The Boston Celtics practiced on Tuesday ahead of their season-opening game tomorrow night against the Milwaukee Bucks. Brad Stevens, Daniel Theis, and Payton Pritchard spoke to the media. Here’s what they had to say.
Kemba Walker “a long way away”
It’s hard to measure Kemba Walker’s progress right now. He was never supposed to be ready this week, and it’s possible things can progress quickly as the strengthening program advances.
“Kemba is on the court doing one on one stuff with a coach,” Stevens said after practice. “Still no up and down, no cutting, no one else on the basket. So, still a long way away.”
What’s a “long way?” Could be a few weeks. Could be more. This feels like a weekly question for Stevens.
Tristan Thompson “hopeful” for tomorrow
Stevens said Thompson “looked fine” after going through a full practice today. That doesn’t necessarily mean he and his strained hamstring are ready for tomorrow. It also doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t be either.
“Him and the training staff will get together and figure that out,” Stevens said. “And then they’ll tell me, and then we’ll probably — you and I may know at the same time or maybe we’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see but we’re hopeful that he will play, but that’s still to be determined by them.”
So…. about those Milwaukee Bucks
The Celtics haven’t looked good yet and now they get to host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks tomorrow night.
Yay.
“When you first look at the schedule, you look at how challenging the first couple of months are, and obviously it starts right out of the gate with this really really good Milwaukee team,” Stevens said. “So you’re going to learn a lot about yourself first and foremost. And I think that there’s a positive in that.”
He’s not wrong. Even if the Celtics come out, play hard, and get shellacked, they’ll at least know how good they really are. There’s nothing like a big, fat dose of reality smacking you across the face right away. It’d be like using a bucket of ice water as an alarm clock.
The Celtics aren’t as bad as they looked this preseason, though. They are shorthanded and learning how to play with a new group of guys, but they aren’t bad. They just have no margin for error right now.
“We’re going to have to be great with our shot selection, because then that allows you to have a chance to set your defense against one of the best transition teams in the game,” Stevens said. “And then we’re gonna have to be great defensively at being solid in our system. Because if you’re not, they just exploit you over and over. They obviously present a ton of problems. I think they’re very very talented. Adding Holiday is a big big addition for them. So we’ll learn a lot about ourselves for sure.”
And this is the focus right now for Boston. Stevens will try to match up some against Antetokounmpo, but the priority is for the Celtics to do what they’re supposed to do and do that all well.
“We’ve still got a way to go. We’ve got to find our rhythm,” Daniel Theis said. “Tristan has got to find his spot to play with JT, JB, all those guys. He’s been in the league a while and has had great players he’s played with. But obviously, different system and everything, so he’ll probably need some time too. After we’re done with our preseason games, we have a lot to improve. Our main focus is just on us, not who we play, against who we play, any player. The team, it’s just about us right now.”
Going inside-out
Brad Stevens is really emphasizing attacking the paint. He was asked again about Marcus Smart’s shot selection and he broadened the answer out to speak more generally about the offense.
“We need to increase our efficiency. We need to become more efficient. That’s a big part of the next step as you progress through a career individually and as a team, so by saying that, we need to get to the rim, we need to get to the foul line, and/or we need to probe for great inside-out open 3s,” he said.
Stevens has placed a heavy emphasis on the inside-out 3-pointers. I personally don’t recall him saying that phrase much but it has been a constant refrain. He wants the Celtics to attack the paint and get their 3-pointers on catch-and-shoot kick-outs.
“Obviously, there will be times that you have to make individual plays that look more like home runs, but in a lot of cases, that’s just having the poise as a team to seek great shots and to maybe turn one down early that turns into a great one late,” he said. “Those are things you have to do. And at the same time, you can’t be a hesitant player, you can’t play without confidence, and one of the reasons why we’ve been in the position we’ve been in from a good standpoint the last few years is we’re fearless. And one of the areas we need to improve is being able to be fearless and still take one more ball reversal or one more paint touch to find a great shot or a better shot for our team.”
