Van Gundy is hired as senior consultant

The Celtics made a very sneaky addition in recent days, adding former NBA coach and longtime broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy as a senior consultant.

The club said Van Gundy is not a member of the coaching staff but rather will offer advice on basketball in Boston as well as G-League Maine. Van Gundy was released by ABC/ESPN as an analyst after 16 years. People around the Celtics are excited about his addition.

“Awesome,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Any time you can add high-character, high-level professional people, I think it’s a no-brainer. So we were fortunate enough that he’s here not just for the coaching staff but for everybody.

“He’s been through every imaginable situation in the NBA, in coaching, FIBA, so we’re just lucky to have him. He’s a great listener and a great worker, so he’s added a lot of value, even in the first couple of weeks he’s been here.”

When reached by the Globe, Van Gundy confirmed he is working for the Celtics but said he’d rather stay behind the scenes. He has not commented since his television departure.

Van Gundy coached the Knicks and Rockets before delving into television. The Celtics have used their offseason adding bright minds to their staff, such as Sam Cassell and

Charles Lee on the coaching staff, along with Van Gundy behind the scenes.

“We try to run a lot of stuff by him,” Mazzulla said of Van Gundy. “It’s good to get a guy who hasn’t been here before who can have an unbiased opinion as to where he thinks things are and where they need to go. He’s kind of like [a] fresh set of eyes because he’s not around all the time and he’s looking at it from an unbiased position, which gives us an advantage because he can kind of see it in a different perspective.”

Youngsters show progress

As Brad Stevens has traded multiple firstround picks, the Celtics have countered with bringing in prospects to develop on two-way contracts. Mazzulla said he’s been impressed with the camps of backup center Neemias Queta and point guard J.D. Davison.

“He’s earned minutes. He’s earned opportunity,” Mazzulla said of Queta. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and he’s coming in every day and worked and I like how he’s gotten better and better each time he gets on the floor, so we’re excited we have an opportunity to develop him. Over these next two preseason games, it’s definitely a goal to see if he can continue to get better, if he can continue to execute on both ends.”

Davison, a former second-round pick, is trying to make the transition to pure point guard and has shown flashes of growth in his preseason appearances.

“Last game at the end, he did a good job on situational basketball, getting us the two-forone situation, recognizing and getting the ball where it needed to go,” Mazzulla said. “His pick-and-roll leads in the fourth quarter, we ran the same play four or five times and he was able to make the read over and over again.”

Porzingis impressed

In a situation where he may be the fourth scoring option, Kristaps Porzingis said he’s been impressed with the competition in camp, especially from the standout players such as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

“It’s been high intensity, for sure,” he said. “We had JB and JT going at it at the end of practice. It’s high intensity and high competitiveness, which was really fun. It was a competitive practice with exhausting, hard drills and great energy and having fun while doing it.”

Porzingis said he has focused on polishing his skill set as his career has progressed after trying to be a do-everything player during his early years with the Knicks.

“I think I do less stuff on the court, to be honest,” he said. “I’m just more effective at the things that I do. When you’re a rookie, you’re just testing out, you’re doing everything, dribble, crossover. I think the older you get, the more you like fine-tune your game and do the stuff you’re good at and cut out the stuff that’s not as effective.”

Porzingis was asked about those days with the Knicks, when he hit Manhattan as a 20year-old fresh from Latvia. He was tabbed a franchise cornerstone and played like it in stretches, but a serious knee injury and his inconsistency prompted a trade to the Dallas Mavericks.

“When you’re young you just don’t care, at least I didn’t,” he said. “I was just kind of ignorant to everything around me. It was like the most free I’ve felt in a way but also I think awareness is necessary. You just cannot be like that for life.

“When you’re young, a lot of mistakes are forgiven. But the older you get the more selfaware you have to be about your game, and that’s what I’ve done. It’s different. It always changes. But the younger you are the more you’re out there just playing free.”