When it comes to getting a promotion, Joe Mazzulla got his in the worst possible circumstances. He didn't ask for it. He didn’t plan for it. But alas, he was given the keys to a basketball version of a Rolls Royce, with the only instruction to not crash it.
For the first few months of the season, everything seemed to be going perfectly. The Rolls Royce was in cruise control. Granted, Mazzulla had made some adjustments to the team that went to the NBA Finals last season, most notably switching their primary focus away from defense and onto becoming a free-flowing offensive team, implementing new actions and a new approach in how he wanted the Boston Celtics to go about getting buckets.