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Jason Beede: I asked #Magic coach Sean Sweeney pregame in Toronto about Joe Mazzulla using AI: Beede Question: “Joe Mazzulla was talking this morning about using AI for organization and data purposes. What do you think of that — like the integration of AI — and would you use that at all?” Sweeney Answer: “I think Joe’s probably smarter than I am. I’m at sea level and he’s at 30,000 feet. No, I think, any data that you can find, any tools that you can use to measure and help you make better decisions, we definitely use. And so I think, just in general, organizationally, my experience so far with the Magic is that we’re at the forefront of anything that we do when it comes to analysis, looking at how teams are playing, how we’re playing, what we can do better. So, (we) try to use whatever we can.”
Bobby Krivitsky: Bulls head coach Thiago Splitter when asked if he uses AI — his comments come on the heels of Joe Mazzulla saying he uses it to help him with certain things: “I think everybody in this room uses it, right?”
As the use of artificial intelligence tools has proliferated, Joe Mazzulla has found ways to incorporate them into his workflow and challenge his thinking. “Every offseason, really this offseason, it’s like, okay, let’s test all of our processes,” Mazzulla explained at Celtics shootaround on Friday morning. “Is our pregame film process the right way? Is our halftime film process the right way? Is our film room set up for learning the right way? How should our film room look?”
Mazzulla explained that he’s not using AI to get definitive answers. “It’s more just helping organize, helping become more efficient, helping understanding,” he said. “You really use it for just conversation and riffs on, like — okay, here’s what I’m wrestling with. What does this look like from a psychological perspective? What is the research and the data? You quickly get just so much research and data on things.”
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One of Mazzulla’s main purposes for AI is to brainstorm more effective ways to communicate, whether that’s during the team’s practice, 15-minute halftime, or other limited chunks of time. “It really helps you test your processes that you think are efficient,” he said. “Like our halftime process, is that really the most efficient way to watch film and ready for the second half? Is our pregame process the most efficient way to make sure our guys have retention of the game plan, and what we’re needing to do, and they’re in the right space mentally and psychologically?”
Bob Manning: Mazzulla taking more calls on @985TheSportsHub , asked his thoughts about Jaylen’s ‘favorite season’ comments. “Nobody can control how the media interprets comments that are being said … we do the best job we can at being authentic and saying what needs to be said … (players) aren’t always going to be perfect in what’s being said. We can’t control where it goes … we always trust whoever’s talking … speaks on behalf of the Celtics.”
Joe Mazzulla on using AI: “I use Claude every day for coaching thoughts and being able to process stuff psychologically and being able to break things down into, ok, how do you handle situations like this? So I like where Jake’s (the caller’s) headed, using Claude for things.” “I haven’t (used Chat GPT), but I’m all in on Claude. One of the great things about Claude is it ends everything in a question. So it keeps you in a constant state of searching, getting more out of you. Better prompts. It just prompts you, it challenges your brain. It was beneficial in the offseason, my personal development and also where I wanted to take this psychologically for our team. It’s good because in coaching, you say phrases and you riff on the phrase. Like, ‘we’re looking for moments of greatness,’ so then you could throw that in there and say ok, how can we find moments of greatness within what we’re trying to do. So it’s been good.”
Joe Mazzulla on using AI: “I think it’s more to learn from your former self. So I’ll throw in last year’s practice plan and be like, was that efficient? Because you don’t know in the present moment if it was an efficient practice plan or if it was an efficient use of your time? So you learn from your former self, and so you throw in a practice plan from last year. OK what is the efficiency of this plan? What was the percentage of the things that we got done? Did I match what my points of emphasis for that day to the practice plan? Like you could say we have to get better at offensive rebounding, but if it’s only 5% of your practice plan, then you’re not really emphasizing what you have to get better at. So you’re just really looking at it from an efficiency standpoint and learning from your former self. You throw in, here’s our halftime process. How can our halftime process become more efficient? Because we watch film sometimes, but it’s a reactive film session because we’re watching film of plays that already happened, not plays that may happen. So are you distracting the brain because you’re telling them things that have already happened, when they might not even be in that position in the second half? ... So it’s not so much about, how can it help me going forward? It’s how can it help me learn from my past and make me better?”
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Joe Mazzulla: "I think sometimes I think coaches, if you can get past that, it just breaks the barrier. I always go back to, I always tell the guys they're better at what they do than I am at what I do. So, we got to all be on the same level, be collaborative. There's ways I'm going to help you, but I'm going to listen to you just as much as I hope you listen to me and vice versa. So, take away the barriers and we meet at the same level."
Joe Mazzulla: "Breathing is something I've tried to get better at as a coach just because we're under stress and duress for three and a half hours straight once the game starts and even post-game, the ability to try to get your nervous system back intact for recovery for the next day. I'm always fascinated by people's breathing routines on how they do that, especially singers because they're constantly going back and forth between singing, talking, performing, dancing, moving."
Daniel Donabedian: Joe Mazzulla said he hates being called “coach” and doesn’t like being in his separate office at the Celtics’ facility. He emphasized being on a level playing field with others: “I always tell the guys that they’re better at what they do than I am at what I do. So, we got to all be on the same level, be collaborative.” “I’m going to listen to you just as much as I hope you listen to me. Just take away the barriers and meet at the same level.” (Via @whitenoisepod_ on YouTube)
ON THE LAST day of September, with the Celtics two days into training camp, Pritchard and Mazzulla convene in a two-man huddle on the team's practice court. There's a good deal of hand waving, and at one point, Mazzulla sort of elbows Pritchard, perhaps the better to demonstrate the play they seem to be hashing out. It all looks very serious because Mazzulla is famously Very Serious, but then something startling happens. Mazzulla breaks character, then breaks out in a bona fide smile. Mazzulla ... likes Pritchard. What's more, he likes to count on him. "I'll always bet on Payton," Mazzulla says.