Ime Udoka is reportedly going to be suspended for a full season by the Celtics for violating their franchise code of conduct, reportedly due to a consensual relationship with a staff member. Joe Mazzulla, an assistant coach, is expected to begin the season as the interim.
There’s plenty to talk about in the realm of power dynamics and consent and adultery and we don’t really want to get into any of it. We feel a need to acknowledge that it’s there, but we’re going to let others talk about the scandal itself. What we’re curious about is what this means for the Celtics, and more than that, we’re curious why it means that much.
Between professional baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer, there’s a wide range of head coach importance. Baseball managers can sometimes be little more than figureheads. In football, basketball, and soccer, head coaches (or managers) have varying degrees of power over roster construction. Baseball definitely has schematic elements, but because the sport takes place as a series of individualized competitions—pitcher vs. pitch, hitter vs. pitch, fielder vs. ball in play, etc.—it lends itself less to teamwide schematics, and though chemistry is important, it’s important more in a nebulous, psychological, “mood” sense than one regarding how athletes work together.
There’s no great way to study all of this, but if forced to make a guess about the Celtics specifically, and thereby about NBA head coaches, I’d make this guess: Coaches are like bus drivers. The difference between a good one and a great one might be marginal. The difference between a fine one and a bad one can be disastrous. Luke Walton drove the bus wonderfully in 2015 for the Warriors. Mazzulla’s job is bigger, but he doesn’t have to build the bus, or even necessarily choose the route.
Tonight’s College Football
Small stuff on tonight’s college football slate (we’ll be publishing the full Week 4 preview tomorrow), but there’s a little to be interested in with each game, so let’s hit them quickly here:
Illinois hosts Chattanooga, and Illinois is a fascinating little object as a bad Big Ten program with a coach who’s succeeded once before in the Big Ten. The Mocs, meanwhile, are 3-0 at the FCS level and are generally fairly capable in big-money sports, giving this an air of terror for Illinois football diehards, who do exist.
Coastal Carolina goes to Georgia State, and with losses to South Carolina, North Carolina, and by one point to Charlotte, the Panthers have an argument as the best 0-3 team in the country. That’s not saying much—their primary competition is Colorado—but the short version here is that the Sun Belt is a fun mid-major league on the rise, and this should be a good game. Coastal Carolina is one of the last three Group of Five undefeateds, too.
Finally, West Virginia goes to Virginia Tech. I love that they’re playing this game, I love that West Virginia also scheduled Pitt, it stinks that West Virginia is so bad and also that Virginia Tech is so bad.
I’m not sure we’ve collectively grasped just how bad WVU and VT are. West Virginia might go winless in Big 12 play. Virginia Tech’s bounced back from their opening-week loss to Old Dominion, but they’re still looking dead in the face of their fourth losing record in five years, something that hasn’t happened in Blacksburg since the early 70s. Movelor has the Hokies as the 77th-best team in the FBS. ESPN’s SP+, which takes a very different approach, has them comparably ranked: 61st. Medium brands, bad teams, good game.
Bogdanovic a Piston
The Jazz and Pistons have reportedly agreed to a deal flipping Bojan Bogdanovic for Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee, and the explanations for the deal seem to be that the Jazz thought the meager return worth it either because it helps them get better draft picks (through more losses) or because they’re planning on accepting some bad contracts in salary dumps and wanted cap space. Regardless of the motive, the sell-off continues, just as Brian Windhorst warned us long ago.
Continuity for the Royals?
The Royals didn’t take long to replace Dayton Moore, taking general manager J.J. Picollo and naming him executive vice president as well. The implication here is either that chairman John Sherman wanted a shakeup but thought the general philosophy was correct (this is how the Cubs’ recent transitions have gone, both from Theo Epstein to Jed Hoyer and from Joe Maddon to David Ross), or that Picollo and Moore had some disagreements. I would guess it’s the latter, and reports do say to expect more changes, which could add some context. So: The weird thing in this story doesn’t seem to be the Royals sticking with the gameplan. The weird thing seems to be that the Royals have potentially had infighting for the last year or two, and that this may have been building as Picollo fell into Sherman’s good graces and Moore fell out.
Other baseball:
Aaron Judge, Albert Pujols
No home runs for Judge and Pujols last night, but each does play another game today, so plenty of eyes on that.
NL East
The Mets and Atlanta each lost a day game yesterday, keeping pace with one another in the East. For the Mets, it was a shutout loss at the hands of the Brewers despite only striking out four times. Mike Brousseau’s grand slam busted that one open.
