10 things we learned at Celtics media day - Theis' health, Irving's banner dreams & more

CANTON -- The most optimistic day of the year for any NBA franchise tends to be media day. Everyone has a clean slate, is entering the year in the best shape, is willing to do whatever the team needs and can't wait to get started. Still, after listening to players and coaches over a good three-plus hours on Monday, there is still plenty to take away from the avalanche of interviews. Here are 10 things you need to know from Celtics media day:

1. Daniel Theis is completely healthy: The German big man had his meniscus repaired last spring and was working his way back throughout the summer months. Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward have been playing 5-on-5 for a couple of weeks now and Theis has joined them on that front, which puts the C’s rotation at full strength heading into the preseason.

“I feel great. My knee is fully recovered,” Theis explained. “(I’ve been 100 percent) probably for a week or two weeks now, when we started playing 5-on-5 and pickup with almost everybody because we had almost our whole team back (in Boston) in early September. It was good for me, Gordon and Kyrie to see where you are at, playing pickup with the whole team.”

Theis isn’t guaranteed minutes in a crowded frontcourt rotation but he was challenging Aron Baynes for bigger minutes at center at several points last year before his knee injury. The guess here is Brad Stevens will find regular playing time for both but Theis being healthy is an important first step on that front.

2. Kyrie Irving is in a far better place mentally than he was at last year's media day: The point guard was almost guarded last September in his first appearance of the 2017-18 season, answering questions carefully and with varied substance. One year later, Irving is in a much different place. Even with the prospect of free agency hanging over him this season, the 26-year-old was as eager as anyone to get started with this group.

“I’m finally here in Boston for a year,” he explained. “I’m not going through an emotional roller coaster. I don’t necessarily have to deal with the questions about the trade anymore. Now it’s like the next question: ‘What’s free agency like?’ You get traded and now it’s free agency. It’s just like, ‘Whoa.’ So I’m just appreciative of the opportunity to finally be comfortable. That’s the biggest thing. I’m happy. It’s peaceful. I used to be nervous to come up here and talk to you guys because I would wonder what you guys would ask me. But at this point, it’s like I really don’t care. So it’s about the team, how successful we can be and the potential of it. I’m excited about that. So I’m just kind of comfortable and happy to be here now, and present.”

3. Irving has dreamed about having his No. 11 retired in the rafters: For those worrying about Irving’s future, this was a promising quote to hear in a conversation on Monday with Celtics.com:

“My job is to really cement myself as the leader of the Boston Celtics, along with our other great players, and really relish in that opportunity,” Irving said. “Obviously, it’s everyone else’s job to look forward to my future before I can. I just really thought it was important to make sure it’s known that this franchise is really built for the next few years of being at the top tier of teams in the league, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? What more could you ask for from an organization to really elevate your game? You want to be in that same lineage of guys who have come before you. There are times when I think about having No. 11 in the rafters one day, and that’s a dream, so why not?”

Nothing will fully quiet the rumors totally until he puts pen to paper next summer, but it’s hard not to consider Boston the heavy frontrunner when rafters talk is put out on the table.

4. Jayson Tatum isn’t shying away from high expectations: Most Celtics veterans deflected or dodged any questions about the Warriors or the NBA title on media day. The 20-year-old forward did no such thing, inviting the comparison and raising the team’s expectations even further.

“Obviously, they’re the defending champs,” Tatum said of the Warriors. “Everybody respects them. We respect them. We believe in ourselves and the guys that we have in the locker room. It’s a long season, but if we start tomorrow, we feel we can compete with anybody in a seven-game series. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be tough. But I believe in our team.”

That type of confidence is evident among Tatum’s teammates as well.

“It’s super different, last year vs. this year,” Terry Rozier said of Tatum. “Last year was more, he got some go, but you can’t really see it all the way because his nerves were kicking in. I think even him at the beginning of the season, just being nervous, but he calmed down. Now, he’s coming back this summer, he’s got that like ‘I’m the man’ look. He’s been killing it. He’s been looking real good, real good.”

5. Aron Baynes is impressed with Robert Williams’ growth after a rough first week: After missing his first conference call with the media and first summer league practice, expectations have been understandably low for the rookie out of Texas A&M. However, the big man has spent much of his offseason in Boston training alongside Aron Baynes and Al Horford and has left a good impression on both bigs.

“A lot of dedication – ey, maybe not from the first day – but since that one hiccup he’s had a dedication to doing the right thing,” Baynes declared about Williams. “He’s getting his body right. One of the biggest keys for him. If he can get his body right, he’s going to do the things he wants to on the floor. When he does have that opportunity with a healthy body, the sky’s the limit for him. He’s taken great control over that the last couple of months, and it will be a good thing for him.”

