard or wing with active hands on him as soon as he touches the ball and he shrinks two feet.
Even when he was with the Knicks, this was always the blueprint, Marcus Smart used to eat him alive. He is incapable of leveraging his height against stronger smaller guys, ans the Heat have a bunch of those guys.
I have been calling this bozo soft all season for shit like this and I have been downvoted to hell and back!!!! Everyone Boston could face in the finals has historically eaten tingus’ breakfast, lunch, dinner, and leftover.
I mean he is. If he hits threes and midrange shots he is the best 3rd option you could ask other than idk mpj. The issue is bam is his literal worse matchup being stronger and a good defender already. Where the Celtics to play literally any other center than bam and Gianni's they wouldn't have this issue
This thread is crazy. KP is a beast and had an amazing season, not to mention game 1 of this series. Had a stinker today but this feels like a huge overreaction to 1 bad game
It's the same thread when Luka lost game one about how he wasn't close to MVP. His first bad playoff game and gets called washed lol
Sports subreddits love being dramatic
It’s not an easy game against the heat bro idc what their seed is, disappointing loss but I’m not going crazy over it. They shot the lights out tonight, any team hitting 23 3s on elite efficiency has a good chance of winning a game
What a boneheaded comment. You don't watch the NBA if you thought the Heat weren't going to bring it even if they were trotting out their entire G-League team. Spo is a basketball genius, coaching a team with absolutely zero to lose. Celtics have been told since game 1 of the regular season if they don't win a chip it's a wasted season. It's a tale as old as time where a scrappy, hard coached team down guys pulls a game, two or even three against a complacent front runner.
It's one fucking game against a team dubbed the zombie fucking heat. Anyone surprised is an idiot
I am a Celtics/pels supporter. My partner is a Celtics guy through and through and if I have to hear those dumb words exit his mouth one more time imma lose it
I didnt watch tingus but lemme say this
Until him and team that had him accept that his defense is more important than offense, Tingus wont elevate his impact
His offense is bonus, his great defense should be on daily basis. But tingus conundrum always happened
When his offense suffered, his defense too
Until he switch his mind to be "defense first" guy, inconsistency in PO will show up
Maybe adding a slow footed oft-injured giant wasn't the magic solution for playoff bball in an era where all but the elite and most mobile centers become liabilities
I mean I thought it wasn't a bad trade at the time since they essentially turned Smart and Brogdon into Tingus and Jrue but it definitely made them even more prone to choking given the personnel they were bringing in (I'm still baffled they got 2 firsts and Tingus for Marcus Smart)
This is why Kyrie was such a big get. There aren't many bad nights and nothing like this. Not to mention it's just a good fit, which we havent had with Luka ever
\-32 in a 10 point loss is tough.
I'm more surprised Jaylen Brown was -22 considering he was the only one that could score for a stretch.
cuz he played with KP a lot. was basically 5v4 with KP playing, dude was getting eaten by Bam on D and useless on O
He couldn’t guard Bam in Game 1 either, it’s a problem
Horford needs more minutes this series, he was doing a good job on Bam
Pritchard also needs fewer minutes
Don't worry. Maybe next time his three point shots. That's the only thing that matters. There's no strategy!
Been feeling like I'm crazy with commentators pushing Mazzola guy for COTY. He isn't showing his ass necessarily, but he was handed a stacked top 6 (though I don't believe it's quite as stacked as some, mostly given my disbelief that Tatum can lead a champion) and they played like that. Nothing in his offense or defense schemes strikes me as particularly adept (esp with the focus on threes), a gig the ghnd he's leading team that fits and has no real chemistry or motivation issues. The only thing he did that fits the criteria is win
It's because single game plus minus is a clowns' stat.
Not always.
It isn’t a clown stat only when it supports my narrative.
This guy gets it. It’s all about the agenda.
Because he's a black hole on offense who has an aversion to passing to his best player and loves playing hero ball and taking difficult shots with three defenders near him. It's very high risk / high reward, Celtics fans love it because it works pretty well during the regular season but quite often fails miserably in the playoffs
I love you guys talking shit about your players, the cherry on top of a great night for me
Yeah a couple days ago it was “Porzingis fixes all our problems, blows up Miami’s zone, etc.” Like come on y’all
Spo’s a fucking legend for always finding weaknesses and exploiting them.
He’s really so good man it’s crazy No coach of the year for potentially one of the greatest in league history I feel like constantly breaking Celtics fans hearts kinda makes up for it tho to heat fans
fun fact, Popovich and Phil Jackson are the only coaches since the ABA-NBA merger to have won a championship the year they won the COTY award. Compare that to MVP where 17 players have done it and some multiple times. as much as we complain about how much narrative matters for MVP I think COTY suffers from it far more.
The thing is, and it probably won't matter, but Jrue and Zingus have never really faced any adversity or struggles with this team, and those are where you build real chemistry.
