Mitchell Robinson on Mazzulla’s hard coaching: ‘I embrace it and make adjustments’

BOSTON — Oct. 14, 2026 — Mitchell Robinson is still learning Joe Mazzulla’s voice — and he is not pretending the volume is low. After a 114-93 preseason win over Charlotte at TD Garden, the Celtics center said Mazzulla gets on him constantly about sprinting, screens and angles, and that he wants the feedback.

Robinson finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and a game-high three blocks in 17 minutes on 5-of-5 shooting and 2-of-2 free throws. Charlotte had two blocks as a team. Jayson Tatum led Boston with 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Payton Pritchard handed out 11 assists without a turnover. Boston improved to 3-0 in the preseason.

‘He’s getting on my ass a lot’

Robinson smirked through the description of Mazzulla’s standard.

“He’s getting on my [expletive] a lot,” Robinson said in the locker room. “But, just learning from him, the way that he takes everything in and gives us all the information literally down to a tee. Those are things that can help us be successful.”

Asked what Mazzulla actually yells about, Robinson listed the same habits every center hears in Boston’s system.

“Not sprinting, not setting good screens, letting the guy go under,” Robinson said. “There’s a lot of [expletive] that he tells me.”

He said he does not take it personally. “I don’t take no hard feelings to it,” Robinson said. “I embrace it and make adjustments.”

Screens, angles and what teammates like

The adjustment for Robinson is not only volume of coaching — it is the number of actions he has to read. He said the offense asks him to get his angles right and learn preferences across the roster.

“It really is just screening, as long as I get my angles right,” Robinson said. “And what guys like to do, what Payton likes to do, what Sam [Hauser], Jayson, all those guys — once I learn really what they like to do, I think I’ll be alright.”

Mazzulla, speaking after the same win, put the other side of the relationship in one line: “Mitch is one of the smartest players I’ve been around.”

Why it matters

Robinson already has a Tatum lob chemistry story and an off-ball-screen teaching point on the site. Wednesday’s comments fill in the player’s own version of the Mazzulla standard: hard coaching on the little things, owned without complaint, with a finale at Philadelphia on Friday before the regular season.