CHARLESTON — For the first time in nearly a decade, the Celtics are hosting a portion of their preseason training camp on the road: in Charleston, South Carolina, at The Citadel. The team arrived in Charleston on a rainy Saturday afternoon, and began camp at the McAllister Field House on Sunday morning.
“It’s really been 10 years since we did it, a bunch of new guys, so just wanted to really take a step back, get away, and vibe with each other in a different environment,” Mazzulla said at practice
earlier in the week. “It’s always good to shake it up a little bit.”
Mazzulla said Charleston serves as a continuation of training camp, which started in Boston last Tuesday.
Payton Pritchard said that although he’s a big fan of South Carolina — particularly for its golf — the location of camp doesn’t impact him.
“It’s cool to be down here, but it don’t matter where I’m at,” Pritchard said. “The mindset’s the mindset, so we could be in the mountains, desert — don’t matter. It’s never changed.”
Several Celtics are working with new player development coaches
It’s common practice for Celtics practice to get a new player development coach most seasons. While the Celtics’ coaching staff is exactly the same, a lot of the players are working with new coaches.
Mike Conley and Payton Pritchard are working with God Shamgod Jr, who last year led Jaylen Brown’s player development. Paul George is working with Amile Jefferson, who last year worked with Nikola Vucevic. And, Mitchell Robinson is working with Nana Foulland, who last year worked with John Tonje.
Some players, like Jayson Tatum, continue to work with the same player development coaches as last season. Celtics assistant coach Tony Dobbins helped Tatum through his recovery from an Achilles tendon rupture, and continues to be his point person.
Craig Luschenat, who is the head of player development, has been tasked with working with rookies Chris Cenac Jr. and Dillon Mitchell (last year, Luschenat worked more with Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman).
Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman are working with assistant coach Tyler Lashbrook, who was a finalist for the Portland Trail Blazers head coach job.
Jordan Walsh feels more comfortable in Year 4
Jordan Walsh is coming off a big season: he was in the rotation for the first time, established himself as an elite defender, and started 25 games. Then, in July, he signed a 3-year, $15 million contract extension.
All of that has combined to make him feel a little bit more relaxed than before.
“It feels more stress-free, honestly,” Walsh said. “It’s the first year where I can kind of take a breath of fresh air. Obviously I still have a job and some role I have to play to be able to play. But it finally feels like ‘All right, we got we got a little bit of wiggle room.‘ Like I can breathe a little bit, but of course, never forgetting what the standard is, and what the expectation is.”
Despite being just 22 years old, Walsh is also one of the longer-tenured players on the roster (only Jayson Tatum, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Derrick White have been in Boston longer). So, he’s begun to view himself as somewhat of a vet.
“I told Joe that, and I think that was my biggest mistake of the year so far,” Walsh said. “And now I think he’s trying to hold me to a whole ‘nother standard. So I’ll just go around not say that anymore. But yeah, I definitely feel different. I definitely feel older. I feel more experienced, especially with this team.”
Walsh already feels the ramifications of having referred to himself as a veteran to his head coach.
“We were having a drill one day, and we were losing,” Walsh said. “Me and PG were on the same team, and Joe was like, ‘Yo, you know what the standard is here? You know what to strive for — like, go tell PG that.’”
Walsh was thrown off; how was he going to coach up a storied player like Paul George, who is 14 years older than him?
“Like, you want me to coach PG? You want me to mentor him?” he asked Mazzulla. Mazzulla responded. “You’ve been here for a while. You should do that.”
The Celtics have established a new post-flight yoga routine
The Celtics are now beginning to implement a mandatory, 15-minute yoga session at the team hotel upon landing in new cities for roadtrips.
“We did a little team mobility thing,” Jordan Walsh said. “Had a good time.”
Payton Pritchard said that, in previous years, some players did yoga together upon landing, but many, like himself, did not: “It wasn’t mandatory before, so many people didn’t do it. I wasn’t one that really did it before, but it’s a lot of benefits to it. It’s cool that we all did it together, so hopefully we’ll continue it.”
The sessions are lead by Celtics athletic trainer Paul West, who has been with the team since 2020.
“He’s good at it,” Pritchard said.
The Celtics begin preseason action in Cleveland on Thursday
Celtics training camp continues on Monday in Charleston. On Wednesday, the team will fly to Cleveland for their first preseason game of the season.
The vibes so far have been high. But, Joe Mazzulla noted at practice that it’s easy to be connected and in good spirits this early in the season.
“Every team you lead is the most together team right now — because we haven’t traveled. No one’s gotten benched. No one’s been on a losing streak,” Mazzulla said. “No one’s got blamed in the media. No one’s had to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes and not get the ball. So you learn those things as the season goes on, and you just learn how to work through those things together. And you can’t simulate those. It just comes with time. And so, right now I would say all 30 teams feel great about themselves, and we got to wait till adversity hits. And adversity is even a strong word. There’s nothing really adverse about playing in the NBA. But we got to wait until stuff doesn’t go your way, and then you got to figure out who we are and how we’re going to be at our best.”