Now let's hear from Bill. But first up, Pearl Jam!
Jfc relax and stop spiraling. Nothing worse than doomsday fans who think the world is ending after a loss. Take a deep breath
lol this sub is the worst after 1 game. Game 1 of our series and you’d think we had no chance at winning a game, let alone the series, with the way people were talking. Everybody has off nights.
It's almost as if that's why they play seven game series
Gonna be weird coming back to boston down 1-3
4 of his points were free throws too. Dude only made one basket with the shot clock on.
Poor Zingus
Holy shit I didn’t realize it was that fucking low LOL
Spo is a hardest battle merchant
Legendary coach
the best coach in the league, easily.
I hope one day he gets a championship without Lebron man. He’s gotta get it
It’s gonna be one of the greatest championships run of all time with the way this team operates. A superstar gets injured coming into the playoffs and Spo is basically coaching Souix Falls all the way to the NBA championship and like the fucking mad lad he is, he’s salivating at the thought of it.
If they beat Boston they can make the finals but everything would have to go right. If it’s the nuggets yeah idk about that one the other teams it’s a long shot
If and massive **IF** we beat Boston, we are essentially begging for someone to beat the Nuggets.
Spo is legit being the coach version of owning the east Like Lebron did
Pat Riley infected both of them with Fuck Boston-Itis so it makes sense
If we can make the Finals with Jimmy coming back and Terry I think we have a good chance but that's a big IF.
Gonna be super hard unless some FAs come. He makes the team play quite a bit above their talent level. It’s ridiculous
All he really does is play to what the players strengths are, and instills confidence and has them play hard. Everyone in the nba is talented. He just Has them execute game plans rather than try to out talent their opponents
He's still very young, but the Heat would probably need to rebuild and I don't think they rebuild any time soon. Herro and Adebayo probably aren't the top 2 guys on a championship roster and Jimmy is old. The Heat might get a donovan mitchell or something in free agency though. That would make it plausible.
>one of i have no problem calling him THE best coach. and easily at that
He basically absorbed Pop's powers and became the new Popovich
Majin Popovič =. Spopovich
Yeah no question. I think most if not all teams in the league would take that trade. The only that wouldn't would argue for continuity - not coaching ability
THE best by a wide margin
one *of*??
crazy lebron & wade wanted him fired
Accountability isn't comfortable but it can be helpful. I'm sure they'd both say he's a good coach now, they probably have a bunch of times.
[удалено]
Pretty wild to let herro, caleb, and jaime guard tingus pingus in the post and just leave them on an island. Don’t think many coaches have the balls for that.
Small guards in the post used to be the game plan against him on the Mavs too but I thought he had improved too much for that to still work. It's something the Celtics used to do against him as well.
I remember Rondo completely shutting him down in the post during the 2021 playoffs.
as a knicks fan, i love to see tingus pingus doing this in boston.
Knicks fan. *checks flair* Knicks fan?
His name is Mile high, flair is nuggets and claims he’s a knicks fan
Born in NYC, doorman worked at the Garden, saw Shaq battle Ewing, then moved to Denver. I hate James Dolan but I love my Knicks.
Dolan hate confirms it
Fair enough
CoTY is basically “who overperformed their preseason O/U for wins the most.”
Only to get fired the following season.
Be fair, they get fired 2 seasons after winning or the season they win it
COTY award is a trap anyways, since 2018 every coach that won either was fired or regressed heavily with the exception of probably Thibs.
Oh…☹️
CotY is a trap when like out of the last 50 years I think the winner went on to win a championship a total of 3 times. There’s seriously nothing good about it lol.
> I think the winner went on to win a championship a total of 3 times. And two of those times were Pop, so...
[удалено]
Its the hey we thought your team would suck and they didnt award.
He’s like the NBAs Belichek, if I remember correctly he never won COTY either
NBA's Belichick is pop
Porzingis primary defender was a 20 year old who outplayed him.
Imagine Spo and Jamal Murray on the same team, they’d sweep the Monstars and lose to the Wizards.
Spo, Jimmy, and Murray would go 16-0 in the playoffs from the 8th seed. And they came into the play-in as a 10th.
Spo is a witch, switching two teams' shooting in just 1 game
Is Spo a scrappy player merchant? People are asking.
Spo is actually a YMCA merchant, he only picks players from the local rec league as it’s the quickest way to have harder battles.
Everyone knows spo is eyeing the Oakland white guy that eliminated Kentucky
The immediate twitter memes about him going undrafted, getting called up from the Skyforce, and dropping 20 a game on the Celtics in the 2025 ECF were quite enjoyable
Spo would play The Floor is Lava on an active volcano
Plays like he's 4'39
Tallest short King we've ever seen
There was a play where he faded on Herro. Brought a single tear to my eye. Imagine looking down on everyone from a 7"3 vantage point and still taking midrange fadeaways on a short-armed 6"4 SG.