This has been one of my main sticking points on the Locked On Celtics podcast (embedded at the end). The Celtics very often settle for the first good look they get, a problem that especially plagued them in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The argument can be made that the shots are open and they are therefore good shots, but attacking one more time and getting another ball reversal can get an even more open shot or possibly result in a foul. At the very least, it can force the defense to work a bit and tire the other team out.
Stevens is REALLY focused on this. We’ll see how it plays out this season.
The war on Theis
Theis is known for being the, ummm, victim of some questionable officiating. He says he can’t get caught up in the frustration of tough calls.
“It just can’t affect my game. Referees are also just human; they’re going to make mistakes,” he said. “And it’s good when referees at least talk to you on the court and maybe when they have a bad call or something in the first half, or they just make a call, and they look at it at halftime and they come out of halftime and tell you if it was a foul or it wasn’t. This helps a lot for a player, too, just the communication.”
What’s funny is Theis has perfected a seal in the lane that has sprung players, Jayson Tatum especially, for easy layups, and if he does it slightly wrong, it’s a foul (it’s not as long as he keeps his hands up). Still, there’s no doubt he gets the short end of the whistle a lot.
“For me it’s just staying focused on the game. I can’t get like too focused on a call like that or on a foul that I think wasn’t or was,” he said. “For me it’s just trying to make it easy for the refs, trying to show my hands more, hands back, and don’t give them any opportunity to call a foul.”
Pritchard cool with pressure to win
Joining the Celtics bring immediate pressure to be a winner. Payton Pritchard says he’s cool with that.
“Honestly, it’s what I’m used to. I never went to a program that wasn’t about winning,” the Celtics rookie said. “When I started in high school, we won four straight titles, state titles, so obviously there was never a year that we didn’t think. College, my first year we went to the Final Four, and every year we had high expectations to win the Pac 12 and make a deep run. For me, and obviously this is a different level, but, for me, I’m experienced in that. And I want to be part of a culture and organization like this that takes winning serious and wants to win every year. It’s what I’m used to. So I’m glad to be here.”
That’s good timing for Pritchard then, because after three trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, Celtics fans are itching for more.
“When you coach in Boston and you play in Boston, there’s one goal that never changes year to year,” Stevens said. “Each team is different, and we’ll see if we get good enough to be in that conversation. We certainly haven’t been yet, but you shouldn’t be two or three weeks in. But we have a long, long way to go to be in that conversation.”
The Celtics have a chance with some seriously improved play, guys accepting their roles and living up to them, and a mid-season move with the TPE. Until then, even rookies like Pritchard have to find a way to contribute.
“To me, coming in with the intensity, a grit, bringing it on both ends of the floor, the tempo, when I have the ball in my hands bringing tempo, when I don’t moving, ready to space the floor or knock down shots,” he said. “Really just coming in with the intensity on defense and trying to bring a spark.”
Pritchard <3 Dwyane Wade
This might not be great news to Celtics fans, but a Celtics rival was once Pritchard’s favorite player.
“My guy growing up was D-Wade. Huge Dwyane Wade fan. Wore No. 3 growing up because of him,” Pritchard said. “That’s kinda the reason I fell in love with basketball in the first place. As far as guys, D-Wade is retired now so as far as guys I look forward to playing against, I mean, there’s so many talented players that, just looking forward to the challenge of seeing where I’m at as a basketball player and helping the Boston Celtics win. I’ll be looking forward to playing Portland just because that’s my hometown and looked up to Damian Lillard, unbelievable player. A game like that I’ll probably look forward to.”
Lillard is a great role model for any young player. As great as he’s been, he’s probably still a little underrated.
As for Wade, well, pre-dirty player Wade was actually a fun player to watch. “Flash” was great with how much he threw caution to the wind. His heel turn was unfortunate, because it turned him off to a lot of fans, but I can see why a hustler like Pritchard would like what Wade brought to the game.
You can hear more on the Celtics on the latest Locked On Celtics podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on Google, Apple, Stitcher, or Spotify, or wherever else podcasts exist.
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