Things felt different when the Celtics gathered for their annual media day at the Auerbach Center on Monday. A year ago, they were still basking in the glow of finally raising Banner 18, focused on going back-to-back while bringing back 15 of the 17 players from that championship roster.
This time, after an offseason defined by payroll cuts to duck the NBA’s daunting second-apron restrictions, the room looked much different. New faces filled the Auerbach Center, and instead of talk about repeating, the tone shifted to patience and optimism for what lies ahead.
Here are the takeaways.
In-house, they are not worried about the outside noise
Boston’s win total is set at 40.5, their lowest since the 2014-15 season. With Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis traded, Luke Kornet and Al Horford gone in free agency, and Jayson Tatum sidelined indefinitely while recovering from a ruptured Achilles, five of Boston’s top nine minute-getters from the past two seasons—including members of the 2024 championship team—won’t be on the floor this year.
As a result, sportsbooks, pundits, and fans have tempered their expectations, but that hasn’t added an ounce of motivation for the Celtics or head coach Joe Mazzulla.
“If I ever get to the point where I start basing my motivation on the expectation of others and people that I've never met before, I'll retire and quit,” said Mazzulla. “To me, it's like you wake up every day and you have a standard and an expectation for your family, for your household, and then when you come in for the building, regardless of who's on the team, that will never change. It doesn't guarantee you anything, but I think you have to be able to push yourself. You've got to be able to hold yourself to a standard that's not only at home, but that's when you come to work every day. That's really the focus, I think, is not allowing others to put expectations on you, but if you don't have high expectations for yourself, you're not going to get to where you want to get to. Every season picks up a life of its own. Every journey is different, every team is different, and I think you have to kind of look into that as you head into any season.”
President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens, all too familiar with overlooked Celtics teams, has repeatedly said he won’t put a ceiling on this group. He echoed that again on Monday.
“I’m interested to see it, and we’re just going to evaluate it these first few months and see how it looks, see how it comes together,” he said. “Be patient with the fact that we are getting some new guys together, but at the same time, be very optimistic, not limit us, and don’t put a ceiling on us.”
Anfernee Simons discusses trade, improving his defense
For the first time since being traded for Jrue Holiday more than three months ago, Anfernee Simons addressed the move that ended his seven-year tenure in Portland, where he was drafted 24th overall in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft.
“I was super excited for the opportunity to come here and join a culture that’s already been set,” Simons said. “It’s something that was going to help my career out tremendously, just playing at the highest level of winning basketball. That’s what I was excited about.”
When Simons was first traded, it was unclear whether he’d stick with the team or become another cost-cutting move with his expiring $27.6 million contract. But as training camp begins, he’s still in Boston and appears poised to play a pivotal role on a retooled Celtics roster.
“He’s an electric scorer. He is an outstanding shooter. He is a guy that teams will legitimately be thinking about when he enters the game. That's a scouting report, asterisk guy. You have to know him inside and out because he's liable to go off,” said Stevens. “His passing has been pretty good throughout his career, and his ability to create and see. You hope, as a guy gets to be 26 years old, that he continues to grow in all those areas. We're really going to challenge him to be himself. Number one, be aggressive. And just try to grow and accentuate the people around him on both ends of the court.”
Here are some numbers on Simons, who averaged 19.3 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.7 rebounds in the 70 games (all starts) he played in Portland last season. He led the team in scoring a team-high 28 times and in assists a team-high 31 times. He is a career 38.1% three-point shooter. He has shot at least 36% in each of the last five seasons.
Last year, he made a career-high 215 three-pointers, making him one of just 20 players to make at least 200 threes. He shot 36.3% on 8.5 attempts per game, which would have ranked third on the Celtics last season behind just Tatum (10.5) and Derrick White (9.1). Furthermore, from the start of the new year through the end of the season, he averaged 3.4 made threes per game, the fifth most in the league during that span among players with at least 30 games played behind only Stephen Curry (4.6), Anthony Edwards (4.1), Malik Beasley (3.9), and White (3.5). He shot 38.2% over that stretch.
He’s made at least 200 threes in two of the last three seasons, joining Damian Lillard as the only players in Trail Blazers history with 200+ made threes in multiple seasons.
Seems pretty good, right?
Where Simons has more to prove is on the defensive end. It’s an area the 26-year-old is committed to improving, and one where he should benefit from the guidance of Joe Mazzulla, whose Celtics have ranked second, second, and fourth in defensive rating during his three seasons as head coach.
“It’s just a matter of if I want to do it or not. It's really that simple. Coming into a culture like this, you have to be able to adapt, or you’re not going to be in the position you want to be. To me, it’s really that simple, and that’s the honest conversations [Mazzulla and I] had about it. He always says that you’re not as bad as people think you are. That’s good to hear, but I also have to do the work of getting better at that end and get focused on exactly what we need to do on the defensive end. I’m pretty excited about being pushed to a new level, which I can reach.”
Mazzulla says he is excited to get to work with Simons.
“I’m excited to have him,” Mazzulla said. “He’s been in this league a long time, and he’s shown that he can do some things and just brings another piece to our team, to our roster. And again, the message is the same. Don’t put yourself in a box about how you can impact the game.”
Joe Mazzulla has a special relationship with his players
Joe Mazzulla has built a special bond with his players. He makes it a point of emphasis to connect with each one, and a few of those connections came to light on Monday.