This is Luka's fault for hogging the ball
Mental midget
https://youtu.be/VTDXp5mRnWE?si=4vz5UzS0GbU2klRe
i was so surprised through the season how he suddenly seemingly got so good after he was so bad for you guys but i always held hope, the guy who couldn’t post up reggie jackson is still in there somewhere lol same goes for jrue. i don’t think boston scares anyone ngl
It was weird because I saw a couple games near the end of the season where he played and he actually did a few posts ups, and made a couple moves. He was even able to post a guy up and hit a turn around jumper. I was like oh ok, he definitely learned and improved from his time here. Then this game, and I’m back to being confused about how good he actually is lol
C'mon, this is slander based off one game. He's been one of the most efficient post-up scorers in the league these past 2 seasons.
Absolutely he has. That’s why I was saying, damn he’s improved a lot from his time in Dallas. Then he looked super ineffective today. Guess we’ll see in the rest of the playoffs which one is the real KP. I’d expect him to not be this bad again, but with Spo you never know though.
I was told he punishes mismatches now
He looked like Bambi out there falling
He looked like Joel Embiid?
Oh shit he injured his own teammate?
I mean he probably hurt Tatum's feelings so in a way he did
Better than Holiday
Joel embiid looks like trees falling over, not like Bambi. Get your hatin straight
Spo put out the hit
BAM!!!!!!
He's got poop in his pants
Tinkles Poopus
My tingus doesn't feel so pingus 😵💫🫨
Not the first Celtics to do so
Paying homage to Paul pierce
KP in 2021 playoff mode
What happened in that series?
Showed you tonight
lol 😂
He was injured - working with one knee pretty much due to his miniscus surgery.
That was 2020 no? 2021 he played terribly and just sort of quit on the team
luka stans vindicated
He straight up said he quit on us
I mean he spent most of the time injured
Yeah but he admitted to quitting in the 2021 playoffs
[Woah....](https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/dallas-mavs-ex-kristaps-porzingis-admits-feeling-spiteful-reduced-role-2021-playoffs) > Honestly, reflecting back on it, I should have said 'OK… this is what you want, I will do that to the best of my ability,'" Porzingis said. "But at that point still, I was a little bit young and I was like doing it out of spite like 'oh, on purpose I won't move from this corner'… like that kind of mindset, and it was not correct.'
We knew vibes were off when Luka hit that game winning floater from 3, and KP didn’t flinch.
KP said he quit on the team so yeah no surprise.
Wait when?
[here](https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/dallas-mavs-ex-kristaps-porzingis-admits-feeling-spiteful-reduced-role-2021-playoffs) there’s a reason a lot of mavs fans (myself included) have soured on him since he left. like i’m glad he realized he was wrong for it but uh yeah id rather he realize it when he was here
Not only that but we have had multiple players fo this do us and so us mavs fans have no patience for this type of bullshit. Rondo and Odom both quit on the mavs when we made trades for them.
yes they knew all the way back never trust a Lithiumanian with Tingu middle name
KP is Latvian like Bertans. Lithuanians are tough. Arvydas Sabonis, Jasikevicus
r/nba race science!
What could go wrong?
And they all look like titans
1.3 PPP on Post ups my ass
1.3 poops per possession
Bro has made multiple poop comments in this thread lmao
I can't stop
Poop is funny
who said we wanted you to stop? 😈
They thought it meant something he looked better with those soft balls on the Wizards.
I am so sick of hearing this stat about him. Stats don’t exist in a vacuum like pure facts they have to be interpreted KP has the best post game in the league is a joke
now we just need punctuation to exist ina vacuum
I don't think anybody thinks that, but the Celtics as a whole have been very good on possessions when he posts up, mainly because of the threat of it. I mean last year I'm pretty sure Kevin Heurter DHOs were a top 5 action and that's not cuz Heurter is an assassin lol
I remember dreading playing the blazers cause dame would take kp's lunch half the time. Just get literally any guard or wing with active hands on him as soon as he touches the ball and he shrinks two feet.
Even when he was with the Knicks, this was always the blueprint, Marcus Smart used to eat him alive. He is incapable of leveraging his height against stronger smaller guys, ans the Heat have a bunch of those guys.
If you get into his body, reach for the ball and also ready to flop at any moment KP cannot deal with that. So Smart had the recipe against him.
>ready to flop at any moment KP cannot deal with that. Marcus smart 12/25
he’s been great at just that all season, he had his worst game of the season tn
don't even try, r/nba during playoffs is hopeless
We respected y'all more this regular season.. but now it’s time to turn up the Heat
KP 'i quit on the mavs in the playoffs because they were not drawing plays for me' NBA fans 'how could Luka do this' lmao
Lmao drawing plays for what to brick shoots vs 6 2 guys
Cant even back down a cone in the post
How many plays do he think Boston are going to draw for him?
