Live coverage: Celtics media day

CANTON -- We're live on the scene in Canton as the Celtics kick off media day from High Output Studios. All players and Brad Stevens will meet with the media ahead of the start of training camp on Tuesday. The team will hold double sessions for the next couple of days starting on Tuesday morning. before flying down to North Carolina on Thursday ahead of their preseason opener on Friday night against the Hornets at the Dean Dome.

We will update this thread periodically throughout the day with highlights from the media sessions.

Jaylen Brown 

• On his improvements from over the summer: “Overall just improvement, in general, is just what I’ve hung my hat on. 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.”


• On working out with Tracy McGrady this summer: "T-Mac is favorite of all time. I watched him growing up, patterned my game after him etc. Being able to talk to him, have him invite me out, it meant the world to me. Shout out to Tracy for doing that."


• On the Jabari Bird situation: "I think I’m going to keep that between us. It’s a personal type of question, but it’s an unfortunate situation. And as we find out more about what’s going on, we’ll let the team and the Celtics kind of handle it."


• On the competition for playing time: "As competitors, we’re going to compete regardless, but at the same time, we don’t look at each other as enemies. We’re not trying to beat each other up too much, we’re trying to beat up whoever else we’re going to be competing against in the next four to five days. And I think it’s an understanding of that, but at the same time, we’re going to push each other. And I think it starts with a good team — we have to push each other, like we did last year. We had some great push and pull mechanisms going on. This year it’s going to be a little different, but it’s going to be exciting." 

• On Hayward and Tatum working together: It should accentuate it because it fits from a skill standpoint. I think Gordon’s ability to play as the primary ballhandler will open up opportunities too. The obvious--we’re not playing in a day and age where we’re numbering our guys what position they are. We’re going to have all those guys out there at once and hopefully be very versatile.


• On the need to improve on offense: "I think when you break down last season, first of all, we had a really fun team and a team that really pulled together. We were a really good defensive team, so on that end of the ball, on that end of the floor, our major emphasis is we can’t skip steps. You’re battling human nature a little bit when you’re a good defensive team and you’re restarting a new season and we need to make sure that we beat that and we’re dialed in to doing every little thing together to make our defense as good as it can be, because it really was the driver of our success last year. And offensively we just weren’t good enough and that’s something we’ve all worked on, but we have some specific areas we will really hone into. The interesting part is we got better as the year went on, obviously Game 7 is a tough one for all of us to swallow, but I thought in the playoffs we did a lot of good things for the most part. But we have some real areas to improve there, otherwise we’re not at the level we want to be at. And so we’ll see if we put in the work defensively and we’ll see if we improve offensively."


• On Kyrie's responsibility with this team: "Kyrie’s one of the smartest players I’ve been around. He knows both ends of the floor, he thinks the game, spent a lot of time studying the game. He know when it’s right to attack and when it’s right to spray it. There is some responsibility on who the initiater on offense, and he’ll do that sometimes when he’s in, sometimes it won’t if Gordon, or Terry or Marcus or Horford are with him when it’s time to bring it down. But there is some responsibility to make sure we’re organized, and hopefully we’re able to play to our strengths. But we don’t want to set limits on people, don’t want to set ceilings on people. Everyone has ownership in this. The young players who are growing can can do things is a good thing. It’s our responsibility to move everyone in the right direction."

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  On his role with Kyrie and Gordon back: Uh, everybody’s going to have a different role. Just with the loaded roster that we have, everybody’s gotta play. We have a lot of talented guys. The culture we have on this team, we’re willing to do whatever it takes to win and that’s all that we care about. Winning takes care of everything. So as long as we win, it’s all good.

  
  


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  On working out with Kobe: It was one of the cooler basketball experiences of my life. 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.

  
  


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  On C's chances with the Warriors: Obviously, they’re the defending champs. 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.

  
  


• On his improvements this summer: "I think the biggest area of growth was trying to get stronger. I worked on finishing around the basket and fighting through contact. It was one of the areas I struggled with last year."

• Has been 100 percent for the past couple weeks, playing some 5-on-5.


• Thinks Gordon Hayward has looked great in scrimmages.

• On sacrificing with his role this season: "At the end of the day winning oversees everything. 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."


• On defending Kawhi vs. LeBron: "They’re not the same. Kawhi is a great player. I don’t take anything from him, but as far as strength-wise, obviously LeBron is stronger. But they bring different aspects to the game. It’s a totally different assignment."


• On Kyrie's SI player ranking of 20th: "I think I saw he was the 20th best player or something like that? Obviously, that’s not true. At least in my opinion top five. He’s special, man. Having him back on the court definitely bring another element to it that we didn’t have last year. We didn’t need him to beat the Sixers. We didn’t need him to be Milwaukee. So add him into the Cleveland series, and we’d be talking about being in the championship."

• On adding 3-pointers: "It’s one of those things I won’t shy away from. I’m not going to try and live off it either. Brad is so great at getting everyone into the right position, whether he wants me spacing the floor or getting into the paint, I’m confident that it’s the right thing to do for the team. I didn’t shoot many threes in the NBA because I didn’t have the confidence of the coach behind me, but Brad was so great at telling me he wanted me to shoot those shots because it would help the team. I knew I can make it, and having that confidence from the coach allows you to go out there and make those shots. I was able to get to a comfortable feeling on the 3-point line, and everyone felt good about it as well. I’m not going to shy away from it this year, and I’m not going to live by it either."


• What he's seen from Robert Williams: "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. 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."

• On when he started feeling like himself this offseason: “I can only feel like myself playing out there in an NBA game. But I had great opportunities this summer to be around some great people. Lived in Seattle for about 18 days or so. Jamal Crawford did a great service to me by putting together some runs for me to get reacclimated to the game, knowing what I was coming off of in terms of my injury. And it was just great to be up there and get some quality runs in to really get back in the game. I missed it so much. And for it to be taken away the way it did, the timing of everything, it just wasn’t ideal. It was hurtful honestly because it was an uncontrollable thing. To go through it was a learning experience, but it only helped my evolution as a person and as a player. So I’m appreciative of that time because I finally got to slow down. I’ve been playing every summer and having the unique opportunity to really play in two Finals healthy, so it was a lot of patience on my end but it was well worth it in the long run because it set me up for the next years of my career and being able to become more dedicated to my craft, and my body, and my spirit, and my mind, and my soul. So it felt good.”


• On what's different for him entering his second training camp with Celtics: “I’m finally here in Boston for a year. 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.”

• On his mindset coming back: "More than anything I’m going to follow the progression the staff has set out for me, whatever that is. I’ve taken certain rest days, but once they tell me I can do whatever I’m going to go full speed. Jump right into it. There will be things where I get beat defensively or make a mistake offensively, but when you don’t play basketball for a year those things happen, and that’s what I have to find my rhythm and groove a bit. Pick-up games have been good for that but coming into the season I’m going to have to find my way a bit."


• On changing expectations for this group: I think all three of those guys, like I was just saying, you can't teach experience. For them, to have that playoff experience, go through the whole year and then in the playoffs, have even more responsibility with Kyrie being out -- you can argue they are even more experienced than I am going to the Eastern Conference Finals -- and that's great for our team. There's going to be situations where someone is going to get hurt again, someone is going to be sick, someone is going to be having a bad game, as it does to every team throughout the year. For us to have so many guys that we can rely on to go get a bucket or get a big-time stop, that's huge for us as a team. That probably is why we have so many expectations on us, but we're ready for those challenges."