Chris Boucher, signed by the Celtics in August, was recently baptized, with Mazzulla there to support him. Mazzulla has also been by Jayson Tatum's side throughout his rehab process.
“It's your responsibility as a coach to be there for you guys. So, whenever I could lift with him, whenever I could be there for treatment, whenever I could rebound for him, I think it was important to do that. As a guy who's going through stuff, you have to know that going through it together, I think that's a piece that's important. So I was there for the first time he walked. I was there for the first time he ran. I was there for the first shots that he took,” Mazzulla said on supporting Tatum through he rehab process. “You try to do that for everybody. One of the things in the off-season that I like to do is build different relationships with the guys and do different things. So each guy has their own way about how you go about doing that.”
The effort doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Man, it’s amazing. He’s inspiring, truthfully. He’s a little bit of a weirdo. But he’s a great dude. He’s someone who inspires, like, passion. He’s definitely someone that —man, just from the month-and-a-half of knowing him, I feel like I’d run through a wall for him, truthfully,” said Josh Minott. “He just has that effect on people. He takes a lot of time, like personalizing his relationships with people. He doesn't talk to any two people the same way, because he understands that we're all different, and it's just a blessing to be able to play for him.”
“Just the fact that they showed that I'm family, brotherhood,” said Boucher. “It’s not easy to move in and start over again. But Joe really helped me with that. Brad, too. It’s been a really, really, really warm welcome.”
Speaking of Tatum’s recovery, he says he is in a “great spot”
On Saturday, Jayson Tatum shared footage of himself going through a basketball workout, a remarkable sight just 20 weeks after rupturing his Achilles.
“I’m in a really good spot,” he said. “It just felt really good to be on the court, dribbling the basketball, going through a workout. Just felt like a basketball player again.”
Tatum stressed there’s no pressure to rush his return, though he hasn’t ruled it out.
“No pressure, I’ve stated that,” Tatum said. “There’s no pressure to return back any sooner than when I’m 100% healthy. No pressure from Brad, Joe (Mazzulla), the team, the organization. The most important thing is that I’m 100% recovered and healthy whenever I do come back.”
Brad Stevens is excited for the” unproven” guys
Luka Garza has logged just 973 total minutes over four NBA seasons, averaging 7.8 per game. Josh Minott has played only 463 minutes in three years, averaging 5.0 per game. Baylor Scheierman appeared in just 31 games as a rookie, averaging 12.4 minutes, and Jordan Walsh has totaled 486 minutes across two seasons. Hugo Gonzalez is a 19-year-old rookie.
Brad Stevens is banking on the upside of these players, hoping they can develop into key complementary pieces, following in the footsteps of Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet, who grew into rotation contributors on a championship team.
“I'm excited for the guys as a whole, but I'm really excited for the guys that are unproven,” Stevens said. “And when I say ‘unproven,’ I’m not buying into any narrative of what they have been. We look at what they can do. Can you take what they're capable of and make it an every-night, consistent thing? And when you have a chip on your shoulder, when you're competitive, and when you're motivated because you haven't gotten opportunities yet, some really good things can happen.”
A new style of play?
Brad Stevens alluded to the need for the Celtics to play with more pace earlier this summer. With so much roster turnover, the team has to adapt and play to the strengths of the group. And for this roster, it looks like they’re aiming for exactly what Stevens hinted at: pace.
“I definitely think we need to adapt,” Payton Pritchard said. “We do not have the same team, a lot of different players. I think we need to play a lot faster. It’s a great opportunity for some of the new faces to come in here and show what they’re capable of doing and helping winning. But yeah, we’re definitely going to have to.”
Last season, the Celtics were 29th in PACE (number of possessions per 48 minutes), ahead of only Orlando.
“I think we’re going to play faster, get out and run,” Derrick White said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that like to play fast and like to get out in transition, so try to get out and run. And then defensively, just try to be pests, try to create turnovers, which kind of helps our offense. So try to get out, run, try to wear teams down, and just be highly competitive.”
Ratcheting up the speed could also alter substitution patterns, with the Celtics leaning toward a hockey-style approach.
“I feel like in the past it’s been a lot of swing the ball, stand still, watch [Tatum] iso, watch [Brown] iso, and set a ball screen to iso,” Walsh said. “I think that what Joe wants is it to be more of a five-in, five-out type of rotation, where we’re all going super-hard for four or five minutes and switch out and come in with a new five and fight, fight, fight for four or five minutes.”
Jaylen Brown isn’t buying into the storylines
One of the biggest storylines for the Celtics this season is whether Jaylen Brown can step into the “1A” role with Jayson Tatum sidelined. The four-time All-Star and 2024 Eastern Conference and NBA Finals MVP, however, isn’t letting that chatter affect him.
“To be honest, I feel like in the past, the outside voices, I would be lying if I said they didn't motivate me because they did. At this stage in my life, I’m not sure if I gain motivation from that,” Brown said. “I feel like, maybe the narrative that we have grown to see like the one option or whatever the case may be, to me, that's never really been a thing. I think that's just only — basketball, it’s not like that. People who know the game know that any given night, anything could happen, etc., and then, like you have number one options on offense, but you also have number one options on defense and stuff like that. We only focus on the offensive side of basketball, but what about defense? People who are purists of the game know how important defense is. It’s equally as important as offense, if not more. But we only really care about the entertainment, about the highlights, the setbacks, the offense part, but you know, the number one option has to do a lot with defense as well.”
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