Shooting a lot of three-pointers is an undeniable cog of Mazzulla Ball simply because three points are worth more than two. Since taking over as the Boston Celtics' head coach, Joe Mazzulla has had quite a few stretch bigs at his disposal: Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, Grant Williams, Luka Garza, Nikola Vucevic, Mike Muscala, and we'll even throw Blake Griffin in there.
So that begs a question: why didn't Boston go after Myles Turner?
The idea had been floated a few times this summer, particularly if he came as part of the deluxe package with Giannis Antetokounmpo. In fact, there were rumblings that Boston could have been a destination for him even after the Greek Freak was traded.
Even crazier is that the Bucks tried to find a new home for Turner, but came up short, per ESPN's Ben Golliver.
"Though Antetokounmpo's exit was preceded by years of trade rumors, the Bucks didn't slide smoothly into a rebuilding effort... They haven't yet found a taker for Myles Turner, who was signed to a four-year, $107 million contract last summer in a failed attempt to appease Antetokounmpo," Golliver wrote.
Yeah, Turner's expensive, but he is one of the quality two-way bigs who shoots threes and blocks shots, so why didn't Boston go after him, knowing that he likely wouldn't have cost them all that much?
Because Mazzulla Ball isn't all about threes alone.
Boston strongly emphasizes offensive rebounding
No one's saying Turner would have been a bad fit for what the Celtics want to do, but given what he's paid and after coming off a pretty bad season, that substantially hurt his appeal. Besides, despite Boston's laundry list of floor-spacing big men over the past few years, they've also found success stories in bigs who feast on the offensive glass.
Part of why Boston managed to stay among the league's best offenses last season was the fact that they had two bigs who were excellent at gobbling up offensive rebounds: Neemias Queta and Luka Garza. In fact, Queta tore Turner to shreds in their individual matchups last season.
Offensive rebounding is important in Mazzulla Ball because it gives the Celtics more opportunities to put the ball in the basket. More specifically, it allows them to shoot more threes. Turner does not help with that, but Queta and Garza do. And now, the Celtics have added one of the best offensive rebounders ever in MItchell Robinson.
It should be emphasized that while three-pointers are a foundation of Mazzulla's style of play, offensive rebounding is equally important. If it didn't, Turner might very well be a Celtic right now instead of Robinson. That shows that the NBA's reigning Coach of the Year has a more multi-faceted strategy than meets the eye,
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