NBA Rumors: Celtics 'Love' Joe Mazzulla, Want Him to Remain HC Amid 3-0 Heat Deficit

The Boston Celtics may not do anything hasty with regard to head coach Joe Mazzulla even if they get knocked out in the Eastern Conference Finals.

"I'm going to tell you that [team president] Brad Stevens 100 percent believes in [Mazzulla]," ESPN's Brian Windhorst said Tuesday on Get Up. "They love him in that organization. They want him to be the coach going forward. But if he can't be the coach going forward, it forces a bunch of uncomfortable situations."

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated made a similar point Monday:

Mazzulla has come under increasing scrutiny this postseason, and things reached a boiling point with Boston's lifeless 128-102 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics trailed by as many as 33 points, and almost none of their starters played in the fourth quarter because the game was already effectively over.

During Monday's edition of Get Up, Windhorst referenced the organization's general belief in Mazzulla, but he said the Game 3 collapse "causes so much pressure and so much urgency to need to fix something that it sort of distorts reality."

The 34-year-old was placed in an unenviable position when he took this job.

The Celtics were coming off an NBA Finals appearance with eyes on finally winning their 18th title. Expectations were through the roof. They also named Mazzulla as their interim head coach in September following the suspension of former head coach Ime Udoka.

Udoka's departure is the kind of thing that could easily derail a championship quest. Instead, Boston finished with the second-best record (57-25) in the NBA and embarked on another deep playoff run.

You'd think that would earn Mazzulla at least another year at the helm. However, the Celtics may come to the conclusion that he isn't equipped at this point in his coaching career to handle the challenge.