Joe Mazzulla is expected to remain as head coach of the Boston Celtics long-term beyond the current season, but he is unlikely to have the interim tag removed during Ime Udoka's year-long suspension.

"Everything is aligned and in place for Joe Mazzulla to be the long-term coach for the Boston Celtics, except for one thing: Ime Udoka is technically still the head coach of the Boston Celtics, on suspension," said Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN. "For all intents and purposes, he has coached his last game in Boston. This is uncharted territory certainly. Unless Ime Udoka takes another job this season elsewhere, it still may be an interim label until the end of the year.

"Mazzulla has handled this very well. He has a locker room of key players who were very fond of Udoka and still very fond of him. [Mazzulla] has certainly navigated that. He had his own relationships. You have seen him command the respect of this group, but how this team has performed. Continuing at a very high level.

"There's every indicated that interim status will eventually leave and he'll be on a long-term deal as the Celtics' coach, but it may not be until after the season."

The Boston Celtics have a lack of depth at center, particularly with Robert Williams III out for several more weeks. To support Boston's title hopes, they could scour the trade market for help at the position with Jakob Poeltl a potential candidate.

"The question is 'does this team need to go out and get another big man who can defend?'" said Brian Windhorst. "The name that has come up that people have speculated has been Jakob Poeltl from the Spurs. They did a deal with the Spurs last year, obviously, for Derrick White.

"The Spurs may want to keep Jakob Poeltl. I'm not saying they're going to put him out there. The Spurs were unable to extend Poeltl. They tried to extnd him before the season. He will become an unrestricted free agent. They have the lowest payroll in the league. San Antonio can certainly afford to pay him, maybe that's what they're going to do at the end of the season."

Poeltl is averaging 13.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.2 blocks in 28.8 minutes over 15 games for the Spurs this season.

Windhorst reported a few weeks ago that Poeltl expects to make more as a free agent than what the Spurs could offer him via extension currently.

The NBA rescinded Jayson Tatum's technical foul from Tuesday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Tatum was called for a technical by John Goble after clapping following a foul call. 

Tatum currently has four technical fouls on the season.

Jaylen Brown, who is a VP with the NBPA, believes “it’s time for a larger conversation” now that Kyrie Irving continues to miss games beyond his minimum five-game suspension that was issued by the Brooklyn Nets following his decision to link to an antisemitic documentary.

Joe Tsai told a local reporter Irving “still has a lot of work to do” to get back onto the basketball court. Brown quote-tweeted the report and called it alarming for multiple reasons.

“He didn’t say that the organization was working together to get Kyrie back on the floor. He said that he had more work to do,” Brown said Monday night. “And our society has more work to do.”

“Including Joe Tsai,” Brown continued. “It’s 2022. It takes 10 minutes of time to see who these business owners, corporations, etc., who they’re associated with and who they’re doing business with, who they’re affiliated with.”

Nike founder Phil Knight said Irving “stepped out of line” by sharing the film on his social media channels.

Brown responded to Knight’s quote, tweeting: “Since when does Nike care about ethics?”

“I’m vice president of the union, and it’s part of my job to protect our players legally, Brown said Monday night. “And to see Phil Knight first come out and condemn Kyrie, and also see Joe Tsai say he has more work to do, I think it’s time for a larger conversation.”

Brown said Irving is in a gray area because he posted the link to the controversial film without any caption.

“I think it’s uncharted territory,” Brown said. “I think it’s no distinction between what somebody says vs. what somebody posts, and I guess that’s what they are trying to figure out. The terms that the Brooklyn Nets instituted for his return, I voiced my discomfort.

“It’s still an indefinite suspension, he’s already missed five or six games, so how many games is he going to continue to miss? Is it another situation going on there? Is it a larger situation going on there, is it a larger conversation that needs to be had? We’ve yet to find out.”

Brown suggested Irving might not be willing to apologize more than he already has.

