BRIGHTON -- Joe Mazzulla has always been big on connectivity. He builds bonds with his players and helps them do the same with each other (and the coaching staff).
Last summer, he went to Montreal for Chris Boucher's baptism. This summer, he was in Omaha with Baylor Scheierman. Spain with Hugo Gonzalez. Portugal with Neemias Queta. Nashville with Mitchell Robinson.
Tuesday was the first time the Celtics were officially together. Their first full-team meeting. But in reality, Boston has been working toward that connectivity Mazzulla desires for months now.
At Media Day on Monday, Payton Pritchard said that he's been in Boston most of the summer. So has the rest of the team.
"Everybody was here at some point, and for a good amount of time," Luka Garza said before practice on Tuesday morning. "So, it's cool when you can have that."
Somebody is always at The Auerbach Center. Two full-size basketball courts. A state-of-the-art weight room. A film room. All the physical therapy and training facilities a player could ever need. And a seemingly round-the-clock player development staff.
Craig Luschenat is the head of player development in Boston. Ron Harper Jr. shouted out Da'Sean Butler, who he has been working with all summer. Nana Foulland. God Shammgod Jr. Countless other coaches, all of whom could claim The Auerbach Center as their legal second residency, especially in the summer months.
"We have one of the best staffs in the league, so really as hands-off as possible, allowing them to [with] Craig, our head of player development, and our PD guys do a great job," Mazzulla said. "Summer League head coach does a great job of setting that, so trying to stay out of it as much as we can. Just give the guys the empowerment and the responsibility to grow, and I think they're great."
If a player wants to get a workout in, a coach will be there with them. Luschenat has custom plans for everyone. And every player has a designated coach who works through it with them.
By the letter of the law, players don't have to be back in Boston until Media Day. That's their first real obligation of the season. But that's not real. It's just like how you can score with the shot clock off when you're up 20 points. But you shouldn't. It's an unwritten rule: You get to work early in Boston.
"I mean, you don't got to be here until Media Day if you don't want to be," Jordan Walsh said. "That's just the standard that everybody's set for themselves. Obviously, everybody has different times. Like, I didn't get here at the same time PG did. PG didn't get here at the same time Mitchell did. Everybody has a different schedule, but the earlier you are here, usually the younger you are.
"The older you get, the longer summers you get. But when it's time to come and compete and play and be here, as you can see, everybody's here. Everybody's ready to ready to play. Nobody's slacking behind, so that's what matters."
It's not just workouts, either. The Celtics aren't just doing shooting drills and lifting weights together. They're playing. Constant scrimmages. Chances to improve their play in an in-game setting.
"It's been really, really competitive," Walsh said. "Actually, I think I would say it's one of our better summers for sure. I would say there's a lot of guys that came to compete every day, and the scrimmages that we played, we've played seven-game series in a day or eight-game series, nine, whatever it is in a day. And so, every guy showing up for every single game and then playing as hard as you can, really respecting the game in a way, and I think that kind of is a statement to the staff as well."
Walsh claims that he's been winning those series: "Yeah, for sure. Most of the time." But regardless, it's about as high-level a competitive environment a player could ask for outside of an actual NBA game.
Pritchard, Harper, Walsh, Garza, and every other member of the Celtics competing against each other in full-court runs. All summer. And once September hit, the number of people in the gym only grew in consistency.
"I think there's just a lot of motivation to become the most connected team possible," Garza said. "You just see that from every guy on the floor. You see that from the coaching staff, and when you have that mindset going into training camp, it's exciting. But we've been working on this before training camp. The months leading up to it, the summer with the other guys, and since I've been back in September, it's just been really, really high focus."
In a way, it's a new Celtics era. Jaylen Brown is gone. An organizational staple for a decade, now with the Philadelphia 76ers. But as Mazzulla notes every year around this time, every team is different.
He said so last year, after the Celtics traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and lost Al Horford and Luke Kornet. He even said it the year prior, when the Celtics brought back nearly their entire roster.
This year, there are new faces. Paul George. Mike Conley. Robinson. The rookies. And Mazzulla is doing even more to ensure that the team is connected better than ever before. That's what the very first team meeting was about:
"He was just talking to us about things that he wanted to change, and he felt like we fell short of the last five years," Walsh said. "There's some things he wants to work on, like just making the team stick more, a little bit of relationship between each guy."
"It was about being the most connected team possible," Garza said. "If we can do that, then we're going to put ourselves in a great position. And so, I think there [were] a bunch of details and different things that we're going to do to reach towards that. I think it started yesterday with that."
But Boston is doing more than just getting in the gym: They're taking a trip. For the first time in a long time, the Celtics will be traveling for part of training camp. They're headed to South Carolina next week.
"I think the last time we did it was maybe eight, nine years ago in Newport," Mazzulla said. "Just, I thought it was a good opportunity, getting a bunch of new guys. Just trying to get away for a couple days. Build our togetherness and mentality in a little bit of a different environment. Something we hadn't done in a while, so I thought it was a good time to do that."
Being in Boston all summer was merely the beginning. A trip to South Carolina is only the next step. The Celtics want to be connected all year. Through the ups and downs. Wins and losses. Because if they can do that, if they can stay together off the court, then their job on the court becomes so much easier.