Given their offseason offloads and Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury, the Celtics aren’t particularly prevalent in this year’s edition of the NBA’s annual GM poll , but their coach still earned some recognition.
Joe Mazzulla was a Top 5 finisher in a pair of categories.
In the voting for “the best manager/motivator of people," Mazzulla garnered 14% of the votes from general managers, tying him for third with Steve Kerr. Erik Spoelstra won that category with 28%, while former Celtics coach Ime Udoka finished second (24%).
Then in "best defensive schemes," Mazzulla finished tied for fourth with Tyronn Lue, each getting 10% of the vote. That section went to Mark Daigneault, who was a runaway winner at 37%.
From a team perspective, some executives were surprised by Boston’s offseason, whi