Joe Mazzulla on using AI every day: ‘Is our halftime process really the most efficient way to watch film?’

Joe Mazzulla said on Thursday that he uses Claude, the artificial intelligence assistant, every day. At the Boston Celtics’ shootaround on Friday morning, ahead of their second game against the Chicago Bulls in five days, he was asked what that actually looks like, and his answer had more to do with film sessions and halftime than with play calls.

“I think it’s more just helping organize, helping become more efficient, helping understanding,” Mazzulla said. “You really use it for just conversation and riffs on, like, okay, here’s what I’m wrestling with. What does this look like from a psychological perspective? What is the research and the data? You quickly get just so much research and data on things.”

Asked Joe Mazzulla about his usage of artificial intelligence as a coach:

“It’s more just helping organize, helping become more efficient, helping understand. There's a lot of really use it for just conversation and riffs on like — okay, here's what I'm wrestling with. What… pic.twitter.com/9tNkV98VGO

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) October 30, 2026

Where it started

The topic came up during a Boston sports-radio appearance on Thursday, when a caller mentioned using AI. Mazzulla answered that he uses Claude “every day for coaching thoughts and being able to process stuff psychologically,” and said he had never used ChatGPT. “I’m all in on Claude,” he said. “One of the great things about Claude is it ends everything in a question. So it keeps you in a constant state of searching, getting more out of you.”

He said it helped him over the summer, both in his “personal development” and in “where I wanted to take this psychologically for our team.” His example was a coaching phrase, “we’re looking for moments of greatness,” which he said he could feed in and ask how the team finds those moments within what it is trying to do.

The more concrete use he described on the radio was looking backward. Mazzulla said he puts last season’s practice plans into it and asks whether they were efficient, and whether the time spent matched what he said mattered that day. “You could say we have to get better at offensive rebounding,” he said, “but if it’s only 5% of your practice plan, then you’re not really emphasizing what you have to get better at.”

Testing the halftime and the film room

On Friday he framed it as part of an offseason review of everything the staff does. “Every offseason, really this offseason, it’s like, okay, let’s test all of our processes,” he said. “Is our pregame film process the right way? Is our halftime film process the right way?”

The halftime break, about 15 minutes, was the example he kept returning to. “Is that really the most efficient way to watch film getting ready for the second half?” Mazzulla said. “Is our pregame process the most efficient way to make sure our guys have retention of the game plan and what we’re needing to do, and they’re in the right space mentally and psychologically?”

He said the same questions apply to a practice-day film session, down to how each clip is put together and what he asks players while they watch. “Do I ask the right questions to check for understanding, to build retention?” he said. “You may think that you’re doing something the right way, but there’s definitely a more scientific, a more efficient way of going about how to do things.”

He also said he used it to compare soccer, handball and basketball, asking what elements of play the three share and how they could work five-on-five. Mazzulla is a regular soccer watcher and has used handball drills in Celtics practices before.

A coach who already worked this way

None of it was described as AI picking lineups or drawing up plays, and the clip of the radio answer drew plenty of jokes online on Friday. What Mazzulla described fits how he has run the team since taking over in 2022: a heavy emphasis on process, with outcomes treated as something that follows. After a one-point overtime win over Brooklyn on Tuesday, his message was “we just have to treat it like a loss,” as covered in our story on that game.

His rebounding example also matches what he says he wants on the floor this season. In the same radio segment, Mazzulla said Boston’s “backup plan” when shots are not falling is to win the offensive glass and force turnovers. The Celtics came into Friday 3-1, with wins over the Knicks, Bulls and Nets after an opening loss in Detroit.

What’s next

After Friday’s Emirates NBA Cup game against Chicago at TD Garden, the Celtics visit the Orlando Magic on Sunday, November 1, then play at the unbeaten Houston Rockets on Monday, November 2, before hosting the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, November 4.