We all expected something to be different about the Celtics when training camp started this season, but this wasn’t it.
The Auerbach Center floor is marked off with various boxes, arrows, and other markings, making it look like a parquet version of the Saved By The Bell intro graphics. What they are, though, is currently a state secret.
Welcome in to the first Celtics practice of the season pic.twitter.com/BGGKzs0JzW
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) September 25, 2024
“We’ll get there,” Joe Mazzulla said of his concoction. “Eventually I will (explain it).”
It's just another step in the madness that is Mazzulla’s basketball brain. Passing and shooting is for amateurs. Mazzulla has spent the first two days of camp throwing everything but traditional basketball at his guys. Sam Hauser told The Athletic that part of “everything” included a scrimmage with the baskets capped, so none of the shots would go in. Scoring could only be done in other ways, like rebounding or forcing a turnover.
“We know Joe,” Jrue Holiday said. “I think it’s very, very mental. Obviously, that’s where most of the game can be won. Concentration, doing things while you’re tired, playing without passing, playing without scoring. How do you win the mental game, I feel like, is the biggest part – if you’re tired physically or mentally. Again, he’s just throwing everything at us.”
That includes a lot of running, too. Payton Pritchard said day one featured a ton of conditioning and Holiday, who missed the first day of camp last year after the trade to Boston, joked he wished he missed day one again this year. But Mazzulla’s plan is to challenge his guys early, get them into stressful situations, and get them to re-learn the things that could slip after a championship run.
“If we don’t go back to those fundamentals and assume that just because we have everybody back we’re going to do the littlest of things, that’s where we get in trouble,” Mazzulla said. “So we start from square one, start all over again, and I think over time that continuity will pick up, but we’ve got to start from scratch.”
MAZZULLA MAKING IMPRESSIONS
Lonnie Walker IV is the new guy in town, and his first taste of the Mazzulla experience was just what you might expect.
“Joe is one of the most interesting guys I've met. You don't know where your conversation might take you,” Walker said. “I love boxing, so I was like, did you see the Canelo fight? He was like, ‘I don't watch pillow fights.’ I was like, OK, all right, there we are, you know, that makes more complete sense.”
Mazzulla, notably a practitioner of Brazilian Jiujitsu and fan of MMA, of course hit Walker with the trademark intensity right away, but Walker quickly understood that Mazzulla’s mind just works differently.
“He's a great guy and a plethora of different aspects and I'm just fortunate to be given just this time as of right now to really soak everything up and continue to learn and be a sponge and continue to grow as a player,” Walker said.
TATUM’S MAZZULLA MOMENT
The uniquely Joe moments weren’t just reserved for the new guys.
“Joe was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP and I didn’t play in two games of the Olympics,” Jayson Tatum revealed at media day. “That was odd, but if you know Joe, it makes sense.”
Yes, it does.
“He’s 100% right,” Mazzulla said of Tatum’s comments. “That’s just the way that I love him, it’s the relationship that we have, and I appreciate that he accepts my perspective and the way that we go about talking about it. …
“I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet because of how much he works and how he’s willing to grow. So I thought it was great that he has something to work toward. Sometimes when you get success you don’t have that next hunger right in front of you. Sometimes you’ve gotta wait for it. Sometimes it’s a loss, sometimes it’s a losing streak. He was able to get that right in front of him. So I just thought it was a gift. It doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be pissed off about it. I didn’t want to take away from how that may affect him in real time because I wasn’t there. But as his coach and as somebody that really cares about him I just thought it was great because it gives him something to work toward for the rest of his career.”
You can question his methods, but Mazzulla always seems to get to where he needs to be.
WHITE’S OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE
Derrick White played plenty in the Olympics after being a late addition after Kawhi Leonard withdrew, and he made the most of the experience.
"When you're around great players every day for about a month and a half, you've got no choice but to pick up on what makes them great, what makes them special, what they eat, their preparation, how they take care of their bodies, what they do in the weight room,” White said. “Just all those little things off the court, which you don't really get to see unless you're on their team. I think that was probably the coolest part for me. And then just on the court, just seeing how they compete, how they focus on all the little things. I was just really cool to see the day-in-and-day-out process of legends of this game."
That experience might have gone to Jaylen Brown, had things gone the way Brown wanted. Despite that spot going to White, there wasn’t an elephant in the room, so to speak, that required settling between the two.
“No. There was no elephants in there. That was never an issue,” White said. “That never really needed to be talked about.”
TILLMAN’S KNEE FEELING BETTER AFTER SURGERY
Xavier Tillman had his knee scoped at the end of July to alleviate an issue that caused swelling most of last season.
