In the underbelly of TD Garden, underneath the black upholstered seats and an extended outlet go from the famed parquet flooring, the house and street locker rooms lie parallel to every different, separated through just a slender hallway and a white paint-splashed concrete wall. An overly un-soundproof wall, it seems, person who the Celtics—had they been in a position to foresee the result of the 2022 Finals—would have bolted acoustic panels to years in the past. Inside Boston’s locker room, mins when they dropped a series-clinching Game 6 to Golden State, tears flowed. Blank faces stared down at crumpled stat sheets. Ime Udoka was once the first to damage the silence. “And I don’t think he wanted to,” says middle Al Horford. Outside, the roar from dozens of champagne-soaked Warriors gamers and staff was once unavoidable. The pulsing from the hip-hop track vibrated via the flooring. “Trust me,” says Horford, “we could hear everything.”
Even now, Jayson Tatum winces at the reminiscence. Leaning again in his locker that evening, the entirety he completed—All-Star starter, All-NBA First Team, the seventh-highest scoring reasonable (26.9 ppg) in Celtics historical past—felt meaningless. Showered, modified and recent from rehashing the Finals with a couple of dozen newshounds, Tatum may just nonetheless pay attention the party as he walked to his automobile. “Definitely not a good feeling,” he says. What he noticed previous him extra: Golden State’s celebrating on Boston’s house flooring. “That,” says Tatum, who shot solely 36.7% from the box all through the Finals, “I’ll never forget.”
Jeffrey A. Salter/Sports Illustrated
The NBA season is a six-month slog, 8 if, like Boston, you’re making a deep playoff run. Tatum’s felt longer. Since 2020, when Tatum logged 41 mins consistent with recreation all through the Celtics’ 17-game postseason in the NBA bubble, his breaks were transient. The bubble briefly transitioned to the COVID-19-squeezed, 72-game ’20–21 season (35.8 mins consistent with recreation for Tatum in that one), which gave means to a weeks-long commute to Tokyo for the Olympics that then dropped him proper into ’21–22. The psychological drain of remaining season is neatly chronicled: the 18–21 get started, the players-only conferences, the day by day public tongue-lashings from Udoka, the first-year trainer introduced in to shake issues up after Brad Stevens took over as workforce president. Tatum, hardly ever rattled, recalled an early-January workforce bus trip after Boston blew a 20-point lead in New York . . . which got here after the Celtics misplaced on a overlooked layup to San Antonio . . . which got here on the heels of a three-game post-Christmas dropping streak; he puzzled whether or not they would ever determine it out.
There was once the bodily toll, too, which was once much less visual. A mid-February left wrist harm—later identified as a nondisplaced fracture—led to Tatum really extensive ache. He downplayed the harm, slipping on a comfortable forged at the back of closed doorways, taking it off when the cameras had been rolling and protective the wrist with tape an inch thick all through video games whilst consciously warding off the usage of it to damage his falls. He performed 76 video games. His mins (35.9) had been a profession top. In the playoffs, they jumped to 41.0. Drew Hanlen, Tatum’s longtime instructor, communicates with him day by day. When the Finals ended, Hanlen says he didn’t pay attention from his shopper for almost two weeks. “I was exhausted,” says Tatum. “Didn’t feel like talking to anybody. Didn’t feel like being bothered. It’s hard to explain if you have never been in that situation. But losing a championship was f—ing miserable.”
Success is outlined through championships, nowhere extra so than in Boston, the place the 17 banners dangling from the rafters create a literal bar for it. Yet it’s exhausting to argue {that a} season that started so underwhelmingly, that ended so impressively (34–12 after Jan. 1, the NBA’s third-best end), that culminated with the franchise’s first Finals look in 12 years, wasn’t one. Or that the Celtics, stocked with 20-something stars, weren’t neatly located for extra.
But are they? Boston’s offseason was once anything else however quiet. Days sooner than coaching camp, it emerged that Udoka were curious about a dating with a feminine workforce member, in violation of workforce insurance policies, main the workforce to droop him for the season. That supposed it might fall to Joe Mazzulla, a 34-year-old assistant who has been with the workforce for 3 years, to navigate the workforce via not solely the training upheaval, but in addition the different problems that had grow to be speaking issues over the summer time, particularly whether or not Tatum, after a three-figure turnover postseason, had any other point. Whether Marcus Smart, his Defensive Player of the Year {hardware} nonetheless shining, was once the proper are compatible as a lead guard. Whether Jaylen Brown was once a championship-level costar—or whether or not Boston wanted to get competitive in pursuit of a all at once to be had former MVP.
