CLEVELAND — Celtics assistant coach DJ MacLeay typically stands on the sidelines and barks out commands. MacLeay, who began as a player-enhancement coach with the Celtics in 2021, leads the team’s defense and is often one of the loudest voices during games.
But on Thursday night, for the first time in his career, he served as the Celtics’ head coach — at least for the second half.
Joe Mazzulla revealed at shootaround that he wouldn’t be coaching the Celtics’ preseason opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Instead, assistant coach Tony Dobbins would coach the first half (and handle pregame media responsibilities), and MacLeay would coach the second half (and handle postgame media responsibilities).
“It was definitely different,” MacLeay said. “I got to be the head coach of the Boston Celtics for a half. Can’t feel anything but gratitude for that.”
Mazzulla decided both coaches would get the opportunity after they went through head-coaching interviews this past summer, Dobbins with the Dallas Mavericks and MacLeay with the Portland Trail Blazers. Neither got the job — Dobbins was a finalist — but Mazzulla wanted to acknowledge their progress by giving them additional preseason responsibilities.
“To me that’s a huge testament to them and the work that they do,” Mazzulla said. “And so, you’re just always looking for opportunities to give them more experience. And sometimes, the only experience is being out there on the sideline.”
The Celtics head coach wanted to give his assistants time to mentally prepare, so he gave them a heads-up.
“In classic Joe fashion, he told us this way back in the summer, so I’ve had some time to think about this,” MacLeay said.
For MacLeay, serving as a head coach for a half gave him the opportunity to hone in on the key messages the team has been emphasizing throughout training camp.
“The biggest thing is working on the stuff that we’ve been trying to build — connection with the group, connection to how we want to play, understanding different turning points, different moments within the game, and I thought for the most part the guys really were intentional about that,” MacLeay said.
In addition to running the Celtics’ defense, MacLeay serves as Luka Garza’s player development coach. Garza excelled in Thursday’s game, finishing with 22 points and 10 rebounds, both game-highs.
Afterward, he shared that getting to play for MacLeay formally made the outing even more meaningful.
“It was special, man,” Garza said. “He’s a guy that I just love working with, man. Every day, coming into the gym and working with him, whether it’s film or just the PD or whatever it is, he just brings such a great energy to the game, and I feel like we just have like mindsets in a lot of ways.
MacLeay knows he eventually wants to serve as a head coach, and he’s grateful that both the offseason interview process and the preseason game gave him a chance to prepare for the ultimate goal.
“All these experiences just open your eyes to all the different things that a head coach deals with, right?” MacLeay said. “There were things about that [interview] process that I could have done better, but I wouldn’t have known, having not gone through it before. And so, just like tonight, there were plenty of things that I screwed up, and I could have been better for the guys. And so, ultimately, just trying to be in a space where you take these experiences, you learn from them, you try to get better from them, you try to be better for the people around you, and serve the players as best you can. And you just try to take that mindset, the gratitude for this opportunity, for that opportunity with the interview, and just keep moving forward.”
As for Thursday’s game?
MacLeay smiled when asked what he felt he could have done better, and pointed to his after-timeout play calling.
“I drew way too many long ATOs,” MacLeay said. “I could have been better about that. My first time on the board in a long time — so just could have been better with that.”
The players, for one, could see their assistant coaches’ dreams ultimately coming to fruition.
“It was cool to see him get that opportunity, and he was obviously awesome in that role,” Garza said of MacLeay. “And that’s definitely in his future.”
