There's always a buzzword or two every preseason that sums up what the big focus is heading into the season. This year the two are somewhat related: “Flexibility” and “curveball.”
“We’ve been doing some things here in camp, working on different things on defense, working on different things on offense, seeing where we can hurt teams in different ways that we maybe didn’t do as well last year,” Sam Hauser said after the team’s final practice before their first preseason game tomorrow. “I can’t give away too much, so pretty vague answer there. But yeah, we’ve definitely been working on it.”
Joe Mazzulla was less vague when he admitted the Celtics started working on their curve in summer league.
“Zone’s one of those things where, like, if you go to it, it could make you feel uncomfortable,” he said. “(Summer league was) just getting as much data on film about what would it look like, how would we teach it, would we even go to it. Kind of stuff like that. But that was the beginning of being open-minded towards the curveball.”
They’ve used that term so much I half expect Bert Blyleven to be announced as an assistant coach or for Jason Varitek to signal a zone from the sidelines by dropping two fingers. The team is very clearly committed to changing speeds and showing teams new looks.
The Celtics had defensive strengths last year in their ability to switch that might not be quite the same this season. This emphasis on multiple looks is as much about the team figuring out how to do something uncomfortable as it is making things uncomfortable for other teams. In other words, pushing these guys out of their comfort zones could be a way to perfect a zone.
“I think it's just what your team is willing to -- what fits your personnel and what your team's willing to buy in there,” Mazzulla said. “And I don't think you can go to a curveball if you don't have the trust from all five guys on the floor that like this could be something that we can go to. And so I think you have to experiment with a couple different things, whether it's in practice or whether it's throughout the preseason. And then you have to be able to develop a level of trust between us and the players and say like this is what we can go to.”
The Celtics play their first of five preseason games tomorrow, giving us our first chance at seeing how this deuce of theirs looks. It might look sharp right away, or it might look like most new pitches guys work on in spring training: expect to give up a few bombs while the kinks are worked out.
"It's gonna take some time,” Jaylen Brown said. “We still got some chemistry building to do, some team building to do so we can get comfortable with each other out on the floor. But we've done a good job of setting the tone, making what we want to emphasize, emphasize and it could be faster than most people expect."
WEIRD SCHEDULE
Boston plays three games in four nights to start the preseason, a weirdly stacked beginning to the schedule followed by five days off before the final two games (there are three concerts and two Bruins game at the Garden squeeze in between Celtics games).
“I don’t really care. Just gotta play,” Mazzulla said. “We’re gonna have 15 or 20 of those or something like that during the season, so if you gotta go through one now I think it’s a good opportunity to work out stuff, be flexible, have guys available, not available, that will happen. So whatever they give us, we’ll do.”
Mazzulla can be dismissive about the schedule, but it does present a challenge. The Celtics obviously need to work guys into game shape, and with a game Monday night as well, they have some lineup decisions to make.
“I think we’re gonna go just like light minutes for most of the guys and see how they feel,” Mazzulla said. “And then we’ll see what we’ll do in the next game. We at least want to get the guys out there in game one and see if we can accomplish the objectives we’ve had this week of training camp and go from there.”
Whatever you do, Mazzulla is begging everyone not to read too much into who starts these games.
“I almost thought about starting someone way off the bat just to throw you guys off but I was talked out of it,” he said. “So don’t read anything into it. And again, you have to have an understanding that we have eight, nine starters. … The season just breeds challenges and opportunities, and we have a lotta, lotta good players. And whether I start one one game and not one game, we just have to be ready for that and just know each decision makes the most sense for us to win.”
HARDEN, EMBIID, NOT GUARANTEED
As of right now, new Sixers coach Nick Nurse won’t commit to his stars playing against the Celtics tomorrow night.
#Sixers coach Nick Nurse when asked if his star players will participate in Sunday’s preseason opener at Boston and if James Harden scrimmaged as apart of the starting unit: pic.twitter.com/nBylTHe3hp
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) October 7, 2023
PUMP UP THE JAM
The Celtics have added a new element to their practices: pumped in crowd noise.
“That’s what we do in the games,” Mazzulla said of the noise surrounding his team. Then he joked “we have recordings of all your guys’ voices and we’re gonna play those over the intercom.”
I guess if you want your team to play angry, inundating them with media questions is one way to do it.
