The Boston Celtics have a lot in common with my 5-year-old niece on her swing set.
They both want to be pushed.
That message was made clear by newly-minted head coach Ime Udoka in his introductory press conference Monday morning.
“I’ve talked to quite a bit of the players so far,” Udoka said. “They’re going to allow me to coach them, push them, they know I’m going to be on their ass, and that’s what they like about me, they’ve asked me about that. They want to be pushed, they want to be directed towards winning.”
That theme was woven into a lot of Udoka’s answers, starting to build a picture of who he’ll be now that he’s a head coach.
“We want to have more team basketball there, but at the same time, you have to understand what your personnel dictates,” Udoka said, noting that Boston’s assist numbers last season were near the bottom of the league. “Jayson (Tatum), Jaylen (Brown), guys that can really score the basketball at an elite level. You play toward their strengths. Obviously, we’ll have a defensive mentality going in. I like to try to bring the dog out in guys. We have some young dogs here and I’m looking forward to pushing them.”
And herein lies Udoka’s biggest early challenge. It’s one thing for a player to say he wants to be challenged, but it’s another thing entirely to actually be challenged. There’s a difference between theory and practical application, and that’s true on both sides of this equation.
Udoka was on the sidelines as Gregg Popovich challenged his stars on their way to a title in 2014. Those players were willing to accept it because Popovich had already had that relationship with them. When Tim Duncan bought into it right away, the whole thing worked.
But sitting next to Mozart for a few years doesn’t make someone a master composer. It’s entirely different when it’s time to stand in front of the crowd and get a group of guys to belt out the basketball equivalent of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, but Udoka does seem to be somewhat of a coaching prodigy. Nate McMillan knew Udoka would end up as a coach. So did Popovich. They weren’t alone.
“When I was with the Knicks, Isiah Thomas was probably the first coach to mention that I would be a coach one day,” Udoka said. “He said, ‘You connect with the young guys. You're not a 25-point scorer but they relate to you well, and you push them in the right way.’ So I took that into my coaching career, not just relationship-wise as a player, but as a coach.”
Boston’s young stars, especially Brown, have a deep respect for those who have played the game at a high level. This is part of why the Celtics placed such an emphasis on finding the right former player to take over as head coach.
If this level of pushing is going to work, there has to be mutual respect. There has to be trust in each other that everything being said and done is for the greater good. If the Celtics truly buy into that, then they might be able to unlock another level of their game.
“Talking to Kawhi Leonard as a young guy, I used to tell him, 'Why wait? What are you waiting for?’” Udoka said. “And I'd say the same thing to Jayson and Jaylen. The sky's the limit. The fact that you're not All-NBA, that should be a chip on your shoulder. You should play with that edge, and want to prove people wrong. But my message to them would be, 'Why wait?' The talent is there. The work ethic is there. It's a chance to be a better leader, more vocal at times, but don't wait for anything. Go out and take it now.”
Boston’s cornerstones are not even in their prime, which means there is still a lot of room to grow. Tatum and Brown have different personalities and motivations. Add Marcus Smart and Boston’s core group is made up of three unique characters.
What works for one might not work for the other, so there is no cookie-cutter way to achieve the collective goal.
“I think the players, it comes down to their character ultimately also, the way they want to be pushed and taking constructive criticism,” Udoka said. “So it’s just striking the balance of knowing their personalities, how they want to be coached, and like I said, we have a willing group, and they only reiterated that with myself in our conversations lately. So looking forward to it, I’m not worried about our group worrying about hard coaching. They are asking for that, and it’s something I’m going to bring to the table.”