Let’s speak about the pictures of Tatum and Kevin Durant, Olympic teammates became summer time exercise companions that went viral after a Celtics photographer posted them to Instagram. Innocent, in case you ask Tatum, who befriended the NBA big name as a highschool prospect. A 12 months after profitable gold in Tokyo, Tatum and Durant met up for a couple of days in Los Angeles this offseason. The dating, says Hanlen, was once symbiotic. Tatum studied Durant’s ball coverage (the 100 turnovers Tatum dedicated in remaining season’s playoffs had been an NBA report), how KD makes use of his hips and shoulders to protect it from defenders and is in a position to offer protection to it as he finishes. Durant scrutinized Tatum’s hesitation dribble and side-step jumpers.
In the gymnasium with different NBA gamers, together with Bulls guards Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, Tatum was once intense. Post-Finals, says Hanlen, Tatum advanced a surliness. “He has become obsessed with winning,” says Hanlen. In one-on-one video games. “Didn’t lose one all summer,” says Hanlen. In five-on-five. During one consultation, Tatum’s workforce fell at the back of 0–2 in a splendid of 7. Before the get started of the 0.33 recreation, Tatum barked at his teammates that they wouldn’t lose any other. They didn’t. To build up his burst on drives—Tatum was once fouled on solely 9.8% of his drives remaining season, a bunch he’d like to tick up—he adjusted his posture, shedding his frame decrease when he confronted up. He shot loads of floaters. He explored tactics to higher battle fatigue, tweaking his vitamin and lengthening his conditioning drills. He quizzed Durant, who is no stranger to a heavy workload, on his conduct. “I’m still young enough where I feel like I can learn from a lot of guys,” says the 24-year-old Tatum. “And he’s one of the best to ever do it.”
The factor: At the time the footage swept via social media, Durant had asked a commerce. The Nets had engaged a number of groups—together with Boston—in commerce talks. Brown, in accordance to The Athletic, were mentioned in a switch. Talking heads, starved for summer time sports activities tale strains, jumped on the Brown-for-Durant debate. In July, Tatum attended the premiere of NYC Point Gods, a Durant-produced documentary, the place he awkwardly spoke back questions on a Celtics shakeup. “I try not to believe everything I see on TV because I’ve seen things about me that just flat-out weren’t true,” Tatum says. “There are so many different rumors and stories that you hear. You never exactly know what’s true, who’s leaking or what’s the agenda.”
Brown averaged 23.5 ppg in the Finals, then confirmed up in commerce talks.
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
In an interview, Brown declined to cope with the commerce rumors. His lone public reaction: a 3 letter tweet (smh) after information of the Celtics-Nets talks turned into public. (Brown no-commented that one, too.) At media day, Brown deflected questions on his long run. “I’ve talked to my teammates, ownership, etc.,” he mentioned. “I keep those conversations between us. I’m here and ready to play basketball. [I’m] probably [in] the best shape of my life. I’m excited to start the journey.” He has been in this position before. In 2018, when Boston was rumored to be in the mix for Kawhi Leonard. In ’19, when the Celtics pursued Anthony Davis. Regardless of the success of the Tatum-Brown pairing—three conference finals in five seasons together, with one trip to the Finals—there are routinely stories about breaking them up.
Tatum admits that he wondered how Brown would react to the latest round of rumors. “It’s never easy,” says Tatum. The friendship, which started when the two had been youngsters, roommates at an Under Armour camp, has grown more potent. In 2017, when Boston was once debating between Tatum and Josh Jackson in the draft, it was once Brown, in a late-night telephone name to then GM Danny Ainge, who gave Tatum a push. Ask the ones in and round the Celtics about the dating between the two, and the solutions are an identical. Great. Ask privately whether or not there is any friction, and the solutions are the similar. “Jayson brags about how good Jaylen is,” says Hanlen. “How there aren’t many players he would trade straight up for him. Any narrative that they didn’t like each other, that they can’t win together is totally made up.”