HOLIDAY’S INSTANT IMPACT
The Celtics have former players on their staff, in part, because they can step into drills and compete at a high enough level to hang with players.
Former Celtic Phil Pressey, who is 32 years old and still in shape, is one of those coaches, but he drew an unfortunate assignment: Jrue Holiday.
“I'm one of the few people that gets, like, an amazing joy out of the shell drill,” Brad Stevens said of the common drill where the offense simply passes the ball around the perimeter and the defense has to rotate and react. “I told Jrue when he went and got into Phil Pressey and almost made him quit coaching when he was guarding him. That made me so happy.”
When Holiday wasn’t picking on a former player, he and Brown spent time going at one another just like they have in so many Celtics-Bucks games.
“We've had some battles. I feel like he knows my competitive nature. He knows I don't back down from anybody,” Holiday said of Brown. “I know I'm strong, Jaylen might be stronger than me, which is crazy to say as a grown up. But I think that competitive nature, in practice, in training camp, throughout the year, competing against each other like that, knowing that I know his tendencies, he knows mine, to be able to go at each other like that consistently, I think just makes us better.”
Said Brown of the matchup, “Jrue is probably one of the stronger guards in the league. So … just as a competitor going at him, just a test to see like, how you feel and welcome him to Boston. He met the challenge right away. He going right back at me. So I love it. It's been great energy and great environment. I think we're going to really push each other to be better."
CHARLES IN CHARGE
Holiday’s acclimation to the area is being aided by a familiar face.
Charles Lee came over from Milwaukee after Mike Budenholzer was dismissed as head coach. He’s been assigned to work with Holiday, and the two have been going through post-practice shooting every day this week.
He also has one other big responsibility.
“Babysit me,” Mazzulla joked. “But he's worked for one of the best coaches in the last 20 years in the NBA. He's been an NBA champion, he's had NBA interviews and just his humility and his approach to the game is a no-brainer to have that on your staff. You know, with the staff, I tried to pick one thing that they're all better than me at so that you can rely on them to empower them and be able to do that. And so I think Charles' ability to be a little bit happier and positive, it's going to make me a better person.”
FULL PARTICIPATION
Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis have been full participants in practice, which means both are going to get their minutes tomorrow against Philadelphia.
“They're really smart players who have been playing for a long time, so it’s not like they haven't already done what we’re asking them to do,” Mazzulla said. “I think it’s more about how they work with each other. I think patience will come from how they learn playing with Jayson and Jaylen -- how Jayson (Tatum), and Jaylen, and Al (Horford), and Derrick (White), how do they all -- the glue that comes with it. So it’s not about me as much as it’s about can they create a sense of cohesion on the court together on both ends of the floor.”
BIG DECISIONS
There is a lot of talk about what the next move might be for the Celtics, but they're content to run with who they have for now and then figure out what their needs are after that. That means any talk about a third big starts with Luke Kornet.
“I thought Luke really did a great job last year. I think he’s an underrated player and I don’t think people realize how effective he is,” Mazzulla said. “He’s a guy that’s always in the right spot defensively and he’s a guy that makes the right play on the offensive end, and he makes the right screen read almost every single time and creates two-on-ones for us, and he can guard our defensive system very well and communicate it. So, we’re gonna heavily rely on Luke because of what he did last year and how he carries himself, and then the preseason is an opportunity for the other guys to see who can fall along those lines of what Luke does for us.”
The Celtics quickly signed Wenyen Gabriel after giving up Robert Williams in the Holiday trade, so they are clearly looking to see if he can fill a void as well.
“I’m going to showcase my motor, also showcase that I understand what we’re doing as a team,” Gabriel said. “So trying to be able to mesh into what we’re doing as a team offense and defense, so I can be able to help lead that on the court in terms of communication and make extra effort plays and show that I can play with different players.”
This is Gabriel's seventh team as he begins his fifth season, but this past season was very clearly his most productive. He played 68 games for the LA Lakers, starting two, which accounts for nearly half his overall career games played so far. Gabriel, who is from South Sudan but who grew up in New Hampshire, is hoping to continue getting an opportunity with this childhood favorite team.
“It was kind of like a welcoming home from the organization, also from the people in New Hampshire and in the area that know who I am,” he said. “So there’s a lot of Celtics fans here that are really excited for me to be back and part of the team. I’m excited, I’m happy to be back home.”
