Celtics Notes: Pritchard, Queta, White, Brown, Tillman
After a subpar performance in Saturday’s loss at Minnesota, Celtics guard Payton Pritchard was thankful to have a chance to redeem himself the next day, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Pritchard responded with one of his best shooting nights of the season, finishing with 42 points while connecting at 15-of-22 from the field and sinking six three-pointers in a victory at Cleveland.
“I just wanted to come out tonight after a disappointing night before and kind of redeem myself and help the team win,” he said. “Hopefully I can continue this and catch a rhythm. I’m not saying every night’s going to be scoring, but be efficient and help the team win.”
Pritchard carried the offense despite being in foul trouble for much of the game. He made an early statement by drilling his first three-pointer nine seconds into the contest, then contributed 15 points in the fourth quarter as Boston held off a late Cavaliers rally. He helped to secure the 117-115 victory with a pair of late free throws.
“I’m a competitor and sitting in my room last night and this morning, you can either fold and give into it,” Pritchard told reporters before the game. “But for me, today I’m going to come out and give everything I’ve got and not second guess anything. I’m going to treat it like it’s a summer day in the gym, just me.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Neemias Queta and Derrick White were both given the night off to recover from injuries with Boston playing the second game of a back-to-back and entering a busy part of its schedule, Washburn states in a separate story. Queta has a sprained left ankle, and White is dealing with a right calf contusion. The Celtics have games Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and coach Joe Mazzulla indicated that more rotation players could be rested during that stretch. “I think that’s where we talk about playing everybody comes into play and, you know, just relying on the depth of those, especially the young guys,” he said. “So that’s why I think it’s important everyone comes into the game ready to impact. And so that’s the case (Sunday). I think it will be over the next week or so, and points in time throughout the season. So trying to make that a strength of ours, just, you know, by the guys that we have available.”
- Jaylen Brown has been frustrated by a lack of free throw attempts, Washburn adds. Brown entered Sunday’s game eighth in the league in scoring at 28.8 PPG, but he was 27th in free throw rate at 6.3 per night. Mazzulla said he supports Brown’s position, but won’t be submitting tape to the league to show examples of non-calls.
- With Queta unavailable, Xavier Tillman delivered nine points, six rebounds, three steals and a block in his first start of the season, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. It was a rare appearance for Tillman, who had only played one five-minute stint during the previous 11 games. “X is the ultimate professional,” Mazzulla said. “Whether he plays every game or he misses 10 games, I have a level of trust that he’s going to go out there and he’s going to execute and he’s going to do exactly what we want. That’s really hard to do in this league. You can’t take a guy like that for granted. He works. He’s always ready.”
Injury Notes: Brown, Nembhard, Porzingis, MPJ, Pelicans
Star wing Jaylen Brown is questionable to suit up for the Celtics on Saturday in Minnesota, tweets Marc Stein of The Stein Line. Brown, who has appeared in all 18 of Boston’s games thus far in 2025/26, is dealing with lower back spasms.
The 29-year-old has taken on an increased offensive workload with Jayson Tatum out with a torn Achilles tendon. Brown is averaging a career-high 28.2 points per game this season while also contributing 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists per contest.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard has been ruled out of Friday’s game against Washington because of a right quad contusion, relays Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. However, it doesn’t sound like Nembhard’s injury is serious — head coach Rick Carlisle hopes to have the team’s starting point guard back on Saturday vs. Chicago (Twitter link via Dopirak).
- Hawks center Kristaps Porzingis is battling an illness and won’t play in Friday’s matchup vs. Cleveland, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link). While Porzingis has been productive in his first season with Atlanta, availability continues to be an issue — Friday will mark his eighth missed game in the Hawks’ first 20 games of the season.
- Michael Porter Jr. has been a bright spot for the tanking Nets, posting career-best numbers in several statistical categories. However, the 27-year-old forward is out for Friday’s game against Philadelphia due to lower back tightness. Brian Lewis of The New York Post asked Friday evening whether Porter’s injury would result in a short- or long-term absence (Twitter link). “Obviously we’re never going to rush him. His health, body, is the No. 1 priority,” head coach Jordi Fernandez replied. “We’re not concerned…We’ll give an update after the game.”
- In addition to Dejounte Murray (right Achilles rupture), Jordan Poole (left quad strain) and Herbert Jones (right calf strain), the Pelicans will also be without second-year big man Karlo Matkovic (right calf strain) and third-year guard Jordan Hawkins (illness) on Saturday at Golden State, per a team press release. Versatile wing Trey Murphy III, who is dealing with right elbow soreness, is questionable to suit up against the Warriors.
Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Maxey, Embiid, Bona, Demin, Rajakovic
The Celtics held their own without injured star Jayson Tatum through the first month of the 2025/26 season and entered Friday’s game with an 8-7 record. However, hosting the lowly Nets, Boston experienced its most discouraging loss of the season, falling 113-105 to a Brooklyn club whose only two previous wins had come against Indiana and Washington.
As Jay King of The Athletic writes, star wing Jaylen Brown expressed frustration after the game with what he saw from his team, suggesting that Boston’s effort level wasn’t where it needed to be “for the majority of the game.”
“Come ready to play, or don’t play at all,” Brown said. “That’s my whole thing. We’ve gotta come ready to play. We just went through the motions today. Like, I don’t understand it. … Regardless if you’re making or missing shots, regardless of anything, we’ve just got to come out and play with great energy, great enthusiasm for the game. Like, want to win. It just didn’t seem like that was the case tonight.”
“… At the end of the day, we’ve all got a job to do,” Brown continued. “We’re all getting paid to do what we love to do. Come ready to play basketball, or you’re doing a disservice. So everybody’s got to come here and be ready to do their job and have great energy, enthusiasm and want to win. That’s what it’s about at the end of day: Celtic basketball.”
Besides losing Tatum to an Achilles tear that is expected to sideline him for most or all of the 2025/26 season, the Celtics traded away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis over the summer, so there’s less talent on the roster than there has been during the past couple years. As a result, the team can’t afford to take any nights off, head coach Joe Mazzulla told King and other reporters.
“I think it’s true of any basketball team, but I think the margin for error is smaller for certain teams,” Mazzulla said. “And the margin for error is smaller for us. We have to be the best. We have to be sharp physically and mentally every night. We’ve understood that that’s a strength of ours when we’re at our best, and we have to try to play at our best.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Just 24 hours after Paul George told Tony Jones of The Athletic that Tyrese Maxey is the “heart and soul” of the Sixers, the star guard submitted arguably the best performance of his career on Thursday in an overtime win over Milwaukee, with 54 points and nine assists, per Steve Megargee of The Associated Press. Maxey is now the league leader in minutes per game (40.7) and ranks second in scoring (33.4 PPG). “We’re asking him to do so much. We’re asking him to play a ton of minutes and he’s delivering,” George told Jones this week. “… This is similar to what Allen Iverson once did for the city. He’s our battery, and we’re witnessing one of them ones.”
- Joel Embiid still has some soreness in his right knee, but Sixers doctors have determined he’s making positive progress toward a return, tweets Jones. The 76ers also said that big man Adem Bona, who is out with a right ankle sprain, will miss at least two more games, Jones adds.
- Nets lottery pick Egor Demin was benched for the final 20 minutes of a loss to Boston on Tuesday, according to Dan Martin of The New York Post, who notes that the rookie guard was struggling defensively. However, Demin bounced back on Friday, hitting a big three-point shot in the fourth quarter to help Brooklyn secure an upset victory over the divisional rival Celtics, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “He played so hard, and that’s why he earned the right to be out there. And he showed composure,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said after Friday’s win.
- Darko Rajakovic won just 25 and 30 games in his first two years as the Raptors‘ head coach, but he’s making an early case for Coach of the Year consideration this fall, contends Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. While Brandon Ingram‘s arrival and a deeper bench have been difference-makers for the 11-5 Raptors, Rajakovic deserves kudos for integrating Ingram – one of the NBA’s premier isolation scorers – into his “free-flowing” system and getting the most out of that bench, Lewenberg says.
Nikola Jokic, Jalen Johnson Named Players Of The Week
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been named the Western Conference Player of the Week, while Hawks forward Jalen Johnson has won the award in the East, the NBA announced on Monday (via Twitter).
Jokic, who won the weekly honor in the West for the second straight time (19th overall), had another phenomenal week, even by his lofty standards. He led Denver to three road victories, averaging 39.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.7 steals on .737/.643/.889 shooting splits.
Jokic’s week was highlighted by a 55-point outburst against the Clippers in which he recorded 52 points, 11 rebounds and six assists through only three quarters, the first player to have such a stat line through three periods since the NBA began play-by-play tracking in 1997/98, per the Nuggets. He notched another three points and one rebound in two-plus minutes in the fourth, shooting 18-of-23 from the field, 5-of-6 from three, and 14-of-16 from the line in 34 minutes.
