Simone: Freedom will guide these Celtics, and their season has already begun

BRIGHTON -- Media Day is always a bit awkward. Reporters sit in a room for hours as the Boston Celtics hoist player after player onto the podium at the front of the room.

On Monday afternoon, Brad Stevens was first. Joe Mazzulla followed. Then came a long lineup of players. It's quite the endeavor, and most of the answers feel a bit more media-trained than usual.

Post-game, players are feeding off the adrenaline rush of the game. The locker room allows for more of a conversation and less question-peppering. Even scrums are a bit more informational, as the lack of a stage and microphone creates a less formal environment.

Think about it. The Celtics have been in the gym all summer. They haven't stopped doing their jobs, and reporters haven't stopped theirs, either. The interactions just halted. So, when Media Day comes around, players have already had months to think about and prepare their answers.

Most questions are relatively generic, because that's what the schtick is. What have you been up to this summer? What's it been like hanging out with new teammates? How are things going to look in the post-Jaylen Brown world? Okay, that last one is pretty specific to this year's situation.

It's hard to glean much from Media Day, just like it's hard to get much information from an introductory press conference. Everything feels so corporate. So predictable. So planned.

In a way, it's a perfect chance to knock the question-asking rust off. Because with how media-ready the players are, it can be difficult to get an answer that actually digs deep. That actually reveals something in the realm of the unknown. And that should always be the goal: To learn something.

So, I went into Media Day with one goal in mind: Figure out as much as possible about what these Celtics will look like on the court. But what began as a quest to learn about basketball slowly shifted into a blend of on-court expectations and team mindset.

The Celtics are famously tight-lipped. Stevens gives great answers, but he's always subtly playing the game. Mazzulla plays the game in the open. Most players lean on their media training and rarely share much about what's going on behind the scenes.

But if you read between the lines, Media Day provided more information than usual. More than just Mitchell Robinson's delightful personality finally being unveiled to the Celtics faithful.

First was Stevens. Assessing the link between the financial world and the on-court world in decision-making. He talked about the same short-term versus long-term debacle that he mentioned in his post-Brown trade presser, but he also dropped a gem:

"It's not just who you bring in; it's also what guys can step into new roles and what guys can do to take the next step in their ability to impact [winning]," Stevens said. "And oftentimes that happens because you're younger and you get better; sometimes it happens because there's movement within the roster that allows for more opportunity.”

What does this reveal? What "unknown" does this actually provide a deeper look into? It connects to the Brown trade and the other moves Boston made this summer.

Clearly, Boston sees more in its players than the outside world. 'Sometimes, there's movement within the roster that allows for more opportunity' is Stevens-speak for 'We believe we have players capable of doing more than their past roles have entailed.'

Payton Pritchard could take on a larger role. As could the young wing group: Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Ron Harper Jr. The Celtics see something in their depth. They think they can do more than they've already been doing.

And perhaps just as importantly, they don't just see depth as an advantage, but rather an unavoidable necessity. If you want to win in today's NBA, you need depth.

"I think that most coaches would tell you, especially when I was in college, would be like, 'I'm good with seven or eight guys, and we can figure out how to navigate it with the rest,' Stevens said. "But that's just not the way you can win in this league. So, I'm really interested to see how the depth not only is utilized as an advantage, but is also like, there's going to have to be some sacrificing at that level, for guys that have tasted a little bit of success at different times throughout the year."

Every single player on the Celtics' roster is going to get a chance to play. That's how Boston rolled last year, and that's how it's going to roll heading into this season. The Celtics truly roll 16 deep right now.

Only five can be on the court at a time. Usually, only around 10-12 in a game, and even that's stretching it. So the Celtics' staff has from now until October 20 to figure out how to most effectively utilize those 16 (soon to be 17) players.

"How can we take advantage of the strengths and the talent that we have?" Mazzulla said. "How can we take advantage of the offseason and the work that the guys have put in to become better players, and  turn that into an offensive and a defensive philosophy? I don't know that I have that answer on day one. I think your team naturally grows, and you're always learning about your team. 

"And so, I think that's the point of training camp. Is, by the end of training camp, can we have a clear establishment of what our identity is as a team and what we look like on both ends of the floor? And then develop new ones as the season goes on based on the challenges that the season presents.”

It's impossible to know how a team will play together until they play together. "I guess the easiest answer is just we'll wait and see," Sam Hauser laughed. But, of course, Mazzulla enjoys the unknown.

"I always get excited about that because there's risk to the unknown, but there's also opportunity in the unknown," Mazzulla said. "What we can become, what we have to go through to get to where we want to get to. So I would say I'm inspired and motivated by the unknown more than anything else because I don't know what we could be."

That's why adapting throughout a season is important. It's all about learning on the fly and figuring things out together.

“I think it's just around personnel," Jayson Tatum said. "You can have an idea of how you want to play, and there are some base-level, fundamental ways of obviously playing this game at a high level. But just, it's on ourselves, and obviously the coaches, just understanding the group that we have, and playing to our strengths, and putting guys in the right places to be successful individually and to make our team better.”

Yet there are hidden factors to planning a season. You can look at a roster and believe in the analytics. The film. Past game tape. You can try to build an entire game plan on what you think you know. But that will only get you so far.

Mazzulla shed some light on factors most people don't consider. As silly and simple as it may sound, opponents are the biggest of the bunch. How other teams play has an obvious affect on how the Celtics should play. But they can't learn about that until the season begins.

