April Fools: Udoka, Williams stage fight
Coach, forward catch team off-guard
In the spirit of April Fools Day, Ime Udoka and Grant Williams caught their teammates with quite the put-on during Friday morning’s shootaround.
The two pretended to go at it with an on-court argument at the Auerbach Center,
apparently with convincing results. Making the skit especially believable was the fact that the two men had beefed, for real, in the huddle during Wednesday’s loss to Miami.
“It was a good one. I got everybody, literally — the coaching staff and all the players,” said Udoka. “Just whispered to Grant — we butted heads a little bit last game, had a few discussions, so this was my way of making it up to him and apologizing in front of the team I guess, but just got in a fake argument, and Grant likes to talk back, so it wasn’t unexpected that he had something to say back, but we started chirping, walked toward each other, and I expected a teammate or two or a coach to get in the middle, and that would have kind of turned it up from there, but nobody got in the way.
“So we kept going and as people started to think it was very serious, we hugged and yelled, ‘April Fools!’ and fooled the whole gym. So it was crazy. Watching Rob (Williams) on the side, and (Jayson Tatum)’s face, I almost started laughing a few times because some guys were looking like “Oh (bleep) what’s going on. But nobody got their teammate or their coach’s back, so they were gonna let us go.”
Several players picked sides, though.
“I heard later, three or four players said they wanted to see Grant get his ass kicked,” said the Celtics coach.
In pursuit of individual awards
Jayson Tatum has openly embraced pursuit of his first
NBA MVP award — something his fellow stars believe is imminent. Most recently, Draymond Green told Tatum during a podcast that he expects as much from the Celtics star by next season.
Though some have an issue with players openly talking about individual awards — witness Marcus Smart’s active campaign for Defensive Player of the Year — there’s not a problem if said player is working for the good of the team, said Udoka.
“Everybody has individual goals. I mean, there’s a team aspect with everything and what he is trying to do is obviously play at a certain level and maintain that,” said the Celtics coach. “The way he’s playing now and he’s been playing lately, he would love to come into the season with that.
“No problem with that at all,” said Udoka. “Guys should try to attain and achieve certain things. And JT is a guy that I’m not worried about stat-chasing or doing anything a specific way, he’s playing the right way. And some things I’ve said about him is he should strive for 10 to 15 triple-doubles. That’s an area he’s grown in and scoring comes naturally, but all the other things that he’s really improved on, there’s no reason not to shoot and aim that high.”
On the other hand, Udoka admitted that individual awards talk was not part of the environment back when he was teammates with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in San Antonio.
“They never spoke about individual things. All guys want to play at an All-NBA level. It was kind of a given with Timmy, I guess, that he was gonna be in that mix every year, and I think Jayson
is in that same category,” said Udoka. “Not only All-Star — that’s a given now — but All-NBA and getting his name in the conversation, and that’s just a thing that should happen going forward. So it doesn’t really need to be spoken on or try to achieve, that’s just who he is and the level he’s at right now.”
Load maintenance
Including Friday’s game against the Pacers, the Celtics have five games left in the regular season. But the packed nature of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference considered, Udoka said he is still formulating his rest plan. Rest assured that 35-year-old Al Horford will receive some consideration.
“We don’t need to see Al more, we know what he does,” said Udoka. “Obviously, it’s Daniel (Theis) with Al. Al is what he is. He’ll be in a little bit of a different role with Rob (Williams) being out. But we’ve seen him and Grant, obviously, and just take a look at him and Daniel, and get Daniel some more minutes would probably be more important than just seeing Al. But any chance we get to shave those down, as I mentioned, or a night off if possible, we’ll take a look at it.
“It’s too early. We’ve gone through different scenarios. But with the seeding being as close as it is, we haven’t determined one thing yet. A lot can change, obviously, by a game or two and, like I keep mentioning, One through four, and then five and six really now being that close, things can flip. So we’ll see where we’re at after a few games and then possibly determine that in the last, probably, on the road trip.”