Ime Udoka's angling will be mostly saved for the players he hopes to make his biggest catch

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but to Ime Udoka, most of them today were lies. 

The photo is wholesome and happy. A smiling Udoka, dressed in a blue hoodie, is holding a large striped bass caught in the waters of the Boston Harbor. Water from the catch specks his gray shorts.  

It relays an image of relaxation; of non-basketball, good fun with the fellas kind of mind-clearing necessary after a long season came to a disappointing end. 

But according to Udoka, his chillaxing time has been brief.

“Not a lot,” he said of his downtime. “Obviously it's a huge honor to play into June, that late into June and have a chance. And so being there before and having a short offseason is nothing to complain about. So you'd rather do that and have months to sit around and kind of figure things out. … Got to go to New York with the family for Father's Day. But other than that, been right back here in Boston preparing for everything.”

Udoka and Brad Stevens are quickly pivoting to free agency after an uneventful draft night that resulted only in a swing on long-term project JD Davison. While Davison applies for leases in the Portland, Maine area, the Celtics braintrust is embarking on critical team business. 

“Free agency is a huge deal coming up and we do have some needs to address,” Udoka said Friday morning, specifying that consistency and bench scoring as a focus. “I think the thing that stood out a little bit in the Finals was our bench scoring, kind of solidifying that with a veteran, veteran roles off the bench. … certain positions and roles need to be touched on and we have a good amount of names that we're looking at and hopefully some of those things work out for us.”

The Celtics' run to the Finals elevated them as Eastern Conference contenders, which Udoka acknowledged by saying they “expedited the process of getting to where we wanted to.” This run wasn’t supposed to happen now, but now that it did, the Celtics are hoping it helps them capitalize. 

“Great players attract others,” Udoka said. “When you have guys like Jaylen (Brown), Jayson (Tatum), guys who have a bright future, you start to look at longevity and consistency across the board, that’s appealing to other guys. … I think our guys, with their futures in front of them, are appealing to other guys as well. The product on the floor, coaching in general, players wanting to play with other great players - that’s a benefit for us going forward.”

The Celtics messaging in this brief offseason has been consistent. They have holes to fill, mostly on the bench, and they will try to do that through free agency. However, a significant part of what they're banking on for another championship run next season is improving the players already on the roster.

“The biggest part will be internal growth,” Udoka said. “Everybody improving, as I mentioned to the team coming back but better next year than we were this year.”

Stevens and Udoka have both set the same expectations for the Celtics this summer. Internal improvement and veteran bench help will accentuate a core they are hesitant to change for fear of ripping the team’s defensive identity to shreds. 

With free agency beginning in less than a week, the Celtics are hoping to narrow their focus and move quickly using the few free agency tools at their disposal this summer. Udoka will work his vast league connections and hope the players work their interpersonal magic to push things along. Udoka, is confident and hopeful that this extraordinarily important offseason will bear fruit … and maybe give him some time to catch some more fish. 

“Guys showed tremendous progress throughout the season,” he said. “I think this offseason with us, continuing to work with them, hammering home some certain points and those guys improve on the things they did throughout the season, we can even have more coming into next season.”