In August, Stevens and Udoka traveled to Los Angeles to meet with Brown. Their message: We need you right here. And they got here away with the feeling that Brown wasn’t going to be fixated on no matter talks had happened. In different phrases, he sought after to be there, too.
In mid-September, during a break in a photo shoot at Boston’s practice facility, Brown, Horford and Robert Williams III huddled. It had been three months since the season ended, and, save for a few scattered workouts, this was the first time the core of the team had been back together. Quickly, the discussion shifted to next season. “Just about hitting the ground running,” says Williams. “Not having the same start that we had last year. And letting people know that what we did, it wasn’t a fluke.”
The Celtics are out to prove their first Finals appearance in 12 years was no fluke.
Jeffrey A. Salter/Sports Illustrated
The loss of Udoka will sting. Udoka’s suspension stunned the players. “It’s been hell for us,” said Smart. Added Brown, “We were all shocked.” Mazzulla is considered a rising star in the coaching ranks. He was a finalist for the Jazz job last summer and, under Udoka, played a key role in defensive strategy. “Joe’s been here,” Smart said. “He knows the scheme, he knows the players, so it makes it a bit easier.” Still, his head coaching experience totals two seasons at Division II Fairmont State. Steering an NBA title contender is a sizable challenge. “I believe in Joe’s leadership,” said Stevens. “I think it’s going to be an unbelievable challenge but I’m really confident in the team and the coaching staff.” Said Tatum: “We’re going to have to help him. And he’s going to have to help us.”
On paper, Boston is loaded. Smart and Williams (who will miss the start of the season after knee surgery) anchor the NBA’s best defense. Tatum spearheads an offense that had the second-highest scoring margin (plus-7.3) last season. There is room for organic growth, with sharpshooting power forward Grant Williams and backup point guard Payton Pritchard, in addition to their stars just approaching their primes. “We’re building this thing around the strengths of Jaylen and Jayson and anybody that accentuates those guys,” says Stevens. “We’re always on the lookout for the kind of guys that can do that.” The offseason addition of point guard Malcolm Brogdon, who was acquired from Indiana, beefs up the bench. Brogdon has started the past four seasons, but Stevens emphasized that Smart’s spot is secure. This summer Smart studied film of Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, noting the adjustments Holiday made after being paired with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, and the impact Holiday was able to make on both ends of the floor. “His whole thing was, ‘How do I help them in whatever way they needed?’ ” says Smart. And Brogdon? “I was ecstatic we got him,” says Smart, who has a long relationship with him. “It’s putting me with someone I know for a fact is going to make me better. He is going to push me. And I am going to push him.”
The rest of the returning Celtics don’t have to look far for motivation. Few things light a fire under a player like losing in the Finals. So Tatum brushes off compliments about Boston’s season. “It’s hard to call it a good year,” says Tatum, “when you f—ing lose a championship.” Horford calls last season “a step in the right direction.” Brown, asked how long it took him to move past the Finals defeat, says, “I’m still not past it.”
To get past it, sacrifice must be embraced, says Tatum. Boston, even after the potential season-ending injury to newly signed veteran forward Danilo Gallinari, can claim one of the NBA’s deepest rosters. “Once we started sacrificing and being more of a team last year,” says Tatum, “that’s when we became the best team in the league.”
But coming off the Finals, the Celtics won’t surprise anybody. Which, unsurprisingly, suits them fine. In Atlanta, Horford spent time with Brogdon over the summer. “Anytime we’re talking, it’s nothing to do with offense or defense,” says Horford. “It’s literally, ‘What can I do?’ or, ‘How can I help our team to put us in position to win?’ ”
A pair of championships at Florida taught Horford about approaching being the hunted, too. After Florida won in 2006, Gators coach Billy Donovan’s message was simple: They are coming for you. You come for them. “And we were so driven that year,” says Horford. “That’s how this team has to be. We had an edge to us last year. We need to keep it.”
All the offseason questions have appeared to sharpen it. “Hell yeah, we have got a chip on our shoulders,” says Robert Williams III. “It’s not even about proving it to other people. It’s about staying true to ourselves. It’s about showing your teammates, ‘We’re still here. And we’ve got this.’ ”
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