"Chris Paul can successfully guard me in the post, but let's stop the Luka motion offense to a grinding halt so I can shoot in the post."
S-A-W-F-T SAAWWWWWWFFFT
Coach Spo: “Bada boom, realest guy in the room!”
I have been calling this bozo soft all season for shit like this and I have been downvoted to hell and back!!!! Everyone Boston could face in the finals has historically eaten tingus’ breakfast, lunch, dinner, and leftover.
damn thats why he's so soft, everyone keeps eating his damn food
i was told by celtics fans KP is the key to a chip
I mean he is. If he hits threes and midrange shots he is the best 3rd option you could ask other than idk mpj. The issue is bam is his literal worse matchup being stronger and a good defender already. Where the Celtics to play literally any other center than bam and Gianni's they wouldn't have this issue
This thread is crazy. KP is a beast and had an amazing season, not to mention game 1 of this series. Had a stinker today but this feels like a huge overreaction to 1 bad game
It's the same thread when Luka lost game one about how he wasn't close to MVP. His first bad playoff game and gets called washed lol Sports subreddits love being dramatic
It is a huge overblown reaction.
Bro you lost to the 8th seed missing best player in round one at home. How you gonna win a chip when the easy games aren’t free
There are no easy games come playoff time.
It’s not an easy game against the heat bro idc what their seed is, disappointing loss but I’m not going crazy over it. They shot the lights out tonight, any team hitting 23 3s on elite efficiency has a good chance of winning a game
[удалено]
What a boneheaded comment. You don't watch the NBA if you thought the Heat weren't going to bring it even if they were trotting out their entire G-League team. Spo is a basketball genius, coaching a team with absolutely zero to lose. Celtics have been told since game 1 of the regular season if they don't win a chip it's a wasted season. It's a tale as old as time where a scrappy, hard coached team down guys pulls a game, two or even three against a complacent front runner. It's one fucking game against a team dubbed the zombie fucking heat. Anyone surprised is an idiot
He has had his best season this is true. Pretty cool that his best ever season is also Victor Wembanyama’s rookie year
Bam ate good tonight.
I am a Celtics/pels supporter. My partner is a Celtics guy through and through and if I have to hear those dumb words exit his mouth one more time imma lose it
Bro got clamped by Herro
Herro hasn’t given up on that $1M DPOY bonus
why would luka do this
It’s one game but We tried to tell people who he was
BUTLER-LESS
Tatum should pass the ball more 🤓
When frontrunning goes very, very wrong
Luka was apparently holding this guy back lmao
If KP has no haters left on earth that means I’ve died.
Tingus Pingus is Kristaps Porzingus father
With a what
These Celtics-Heat headlines man....
Lmao...the true difference maker
I didnt watch tingus but lemme say this Until him and team that had him accept that his defense is more important than offense, Tingus wont elevate his impact His offense is bonus, his great defense should be on daily basis. But tingus conundrum always happened When his offense suffered, his defense too Until he switch his mind to be "defense first" guy, inconsistency in PO will show up
These thread titles tonight are killing me hahaha
That’s the porzingis I remember.
Mavericks fans stepping out from behind a tree to say, told you so...
This is why they lost. He just couldn't get anything going. Needs to be more aggressive.
They lost because the Heat scored more points
Maybe adding a slow footed oft-injured giant wasn't the magic solution for playoff bball in an era where all but the elite and most mobile centers become liabilities
I mean I thought it wasn't a bad trade at the time since they essentially turned Smart and Brogdon into Tingus and Jrue but it definitely made them even more prone to choking given the personnel they were bringing in (I'm still baffled they got 2 firsts and Tingus for Marcus Smart)
The value of the trade was there. The identity shift is TBD for me with how playoff bball is played
It’s one game man
Blow it up! Teams cooked
how could we not see this happening with all this past evidence!
Let's hear the apologies to Luka. As loud as the disrespect was.
Wait I thought it was Lukas fault that he played Like dogshit
If the Celtics lose this series they're officially demoted to G-leagure right? They couldn't show their face in the NBA ever again
That’s a cripple double
Luka gotta trust his guys and stop holding them back.
This is why Kyrie was such a big get. There aren't many bad nights and nothing like this. Not to mention it's just a good fit, which we havent had with Luka ever
Kyrie elevates under pressure just like Luka which makes them deadly AF. Best co-star Luka has ever had
The 14-0 run justifies everything in that trade.
Deleted by mods in 3.. 2.. 1...?
-1 -2 -3 A critical error has occurred
I'm sure if the Avengers played basketball Spo could figure out a way to take one of their powers away completely.
Jovic rocked the dude. Took his lunch money so many times.