6. Jaylen Brown spent his offseason honing several of his offensive skills: The third-year guard made the biggest leap of anyone on the Celtics roster last year after winning a spot in the starting five in training camp. The 6-foot-7 wing is eager to add to those gains, particularly when the ball is in his hands and help turn the Celtics offense into one of the best units across the NBA.

“Overall just improvement in general is just what I’ve hung my hat on,” Brown said of his offseason work. “So this year I’m excited to get back because I worked really hard on certain aspects of my game: free throws, ball handling, playmaking for others. So many things that people critiqued me on in the past, it will be interesting to see if they critique me this year.”

7. Marcus Morris is putting on a happy face when it comes to his reduced role: It’s a storyline that is bound to linger all year long. Morris came to Boston with expectations to start last year but the development of Tatum has made it clear now that won’t happen. With a loaded frontcourt, 15-20 minutes a game seems like the best case scenario for the hybrid forward on most nights. Jae Crowder hinted he wouldn’t be happy with that development last summer before he was dealt away as part of the trade package for Irving. Morris wasn’t voicing a similar mindset this fall.

“At the end of the day winning oversees everything,” Morris declared. “I feel as though the more successful as a team we are the better it’ll be for everybody in their careers. We’re very fortunate to have a lot of guys that can actually play and be starters on other teams. I think the league knows that so I don’t think it’s something that I’ll have to try to show. This will be my eighth season in the league. I’m an established veteran that knows how to win. At the end of the day whatever my role is I’m going at it and approaching it with everything I’ve got. I’m going to continue to be a leader on the team and continue to do what I need to do.”

8. Kobe Bryant asked Tatum to work out with him this summer: Tatum grew up idolizing the Lakers guard growing up, which made the situation one of the more memorable moments in the 20-year-old’s career.

“It was one of the cooler basketball experiences of my life,” he said. “He’s my biggest basketball inspiration. Just to have the interaction with him on a personal level, I still have to go look at the pictures to remind myself that it actually happened. He was very helpful in just having our relationship.”

Tatum wasn’t the only Celtic to get in some work with a perennial All-Star this summer as Brown spent significant time working out with Tracy McGrady after the likely future Hall of Famer invited him to work out.

“(He gave me advice about) being a big guard in general, being able to handle the ball, being able to score at different levels, how his career kind of started off and where it ended up, things like that,” Brown said of McGrady. “Him talking to me about the ups and downs he experienced throughout his career, early in his career, later in his career. So he gave me advice, gave me a lot of motivation in terms of just keep working, keep getting better and don’t be so concerned with everything else going on around you. Focus on your task at hand, and continue doing that.”

9. Gordon Hayward is earning rave reviews from his teammates for his work in 5-on-5 pickup: One understandable worry for Celtics fans heading into this season is just how Hayward will look on the court after nearly 11 months away from NBA basketball. The All-Star wing hasn’t rushed himself back onto the floor this offseason and it appears that his patience and perseverance throughout the rehab process is paying dividends since his teammates were impressed with his play thus far.

“I've seen him working out over the last few weeks since he's been back in Boston,” Theis explained of Hayward. “He's looking really good. I think when you get hurt and are out for such a long time, you have to get back the feeling for playing 5-on-5. The hardest thing for him is going to be the mental part, just going in there and playing with contact again. We all played in the pickup games and he looked good. He was moving really well and shooting the ball extremely well. I think, for everybody, it's going to be fun to see him out there in a Celtics uniform for the entire season.”

10. Basketball is serving as an escape for Marcus Smart in the wake of tragedy: In the wake of losing his mother to cancer last week, the point guard was back with the team after holding a funeral mass over the weekend with family and friends in Dallas. Several members of the C’s organization were on hand for the services including Brad Stevens, Wyc Grousbeck, Al Horford and Jaylen Brown, something that Smart was very appreciative of.

In the wake of his loss, Smart’s eager to put his mind on something else other than the grief and basketball serves as a refuge for him on that front.

“A lot of people have heard me say this and explain it this way: I look at basketball as like a storm. But it’s the eye of the storm -- a tornado or something like that. The calmest place of it is to be right in the eye of it. And that’s what basketball is for me; it’s my eye," he said. "And while everything else around me is going on, the destruction and things like that, basketball keeps me calm. That’s probably why I go out and you see me dive on the floor, or take a charge, or throw my body this way and give it everything I have because I know and understand that any day could be my last day. And if it were, would I be proud of what I accomplished in that time period? God has blessed me with an ability to go out there and play the game that I love to play. And I don’t want to regret that. So I feel I need to go out every day and play like it’s my last.”