The Nuggets have won seven straight games and are currently 10-2, only trailing the 13-1 Thunder in the West. Jokic, a three-time MVP who finished as the runner-up in the two seasons he didn’t win the award over the past five years, is averaging career highs in several statistical categories in 2025/26.
Johnson had a spectacular stretch of games himself in winning his first Player of the Week award. The 23-year-old guided Atlanta to a perfect 4-0 record on the team’s Western Conference road trip, the first time the Hawks have gone undefeated on a West trip spanning at least four games since 1970/71. He averaged 24.0 points, 12.0 rebounds, 9.3 assists and 2.5 steals on .603/.571/.783 shooting.
Johnson had a historic stat line on Thursday in Utah, recording career highs in points (31), rebounds (18), assists (14) and steals (seven), the first player to meet all of those statistical benchmarks in a game since steals became an official stat in ’73/74. The Hawks are now 9-5, tied for the No. 3 seed in the East.
According to the NBA (Twitter link), the other nominees in the West were Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, James Harden, Lauri Markkanen and Alperen Sengun. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Scottie Barnes, Jaylen Brown, Pistons two-way guard Daniss Jenkins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Franz Wagner were nominated in the East.
Celtics Notes: Brown, White, Walsh, Simons
Jaylen Brown believes the officials are making a point against him. The Celtics forward ripped the officiating after a late no-call against Utah on Monday and he felt that played a role in Boston’s loss to Orlando on Friday.
“I think in the fourth quarter, I think the officials made their point,” Brown said, per Jay King of The Athletic. “So I get it. I’ll keep my mouth closed.”
Boston held a one-point lead midway through the fourth quarter on Friday but lost by 13. Brown finished with 32 points but only shot two free throws.
“In the fourth quarter, I missed some good looks that I could have got my feet set just a little bit more,” Brown said. “And then it compounded, turned into some turnovers, and then they scored. For our team, they probably need me to make those shots. I’m human. If I shoot a shot and I feel good about it, I feel good, but you know, I’ve got to be a little better, I guess.”
We have more on the Celtics:
- Should the Celtics have traded Derrick White instead of Jrue Holiday during their salary-shedding offseason? Brian Robb of Masslive.com tackles that question in his latest mailbag. Robb believes that Boston would have gotten a bigger haul for White but that Holiday’s contract would have still been an albatross for the organization. White’s four-year, $118MM contract extension kicked in this season; Holiday, 35, is in the second year of a four-year, $134.4MM deal that includes a player option.
- Swingman Jordan Walsh has gotten some playing time this month, averaging 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per contest. A 2023 second-round pick, Walsh is increasingly gaining coach Joe Mazzulla’s trust. “He just chips away at it,” Mazzulla said, per Robb. “Again, that was a high-level of professionalism to be ready, and he just every day treats it as if he’s going to play. So I think that mindset is kind of what you have to have, and he handled it well, and he’s got to keep that up. But he works at the same pace regardless of if he’s playing or not, and that says a lot.”
- Anfernee Simons, acquired from Portland in the Holiday trade, played sparingly in the first half at Orlando. Simons, who will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, bounced back and contributed 11 fourth-quarter points. “I thought he responded pretty well,” Mazzulla said, per Souichi Terada of Masslive.com. “I thought he was more aggressive in the second half. There was no message there. He just has an understanding of what we have to do on both ends of the floor. I thought he did a much better job of that in the second half.”
Celtics Notes: Simons, Minott, Brown, Gonzalez
Anfernee Simons enjoyed his best game since joining the Celtics in Monday’s win at New Orleans, writes Souichi Terada of MassLive. Boston hasn’t needed Simons to be the primary scorer like he was in Portland, so he has been adjusting to a new role as well as a new team. He delivered a vintage performance against the Pelicans with 25 points off the bench, including six three-pointers, in 32 minutes.
“It’s been for sure a transition, but I’ve been enjoying it,” Simons said (YouTube video link). “Just asking a different side of me. I’ve been trying to, each and every day, improve on things I need to improve on to help the team win. It’s been fun, for sure, learning from each and every game. Applying to the next game, seeing what you can do better. Maybe be more aggressive.”
Terada notes that Simons has talked about winning and making himself a more complete player since the trade with the Trail Blazers was announced. He has accepted a reserve role without complaining and is working to improve defensively.