“It was the main reason I was out different periods last year,” Tillman said. “My knee would just swell up really bad after a game. But it's been recovering really well. Like, as far as my range of motion, as far as my strength and stuff like that, and just being able to have a hard day and not have it swell back up. So it's been progressing really well.”
Tillman says he’s been a full participant in practices, the scope was a success and he says he feels good. And it’s not just a comfort level on the floor for him. Tillman says he’s feeling pretty good about being in Boston.
“We talked about it yesterday at Jrue’s house,” Tillman said. “We're very, very comfortable. … I feel like I know all the streets, and I know where I'm going. I know about them crazy potholes and stuff like that. Like I'm good now. I feel like, slowly but surely, I'm becoming part of the city, so I love it.”
Tillman signed a two-year deal worth nearly $5 million to return to Boston, but not before exploring his options.
“You have to do your due diligence, and you got to see what other teams are offering and stuff like that,” he said. “But once you get all the offers in, if they're not comparing to where you want to be at, then you just go ahead and do what you do.”
ROOKIE ORIENTATION
Bayor Scheierman is getting his first taste of NBA life in Boston. And doing so in a Mazzulla-led practice can be interesting. One of Joe’s wrinkles is the return of piped-in arena noise to more closely simulate games.
“Yeah it’s a lot of fun to play under,” Scheirman said. “I can’t wait to be in the Garden and actually hear it for real. But it’s a fun experience, for sure.”
Scheierman is doing the rookie thing, trying to be a sponge around a bunch of veterans with championship experience. But his preparation started well before camp.
“I think from summer league to now I spent a lot of time on my body, working on my body, trying to put on a lot of lean mass,” he said. “I’ve been able to gain 10-15 pounds in that area. Also just working on my shot, continuing to tune up things, try to get it off quicker. I’ve been working with (Celtics assistant) Craig (Luschenat) and Sam Hauser a lot and they’ve been giving me a lot of great tips and tricks to try to do that in the game.”
Scheierman hopes the Midwest connection (he is from Nebraska, Hauser is from Wisconsin) can help guide him through some of the inevitable ups and downs as he enters the league.
“Obviously he’s one of the best shooters in the league and was one of the key parts on the championship team last year,” Scheierman said. “Just working out with him and just seeing, not only on the court, but his routine in general, how he prepares for workouts, what he does after his workouts. In workouts just sharing different tips about how to get your shot off quicker.”
Remaking his body was a team directive, pushing him to add the lean muscle to get him ready for the NBA. Scheierman says the team is happy with his progress far.
“I changed my diet,” he said. “Shout out to Steve in the kitchen, helping me figure out things. It's nice to have the kitchen here, something that I'm able to take advantage of while I'm in the facility, able to get two or three meals in here a day. Then also just taking Creatine, I'm trying to shed off some of that fat.”
The added muscle will help him as he focuses on his defense, too. He knows he won’t sniff the floor if he’s a target for other teams, so the sooner he can figure out how to be better on that end, the better things will be for him. So far, the early returns are positive.
“I thought from Day 1 to Day 2, he made the physical adjustment, and he had some great physical defensive plays today,” Mazzulla said. “So I think that’s the trajectory [you want]. Any young player coming into it, the most important thing is: Can you play defense, can you execute a defensive system and can you rebound? And he got better at that from Day 1.”
ALREADY HITTING THE ROAD
The Celtics leave for Abu Dhabi next week, which is why they have been the only NBA team on the practice floor so far. They face the Denver Nuggets, who had their media day today, next Friday and Sunday. It’s going to be different for the Celtics, but they expect it to be a positive experience.
“You're going to a different culture and you're playing in front of people and there's things that -- there's obligations that you have to do,” Holiday said. “I feel like a lot of times in training camp and preseason, it's about locking into the team, focusing in on that and staying in one place and kind of going through the grind together. Kind of sharing that with a whole another country, a whole another place, eight-hour difference. So I think that's a really good thing."
Playing preseason games in Abu Dhabi won’t be a new experience for Holiday, who was there with the Bucks in 2022.
“It was fun,” he said. “It's fun to immerse yourself in something new to be a part of something bigger than yourself and get to know a completely different culture. I think that it builds character. I think it builds for the rest of the season. If it is adversity, we're going to a different place. It was a team that we're going to play against. But also we still want to take this seriously, even though it's going to be another road trip. You can always grow from it."
Of course, Mazzulla isn’t looking at the trip as any kind of challenge for the team.
“Who cares? It’s not really a challenge, you just adjust accordingly,” he said. “Throughout a season, you deal with that, as well. You get started a little earlier when you travel. So it’s not much different. It’ll affect what we do in that short space — the day we land, the next day. But as far as the whole, it doesn’t change the curriculum or the things that we have to work or the things that we have to get better at. It just adjusts a couple of the decisions that you make in a short-term period.”