Celtics camp takeaways: Enes Kanter likes what he's seeing: 'NBA should be scared because everybody is healthy'

The Celtics were back at work Sunday afternoon after a day off in Orlando that featured everything from beach volleyball to a swim race between Marcus Smart and Enes Kanter.

“We swam, well, I swam, he was trying to catch me, but it's fun, man,” Kanter said after his win. “Obviously we're going to be here til October 12th, so it's important to keep building that team chemistry, and everybody is away from their family, you know? So this is our family now. The next three months, those guys are my brothers, this is our family, so we're just going to go out there and have fun, play smart, push each other but have fun every day.”

The leisure time comes on the heels of the first intense scrimmage the team held during camp on Friday, a session that stood out in a major way to Kanter.

“I’ll tell you this,” Kanter said. “This is my ninth year in the league. Probably the last practice we had, we had an off-day yesterday, but the day before was one of the best practices I have ever witnessed. Everybody was talking, everybody was going against each other, everybody was pushing each other, but at the same time, we were learning and we were having fun, and a lot of the trash talk out there, but it's good, though. But this practice was also really good because we were having fun, played hard, played smart, having fun, and just going at each other at the same time. The important thing is that we are communicating and trusting each other, so it's been great fun.”

While Brad Stevens has been pleased about having a full system already implemented from the rest of the regular season, he still believes like there’s a long path ahead in getting everyone where they need to be in a 5-on-5 setting.

“Ahead from the standpoint of system, implementation, understanding, just because we’ve already had a full season, everyone’s back,” Stevens said of camp. "There’s like a whole season’s worth of schemes and things you’ve done. And then I think the challenge coming in, which you knew, would be conditioning, reacclimating the players to playing 5-on-5, all that stuff. So ahead in the former, not as far as I thought, maybe, in the latter. I think every team is probably pretty similar in that regard. I don’t think there’s going to be much difference between us all as far as readiness goes.”

With such a limited timetable to ramp up and so much time away from each other, Jaylen Brown knows it is going to take an extra level of focus to get the Celtics towards the contending level they want to be out. For as good as the C’s can be when healthy, they can look vulnerable if they aren’t bringing max effort night in and night out. With an every other day game schedule expected for Orlando straight through to the NBA Finals, limiting practice time that we will have once the seeding games begin.

“We got to play harder,” Brown said. “We got to get more ball pressure. We got to play fast and we just got to continue to move forward and get better as a team. I think that we're in a good spot and we have great potential. We got to continue to develop that every single day. Every practice is important for us, every time we get together, every meeting and every time we watch film is crucial. We are just getting into that mindset is more than anything of just being a great dominant team every single night.”

Kemba Walker takes part in a large portion of practice

The All-Star point guard was back on the court on Sunday with the rest of his teammates, taking portion in an extended period of practice with his teammates, according to Stevens.

“I don’t think it’ll be as fluid in our first scrimmage, or whatever the case may be, as maybe three weeks from now. But there’s time to do that. He practiced the first 50 minutes of today’s practice so he’s done a lot more over the last few days.”

The rest of Walker’s teammates have had no health issues to date, including Kanter who was dealing with a hip bruise that slowed him down during much of February and March.

“Quarantine time was important to just heal and get healthy,” Kanter said. “The whole Celtics, they were calling us the hospitalized Celtics before this quarantine. But now, man, the NBA should be scared because everybody is healthy now, everybody is 100 percent now, and everybody is going at it.”

Jaylen Brown speaks on social justice, John Lewis

NBA players will have a lot of options of words or phrases in support of social justice to put on the backs of their jerseys this season. Brown was not exactly pleased by the initial list of options the league put out but he spoke at length today about the direction he is leaning in.

“The list is the list,” Brown said. “I’m still trying to contemplate on how I necessarily feel about what I should put on the back of my jersey. It's kind of tough to epitomize all the feelings and emotions and everything you are passionate about into one word, especially on the list that was given. I'm still in the works, just trying to figure things out. One thing I saw that was clever that I kind of gravitated towards was I saw Jimmy Butler said he didn't want to put anything on his jersey.

"What I thought was clever with that was the potential of not having anything was playing for the people that we don't get to see every single day or we don't hear their names. We hear Breonna Taylor, we hear Philando Castile, we hear Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin. We hear all those names that we hear in the media because somebody was lucky enough to have a cell phone, but what about the people who didn't have the cell phone available at the time and they experienced police brutality, they experienced social stratification and education or not getting help in healthcare? There are so many different things that go unnoticed and it's bigger than what we see now. I think police brutality is just the tip of the iceberg. Being able to have an empty space and playing for some of those people that we don't know their names and we may not ever know their names, I think that's powerful too.”

The Georgia native also spoke at length about the passing of civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis, who passed away on Saturday.

“To speak towards John Lewis, we never crossed paths directly, but indirectly, we've crossed paths many times. Just as a civil rights leader and humanity leader, his contributions not to just people of color, but our society in general, are appreciating and welcome. It definitely was a tremendous loss, hearing that he passed away yesterday. But one of my favorite quotes of his that actually, he recently put out is 'Don't get lost in a sea of despair. Be optimistic, be hopeful. The journey or the struggle is not the struggle of a week or month or year, it's the struggle of a lifetime. Don't be afraid to be loud to make noise, and to get in good trouble or necessary trouble.' That that phrase speaks to me more than I can even explain in words. But to speak to John Lewis, to the legacy he's left behind, obviously, is amazing. So I don't think words can be able to do justice. But rest in peace to John Lewis.”

The Celtics will be back on the court Monday evening in Orlando, with their first scrimmage against another bubble team just five days away.