AL Central
After the Guardians jumped on Lance Lynn (and the White Sox’ defense, to repeat an old refrain) and won again last night, I think we’re one game away from an “I’ve seen enough” for the Sox. That could be on its way this evening, with Johnny Cueto tasked with keeping the season alive.
The Wild Cards
No movement between Toronto, Seattle, and Tampa Bay in the AL. The Mariners dropped their second straight to the A’s, the Rays got carved up by Lance McCullers, and the Blue Jays saw a three-run eighth inning Vlad Guerrero Jr. home run washed out by a Phillies rally in the bottom half and, ultimately, an extra-inning walk-off loss.
For the Phillies, the win broke what had been a five-game losing streak, allowing the club to keep pace with both Milwaukee and San Diego, who won its fifth straight as Blake Snell outdueled Miles Mikolas in a late game, striking out thirteen batters as he did so.
News
Besides the Royals front office move, we’ve got Stephen Vogt announcing his impending retirement, Zack Wheeler returning with a good outing for the Phillies (piggy-backed, interestingly, by Noah Syndergaard), Luis Severino activated from the IL for the Yankees, and Blake Treinen sounding less and less likely to pitch at any additional point this year.
The Cubs
Seiya Suzuki’s been transferred from the paternity list to the restricted list, hopefully just to give him more time with his growing family. Best wishes there.
Nice win for the big-league club, good to win series, even when they only bring you to 64-85. There are now just thirteen games remaining: Four in Pittsburgh, three at home against the Phillies, and then six against the Reds, split three-and-three home and away.
The South Bend Cubs won the Midwest League last night, and the Smokies play the Trash Pandas tonight to try to keep their postseason going. In an Instagram post and subsequent comment, Miguel Amaya’s dad seems to have said the catcher is going to need surgery to address a fractured ankle, which is bad. The playoff success is good, though. That’s a good indication of the health of a farm system. Also, Amaya’s just one prospect, and he’s already pretty far faded from what he was. The setback’s really sad for him personally, but it’s a very marginal impact for the Cubs.
Packers Injury Updates
On yesterday’s injury report, David Bakhtiari was an unsurprising DNP (did not practice), while Randall Cobb was a surprising DNP, listed as out with an illness. I haven’t seen reports of any other details there.
Listed as limited participants were Elgton Jenkins, Allen Lazard, Marcedes Lewis, Sammy Watkins, and Christian Watson. Of those, reportedly all three of Lazard, Watkins, and Watson also missed practice today, in addition to Cobb. Not good! For Watkins and Watson, hamstrings are the issue. Lazard’s ankle is still the concern with him. For Jenkins, it’s the knee, and for Lewis, it’s the groin, which was not listed last week.
It’s hard to guess how concerned we should be about this, but in betting markets, the total hasn’t moved much from where it settled on Monday. I wonder how many offensive sets have Robert Tonyan, Aaron Jones, AJ Dillon, and two receivers. I wonder how familiar the receivers in that scenario are with those sets. If it’s a numbers game, you’d guess at least one or two of the four (five, counting Lewis) won’t play.
**
Viewing schedule, second screen rotation in italics:
College Football (of interest)
- 7:30 PM EDT: West Virginia @ Virginia Tech (ESPN)
- 7:30 PM EDT: Coastal Carolina @ Georgia State (ESPN2)
MLB (of playoff race significance and/or home run milestone chase significance, plus the Cubs)
- 3:37 PM EDT: Seattle @ Oakland, Kirby vs. Martínez (MLB TV)
- 4:10 PM EDT: St. Louis @ San Diego, Flaherty vs. Musgrove (MLB TV/ESPN+)
- 6:35 PM EDT: Cubs @ Pittsburgh, Wesneski vs. Keller (MLB TV)
- 6:40 PM EDT: Milwaukee @ Cincinnati, Woodruff vs. Greene (MLB TV)
- 6:40 PM EDT: Toronto @ Tampa Bay, Berríos vs. Chargois (MLB TV)
- 7:15 PM EDT: Atlanta @ Philadelphia, Fried vs. Suárez (FOX)
- 7:15 PM EDT: Boston @ New York (AL), Wacha vs. Taillon (FOX)
- 8:10 PM EDT: Cleveland @ Chicago (AL), Bieber vs. Cueto (MLB TV)
NFL
- 8:15 PM EDT: Pittsburgh @ Cleveland (Amazon Prime Video)