“I’m not sure if [showing contrition] is something that Kyrie is looking to do,” Brown said. “I don’t think he meant any harm by posting it. Obviously, it came off as insensitive to a lot of people, but Adam [Silver] came out with a statement: He doesn’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic,” Brown said. “Joe Tsai came out and said a statement that they don’t believe he is antisemitic. Those are their words, so he has already apologized formally through his IG post.

“But the comment that Joe Tsai made, which I feel like bothered a lot of people was like, ‘He has more work to do.’ Like, what does that mean? Our society has more work to do, including Joe Tsai. So I’m curious to know what that is, what that means.”

The Brooklyn Nets were expected to hire Ime Udoka, but the controversy surrounding Kyrie Irving and his eventual five-game suspension appears to have made taking on another off the court issue untenable. Udoka is currently suspended for the 22-23 season by the Boston Celtics for an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. 

"As the Kyrie Irving situation continued to unfold, it became too perilous of a path to also hire Ime Udoka in the aftermath of his suspension and essentially ouster with the Boston Celtics," said Adrian Wojnarowski.

"I think as they started to really dig into their coaching search and make a decision on whether this organization could absorb that much drama, turmoil and upheaval. Especially as the Irving situation played out.

"They saw Jacque Vaughn start to stabilize things...

The Nets believe Udoka will be hired elsewhere at some point in the future.

"They did their research and their due diligence on the circumstances around his suspension in Boston. I think Brooklyn believes there's probably going to be another team that does hire Udoka. But Brooklyn did not believe they were in a position where they could do it.

The decision by the Brooklyn Nets to hire Ime Udoka as head coach appeared to be a "foregone conclusion", according to multiples sources who spoke with Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports.

But the Udoka hire never was completed and the Nets instead named Jacque Vaughn as head coach on Wednesday. Udoka is under a suspension by the Boston Celtics for an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.

When the Nets fired Steve Nash last week, Vaughn was only told that he would be overseeing the initial game against the Chicago Bulls.

"Amid public outcry, and plenty of dismay from rival team personnel, there were credible rumblings around the league that commissioner Adam Silver’s office was providing some form of friction between Brooklyn and Udoka’s hiring," writes Fischer.

The Brooklyn Nets pivoted away from their plan to hire Ime Udoka due to "several factors", sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The investigation and due diligence process by the Nets into why Udoka was suspended by the Boston Celtics took longer than expected, while there was also an outcry both outside and inside the organization on that plan. Finally, the Nets also face a situation where there is uncertainty about their ability to contend in the Eastern Conference over the short- and long-term.

Brooklyn began direct communication on the potential hire of Udoka 24 to 48 hours before Steve Nash was fired.

The Nets decided to name Jacque Vaughn head coach after it was determined they could not move forward with their plan to hire Udoka. 

Ime Udoka is forfeiting half of his $4 million salary with the Boston Celtics as part of his season-long suspension, reports Marc Stein of Substack.

Udoka had an improper relationship with a subordinate. The Celtics are widely expected to not bring Udoka back as head coach next season.

The Brooklyn Nets have been linked with hiring Udoka, but Joe Tsai has been urged to reconsider the plan. Sean Marks and Kevin Durant are said to be favoring the hire of Udoka. 

The Boston Celtics have been granted a $3.23 million Disabled Player Exception by the NBA for the season-ending injury to Danilo Gallinari.

The Celtics have until March 10th to use the exception. 

Gallinari suffered a torn ACL in his left knee while playing for Italy in EuroBasket. 

The Celtics signed Gallinari to a two-year, $13.3 million deal in July. 

Host Danny Leroux (@DannyLeroux) and Jared Weiss of The Athletic (@JaredWeissNBA) go in-depth on the Boston Celtics.

They discuss the Brooklyn Nets potentially hiring Ime Udoka and how that could affect both the Nets and Celtics, Jayson Tatum’s strong start, how the first seven games affect their assessment of the Celtics and much more.

Subscribe to RealGM Radio on Apple Podcasts or via the RSS feed.