Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics aren’t just living and dying by the three. That’s part of the picture, sure, but the bigger idea is possession maxing: squeeze the most value out of every trip, create extra chances, and keep the other team from doing the same.
That’s the heart of Mazzulla Ball. Boston wants threes, no question.
But it also wants offensive rebounds, turnovers forced, and clean possessions of its own. And according to the moves the Celtics made this offseason, the roster has been built to support that entire package, not just the long ball.
The most interesting part is how Boston has tried to guard against the usual weakness of a three-heavy team. The Celtics have strengthened their work on the offensive glass with Mitchell Robinson, and they’ve also added to their ability to create turnovers through both Robinson and Paul George.
That’s where Boston starts to separate itself from the three-point dependent teams that came before it.
The Dallas Mavericks of the 2000s were the first contender to really weaponize the three as a team under Celtics legend Don Nelson, whose “Nellieball” pushed smallball into the mainstream. The idea was simple enough: skip the traditional center, play smaller, and play faster.
In Dallas, it clicked. The 2002-03 Mavericks were possibly a healthy Dirk Nowitzki away from a championship, with Nowitzki and Steve Nash giving the offense the kind of shot creation and spacing that made the whole thing hum.
Their defense was never a strength, but it was good enough. Then Dallas tried to patch one of the holes by adding offensive rebounders Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison the next offseason.
The offense became an all-time great unit, but the tradeoff was a weaker defense. The Mavericks adjusted again after that, but losing Nash ended up crushing their ceiling under Nelson.
Phoenix leaned on a different escape hatch. Nash went from Dallas to the Suns, where Mike D’Antonni built the “Seven seconds or less offense” around pace.
The idea was that speed itself would manufacture more scoring chances. It was explosive, efficient, and a blast to watch.
But the Suns never solved the other side of the equation. Their defense and offensive rebounding were both awful, and even with all that offensive firepower, plus the loss of Joe Johnson, they never got all the way through the door.
Golden State took the concept to another level. Stephen Curry was the centerpiece, and he changed the entire geometry of the floor because of how lethal he was with the ball in his hands. Reggie Miller and Ray Allen were elite three-point weapons, but Curry was even more dangerous because his handle made him impossible to relax on for even a second.
And it wasn’t just Curry. The Warriors built the rest of the machine with Draymond Green’s defense, Klay Thompson’s 3-and-D value, and smart two-way pieces like Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, and Andrew Bogut.
Then Kevin Durant arrived and turned the whole thing into a basketball supernova. Injuries were the only real thing that slowed them down during that run.
After Durant, they won another title, found players like Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, but never fully got that same spark back.
That’s part of what makes Boston’s recent run so striking. The Celtics have had to keep reinventing themselves, and the latest version is their biggest shake-up yet. They traded Jaylen Brown, and now the question is whether the pieces around Mazzulla can make the whole thing even sharper.
One piece in particular stands out. Robinson led the NBA last year in both Offensive Rebound Percentage and Total Rebound Percentage.
No word as to whether or not he likes cats.
- Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) July 1, 2026
There’s risk in all of it. Big risk. But if Boston really is building the cleanest version of Mazzulla Ball - the most complete possession-maxing team in the league - then the gamble may be exactly what they needed.
In Other News...
Celtics Got An Eye-Opening Summer Read On Neemias Queta
The Celtics have had a front-row seat to some international basketball in the early summer, with Neemias Queta, Hugo Gonzalez, Luka Garza and Amari Williams all away representing their national teams. For Boston, the most eye-catching showing so far has come from Queta, who helped Portugal stun Spain in the ongoing 2027 FIBA EuroBasket World Cup Qualifiers with a strong all-around effort that hinted at how far his game can travel when he is given a bigger role.
Luka Garza also turned in a useful outing for Bosnia and Herzegovina in a win over Italy, adding another reminder that Bostons end-of-roster and depth options are getting meaningful game reps while the Celtics wait for the next stage of the summer to unfold. Quetas performance, though, is the one worth circling back to for a team that has spent the season looking for reliable size and energy, because international play can sometimes reveal a little more than summer workouts ever do. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Still Face One Lineup Call That Could Reshape The Rotation
The Celtics projected starting group is coming into focus, with Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Paul George and Neemias Queta expected to occupy four spots when the new season opens. The one lingering question is at point guard, where Payton Pritchard has emerged as the leading candidate to take the job, even as Boston continues to weigh other options such as Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman.
Pritchards case is easy to understand: he has become one of the teams most reliable guards and would give the Celtics another steady presence alongside their established core. The debate is less about whether he can handle the role than whether Boston gets more from him by starting him or by preserving his value as a sixth-man spark, a call that could shape how the rotation settles in around the rest of the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics May Have A Mitchell Robinson Problem In Big Games
Mitchell Robinson arrived with the kind of defensive reputation the Celtics wanted to add to a playoff roster, but the fit gets trickier once the games tighten up. Boston knew it was getting an elite rim protector and rebounder, and it also knew the offensive limitations that have followed him for years. In a regular-season setting, those tradeoffs can be easier to manage.
In the highest-leverage moments, though, the math changes fast. Robinsons free-throw issues and injury history have already led to reduced playing time in critical games, including during the 2026 playoffs with the Knicks, and that is the sort of problem Joe Mazzulla may have to solve on the fly. If opponents start using intentional fouling to force Boston into uncomfortable decisions, the Celtics may need to rethink how they deploy him when the margin for error disappears. [Read more 🡒]