“He’s just a graceful guy and he just wants to win and he wants to be a part of something,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “So you just have to balance that. But you kind of saw tonight obviously what he’s been able to do in this league for a long time. It’s on me to make sure that he feels comfortable. It’s on his teammates to get the best version of him like we did tonight.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Josh Minott delivered 15 points and nine rebounds as he started Monday for the first time in his NBA career, per Brian Robb of MassLive. Minott had a strong performance in the fourth quarter Sunday against Detroit, and Mazzulla rewarded him with a start as the team’s rotation continues to evolve. Boston outscored New Orleans by 42 points in Minott’s 28 minutes on the court. “It’s just been exciting,” he said. “I don’t really even know how to put it into words. … I’m still kind of high on life from the game right now but the opportunity to be out there and contribute to winning and the team’s success, I can’t take that for granted.”
- Jaylen Brown has been dealing with a strained left hamstring, but even though Monday was the second night of a back-to-back, he was determined not to miss any games until the Celtics started winning, Terada states in a separate story. A lopsided victory gave him the luxury of limited playing time, and he finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes. “I had to get on the floor,” he said (YouTube video link). “We had to find a way to get the win, so I was going to play until we figured that part out. From my body standpoint, just managing it. Just trying to stay within myself, not overextend myself too much. I’ve had some hamstring injuries in the past, so it’s given me some good information to still be effective without using too much explosiveness or too much athleticism.”
- Mazzulla’s changing lineups can mean radically different roles for players on different nights, notes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (subscription required). The latest example is rookie forward Hugo Gonzalez, who didn’t play at all Monday after starting Sunday at Detroit. “We have a lot of guys; we have a lot of depth,” Mazzulla said. “We can go to offensive lineups, defensive lineups. I thought (Gonzalez) did a great job in the 18 minutes he was out there. But you also have to think about matchups. He’s answered the call. It really is a testament to where he came from, he’s well developed in the system that he played in.”
Celtics Notes: Gonzalez, Simons, Scheierman, Tatum
Rookie forward Hugo Gonzalez looks like a strong contender for regular playing time after an impressive NBA debut Friday night, writes Souichi Terada of MassLive. Gonzalez energized the Celtics when he entered the game midway through the first quarter with a blend of athleticism and aggressive defense. Coach Joe Mazzulla trusted him to guard Knicks star Jalen Brunson and gave him heavy minutes in the second half as Boston tried to stage a comeback.
“Stepping on the floor was good,” Gonzalez said. “But still, I’m not having a great memory of this day because we lost the game that we could have won. We’re working on details, gotta get better there.”
Terada notes that Mazzulla’s rotation is still unsettled as Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh all saw minutes in the first half, while Josh Minott wasn’t used at all after playing in the season opener. Gonzalez is only 19 and didn’t play much last season with Real Madrid, but he could establish a regular role with the Celtics as a defensive stopper off the bench.
“He understands what it takes,” Mazzulla said. “I think he has a clear understanding of what his role is, and it’s to defend at the highest of levels and play with a level of effort on the offensive end. And he’s able to do that. There are things he needs to clean up, obviously, but I thought he did a great job of helping accept that third-quarter tone of his effort and his toughness.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Anfernee Simons, who spent four years playing for Chauncey Billups in Portland before being traded to Boston his summer, couldn’t believe that his former coach was arrested this week in a federal investigation of illegal gambling, Terada adds in a separate story. “Just in shock, obviously, I have a great relationship with Chauncey,” Simons said (Twitter video link). “Speaking even after the trade, he’s checking in on me, I’m checking in on him. We have a great relationship. It’s an unfortunate situation for him to be in, especially with him and his family. All the media attention is coming in, the scrutiny.”
- The Celtics need more production from their three best players to remain competitive while Mazzulla figures out his rotation, observes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. In the season’s first two games, Payton Pritchard missed 12 of his 14 three-point attempts and Derrick White is only shooting 7-of-24 from beyond the arc and 12-of-38 overall. Jaylen Brown is scoring consistently, but he committed seven turnovers on Friday.
- Boston will probably pick up Scheierman’s $2.7MM salary for the 2026/27 season, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. The decision is due by the end of the month, and Robb believes it’s a low-cost gamble for a team that still has to watch every dollar it spends. He views it as less certain that the Celtics will exercise their option next year for the final season of Scheierman’s rookie scale contract, when he’ll earn nearly $5MM.
- In the same piece, Robb speculates that it will be sometime in March before Jayson Tatum can realistically consider returning from his Achilles tear.
