Mazzulla: Josh McDaniels drew up ‘pre-snap motion’ plays for Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Joe Mazzulla will do anything to find an edge, and that includes taking best practices from other sports.
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So, when members of the New England Patriots came to TD Garden last month to take in a Boston Celtics game, Mazzulla couldn’t let them leave without picking a few brains.
During his weekly interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Zolak & Bertrand, the Celtics head coach revealed that Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels spent some time with his team prior to a Dec. 19 game against the Miami Heat — and dove into some Xs and Os for Mazzulla’s benefit.
“He came to a game a couple of weeks ago, and he actually drew up a couple of pre-snap motion plays for us, for me to kind of visualize and see how we could use them as sets,” Mazzulla said Tuesday. “But his mind is amazing.”
How exactly can McDaniels’ pre-snap motion plays help Mazzulla coach his basketball team?
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“It can definitely translate (to basketball),” Mazzulla responded. “(McDaniels) was kind of explaining some of the stuff that they do. Did you guys see the answer Kirk Cousins gave about how the quarterback position has changed, and how reads have changed? I mean, it’s very similar. That’s kind of where basketball is as well.
“There’s obviously game plans and details that you have to develop, but over the course of the game, defenses, offenses, spacing, coverages — things are changing so much that you have to be able to adjust on the fly.”
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins recently went viral for the lengthy dissertation he gave during a press conference on how to read coverages, and the chess match that goes on between QBs and defenses prior to the snap.
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As Mazzulla explained, there are lessons to be taken from that pre-snap chess match that directly apply to basketball.
“I think that it’s the pre-snap stuff and the ability to recognize whether they’re disguising man or zone (coverage) and how you go about making the defense tell that, so you know beforehand, and then having to read in real-time — that’s right where basketball is,” Mazzulla added.
Mazzulla’s connection with the Patriots goes way back — he’s attended multiple training camp practices at Gillette Stadium and made a trip to Foxboro this past August to chat with head coach Mike Vrabel. It appears that connection remains very strong, as Mazzulla leaves no stone unturned in his never-ending quest for improvement.
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