“I think the part that doesn't get talked about enough is what the opponent and the league is doing," Mazzulla said. "I mean, you have no idea of that. And obviously, your opponent and the league dictate what you're able to do. You want to obviously do your best to stay ahead of the trends. From a trend standpoint around the league, where's the game headed? What are you trying to accomplish? How can you stay ahead of that? At the same time, you are relatively a product of what the defense and offense allow you to do at that particular moment. 

"So you want to have your identities, but at the same time, you have to be flexible towards what your opponent is giving you, what they're allowing to happen, and where the league is headed. So, I think that's why you learn that over the course of the season. So, I'd say that's the other piece is, the opponent doesn't get enough credit for their ability to impact what you have to do, and that tension of how you want to impose your will versus you know they have a choice, and how do you respond to that?”

All those questions trying to reach into the Celtics' bag of tricks. Trying to gather as much information as possible. Yet not much about the actual on-court tactics.

That information is almost impossible to gather, especially without the in-game evidence to back up questions and answers. But we now know more about Boston's philosophy. About its belief in its players' ability to do more next season. About the difficulties of game-planning before the games begin.

Again, it's all about reading between the lines. Trying to decipher what almost always seems to be roundabout answers meant to keep game plans secretive.

Yet during Paul George's introductory press conference, there was a small tidbit worth expanding upon. And Media Day provided the expansion. This was George a couple of weeks ago:

"It always just felt like they were a step ahead, right?" George said. "And I feel that's kind of how I've always played the game from a cerebral standpoint of kind of seeing plays develop, seeing actions happen, being selfless with giving myself up, whether it's a pass and a cut or a screen away. Just kind of that open concept. I think [that's] where I can fit in and really thrive in a system like this. So, that's kind of where I saw Boston from afar, and then, now being here, it's where I see I can really thrive in. So, I guess being excited to be in kind of a system like this."

Freedom. That's how the Celtics are going to play. The talent is so spread out that anyone can do anything. Plenty of capable ball-handlers. Capable shooters. Capable cutters. Capable defenders, on and off the ball.

"I think it'll be pretty free-flowing," Hauser said of how Boston will play next year. 

“Yeah, I think we're just gonna hoop," Scheierman said. "We got a lot of guys that understand how to play, and there's gonna be a lot of freedom of movement, and I think that fits my game really well."

"I think we're gonna play with more movement. Hopefully we play a little bit faster," Pritchard said. "I know, I think in pace we might have been bottom of the league. So get a little bit faster, and it's partly on some of us, partly on me to get the ball out, push the pace, and yeah. So everybody should take a jump."

“I feel like they're going to play really well. I feel like JT gonna do his thing, PG gonna do his," Mitchell Robinson said. "Those teams, I mean, when I first got here, the connection that they already had, I'm just like, damn, like this is crazy. The chemistry they already got and stuff like that. I just want to add what I did in New York. The dirty work. The grit and grint. And so I'm just ready to go.”

Scheierman talked about potentially taking on more on-ball reads. Gonzalez seems primed to do more on the court. Tatum, George, Pritchard, and Derrick White will all run the offense at times. Everyone is ready to support each other in that regard.

“Obviously, JT is the guy. I'm here to support him in all facets," George said. "I've always prided myself on not just being able to do one thing. Kind of wearing whatever hat that I needed to, while still producing at a high level."

Boston has no shortage of capable offensive players, and it sounds like keeping the ball moving will be a major emphasis this season. The offense will be full of player freedom.

And even though reporters were in the building for the first time on Monday, the players have already been gelling. Robinson was impressed by Boston's chemistry for a reason. The Celtics never stop building it. 

"I stay in Boston for the summer. It's kind of home now," Pritchard said. "So, right when the first guys, young ones, come into the gym in mid-August, I would say I'm in there playing with them. So, most guys will come in in September, the beginning of September. We start playing, probably scrimmaging about three times a week. But since August, yeah, I've been in here scrimmaging, working out, trying to set the tone."

The Celtics have been in the gym all offseason. The Auerbach Center has been a second home. "I stuck around for most of the summer," Harper said. "Y'all know I'm from Jersey, so going home is nothing but a car ride to me. So I can always just hop in the car, go home whenever. But I tried to stay around here in the summer with my PD, Da'Sean Butler, and just keep continuing to work on my game. But the last few weeks have been great. 

"We've been in the gym, playing pickup, working out, laughing together, just getting to know each other, and just, you get to learn somebody best through competition. So the pickup sessions have been great. They're really competitive. They're really fun. And we're gonna have a great year. We're all looking forward to getting on there and sharing the court together, as opposed to playing against each other."

Vacations were had, and necessary breaks were taken, but the Celtics got back to work as soon as possible. Pritchard undoubtedly welcomed the rookies to the league with some games of pick-up, and next year, he's looking to take on even more of a leadership role.

"It's looking at every team and finding a way [of] how I can best help the team be successful. A step I think I can make is the leadership role, and you talked about it: Being in so many different positions, and how did I grow from?" Pritchard said. "I can talk to these younger guys or talk to people and be like, 'Just be great at the role given, and that's how you lead to more.' 

"And that's what leads to the success of the team is everybody playing their role at a very high level. So for me, it's a long season. I'll figure it out, and I'll try to be as successful as possible and help the team win. But yeah, it's just that's the same mindset I go with every year."

So, again, what began as a pursuit to figure out what the new-look Celtics will look like on the court ended in a philosophy lesson and behind-the-scenes peek into how Boston operates.

How Mazzulla and Stevens view roster-building in 2026. How freedom-infused the offense will be. How chemistry has been, and is, at the forefront of what the Celtics are building.

Sure, many of the responses were media-trained, but that's why asking the right questions matters even more on a day like Monday. And throughout training camp, there will be plenty more opportunities to dig deeper.