Injury Notes: Queen, White, Brown, Raptors, Rockets, More
Rookie big man Derik Queen has been medically cleared to participate in full basketball activities, the Pelicans announced today (via Twitter).
Head coach Willie Green said Queen was a full participant in Saturday’s practice, tweets Will Guillory of The Athletic. While the team wants to get Queen up to speed, Green said New Orleans will be careful not to rush the process after a lengthy layoff.
Queen has been rehabilitating from July surgery to address a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist, an injury he sustained at Summer League in Las Vegas. He was a limited participant during New Orleans’ training camp due to the injury.
Queen was selected with the 13th overall pick in June after the Pelicans sent Atlanta this year’s No. 23 selection and an unprotected 2026 first-rounder (the most favorable of New Orleans’ and Milwaukee’s picks) for the right to draft the Maryland big man, who was highly productive in his lone season with the Terrapins. In 36 games last season, the 20-year-old forward/center averaged 16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks in 30.4 minutes per contest.
We have several more injury notes from around the NBA:
- Bulls guard Coby White, who has been battling a calf strain since August and didn’t play in any preseason games this fall, “looked good” after going through most of the contact portions of Saturday’s practice, according to head coach Billy Donovan (Twitter links K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network). Donovan added that White would go through additional contact work on Monday after taking Sunday off. For his part, White said he was encouraged by today’s session, though he cautioned he’s still working on regaining his conditioning and rhythm. “We’ll see. It’s in the works,” White said of potentially playing in Chicago’s season opener, per Johnson.
- Celtics star Jaylen Brown sustained a left hamstring injury in Wednesday’s preseason finale. As Jay King of The Athletic writes, head coach Joe Mazzulla didn’t say whether Brown would be active for next Wednesday’s season opener, but the injury doesn’t sound serious — Brown is considered day-to-day, per Mazzulla.
- Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic expressed optimism that lottery pick Collin Murray-Boyles could be ready for Wednesday’s season opener in Atlanta after the former South Carolina forward sustained an arm injury last week, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. According to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter links), Murray-Boyles is day-to-day with a right forearm strain.
- Although Raptors center Jakob Poeltl missed time during preseason with lower back stiffness and exited Friday’s preseason finale with the same injury, Rajakovic clarified after the game that the Austrian big man was pulled for precautionary reasons (Twitter links via Lewenberg). Poeltl is under contract through 2029/30 after signing a lucrative long-term extension in July.
- Forward Jae’Sean Tate, who underwent offseason ankle surgery, went through contract drills in Saturday’s practice, per Rockets head coach Ime Udoka (Twitter link via Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle). The team remains optimistic that Tate will be available for Houston’s season opener, but Dorian Finney-Smith probably won’t be, according to Udoka. Finney-Smith, a free agent addition, is recovering from June ankle surgery.
- Former Alabama forward Grant Nelson was originally expected to sign an Exhibit 10 deal with the Nets shortly after Summer League in July, but the signing was delayed until a few days ago due to an otherwise unspecified “stress reaction from overworking,” he told Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “It was like a small, little minor injury that held me out of training camp. And then I feel like I did everything I could. I caught the injury really early, so I wasn’t out long. But it worked out perfect. So now I’m back healthy, feeling 100 percent.”
- Backup Lakers center Jaxson Hayes exited Friday’s preseason finale with a right wrist contusion, the team announced (Twitter link via Dan Woike of The Athletic). Head coach JJ Redick said after the game that X-Rays on the wrist were negative, with another update on Hayes expected to come on Sunday, as veteran NBA report Mark Medina relays (via Twitter).
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija experienced upper back stiffness on Thursday in Utah, causing him to exit Portland’s preseason finale, per the team (Twitter link). It’s unclear if Avdija will miss additional time as a result of the injury.
Celtics Notes: Tatum, Brown, Mazzulla, Battle
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum remains hopeful about his chances of returning from his torn right Achilles before the 2025/26 season ends, but he tells DJ Siddiqi of PokerStrategy.com that there’s no specific timeline or target date in place at this point.
“Nobody’s pressuring me,” Tatum said. “The team, the doctor, the organization, everybody is just like, ‘We want you to be 100% before you come back.'”
While many players who suffer Achilles tears are sidelined for at least a full calendar year, Tatum made it clear that the recovery process isn’t “time-based” and is confident there would be little risk of aggravating the injury if he’s cleared to come back before the one-year mark.
“Time is obviously important, but you have to hit certain benchmarks,” he explained to Siddiqi. “The most important thing is all these tests of your strength, the strength in your calf, the strength in your leg. Getting into the same strength as your left calf or even stronger. For some guys, that takes six, nine, 12 months. Everybody’s just different. But the surgery that I got, the things that we’ve been doing, I feel very, very confident in that surgical site. We won’t have that problem again.”
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- Celtics star Jaylen Brown told head coach Joe Mazzulla that he’ll be OK after exiting Wednesday’s preseason finale with a hamstring injury, writes Brian Robb of MassLive.com. Brown left in the first quarter and was later ruled out for the rest of the night due to what the team called left hamstring soreness. “Talked to him after, he said he would be fine, but I didn’t get a full update,” Mazzulla told reporters after the game.
- When Mazzulla was named the Celtics’ head coach in the fall of 2022, he took over a team with immediate championship expectations. Those expectations remained the same for his first three seasons on the job, but look a little different in 2025/26 as a result of Boston’s offseason roster changes and Tatum’s Achilles injury. Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (subscription required) takes a look at how Mazzulla is calibrating his coaching style for the new-look roster. “I think you have to adjust based on the roster that you have and the personalities that you have,” Mazzulla said. “But also the type of personality that you want your team to have. Everyone is different so you have to treat everyone different, but at the same time you have to have a collective personality in what you’re trying to do. You have to be able to spend time and understand what makes each person tick, but your team has to tick at a certain level.”
- Ashley Battle – a Celtics scout who also held the title of assistant general manager of the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate – is leaving the organization to join the front office of the Portland Fire in the WNBA, reports Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (Substack link). A former WNBA player herself, Battle had been working for the Celtics since 2021.
Celtics Notes: Brown, Mazzulla, Gonzalez, Horford
Jayson Tatum‘s injury and the departure of several veteran players forced Celtics star Jaylen Brown to take on a larger leadership role, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Brown typically travels during the summer, Washburn notes, but he spent more time in Boston this year in an effort to bond with his new teammates.
“It’s a little bit sad, a lot of the guys I spent a lot of time with, we had such a great group over the last couple of years,” he said. “To see them not be around anymore obviously is going to have an effect on our team, but we have five new players we’ve got to get on board and acclimated into the system. And I’m trying to expedite that chemistry building, that trust building so you guys can see a good product when we get to the floor. But some of that stuff takes time — it doesn’t happen overnight — but I’m looking forward to it.”
Mentoring may not seem like a natural role to anyone who watched Brown closely during his first nine NBA seasons, Washburn adds. Brown often projected a hard exterior, but he said he’s found “a different level of peace” at this point in his career, and Washburn observes that he seems to be smiling and enjoying himself more than in the past.
“I would say a lot of times I felt like I had to operate a certain way to protect myself, and it was kind of the way I felt like I had to be in order not to lose my mind a little bit,” Brown said. “But I feel like I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I’m at peace, and I feel like I can express more of myself to the world in a sense where I just haven’t opened up in the last (several) years. More so showing the world who Jaylen Brown is.”
There’s more from Boston:
- Assistant coach Sam Cassell said the start of training camp has been the most difficult he’s seen since he entered the NBA 34 years ago, but head coach Joe Mazzulla disputes that description, Washburn states in a separate story. “Everything in this world today is recency bias,” Mazzulla said. “Every time is this is the best ever. We don’t remember the way we felt last year or two years ago or three years ago. That’s just a classic recency bias of whatever you’re going through right now is the biggest, the best, the most important, the hardest, the easiest. None of that really matters. It depends on where you’re at in the moment.”
- Picking up team concepts and strategy has been difficult for first-round pick Hugo Gonzalez because he speaks limited English, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. The former Real Madrid guard said the coaches have been patient as he tries to learn the language. “We’re going really, really deep now in these practices and also in the training camp that we’ve got,” Gonzalez said. “We’re going deep in the details. I think that apart from the basics, they are the most important thing. We’re going into detail on every single situation so that when we are in the game and we’ve got that situation, we can handle it in the best way possible so we can succeed on defense.”
- In a mailbag column, Brian Robb of The Boston Globe examines whether the Celtics should have tried harder to keep Al Horford, who will only make about $5.7MM this season with Golden State. Robb points out that Boston was disadvantaged by its need to avoid the repeater tax, which would cause a $5MM contract to cost close to $20MM with penalties factored in.