Five things to watch for with start of new Celtics season
NEW YORK — The whole matter of the Celtics captaincy is complicated.
The last was Rajon Rondo, who was traded in the midst of his reign, and Brad Stevens didn’t see the need for another.
Ime Udoka was on hand for a rock-solid leadership structure in San Antonio, and on the eve of Wednesday night’s season opener in New York, is open to naming Celtics captains.
Jaylen Brown nominated Al Horford. Marcus Smart opined that captains aren’t necessary, and he might be right, since naming Jayson Tatum, Horford, Brown and Smart would be a little too democratic.
But when the longest-tenured Celtic — Smart begins his eighth season against the Knicks — says there’s enough of that quality in virtually everyone in the top eight of the rotation, it’s worth considering.
The Celtics had come back a season ago with some hopes that were punctured a little too easily. The need for a new voice in the room led to Stevens’ move upstairs and the hiring of Udoka
— a first-time head coach who boasts the toughness of
Gregg Popovich’s Spurs.
So there wasn’t a lot of leadership on this team to begin with, though the overload of criticism on the soft-spoken Tatum was wholly unfair. Even now, for all of his billowing talent and improvement, he’ll need help from all of the aforementioned players, as well as newcomers Dennis Schroder, Josh Richardson and, back for another try, Enes Kanter.
Udoka didn’t wait long to toughen up the proceedings. He doesn’t want his players complaining to referees — a pet peeve, he calls it — and benched Grant Williams last Friday in Miami for doing exactly that. He set down a series of rules on the first day of training camp, and when Smart missed the first flight of the season to Orlando, Udoka suspended the veteran for one game.
He’s trained everyone on a relentless diet of switching defense, and understands that the change in style requires time. He’s already dealing with COVID-era obstacles.
Brown was upgraded to questionable on Tuesday, is in “recovery” from his time in quarantine, and the young star’s return is such a relief, Udoka may actually play him without benefit of a formal practice. Horford, who tested positive four days later, may not be far behind.
But as the Udoka era kicks off — he’s the 18th head coach in franchise history — he’ll be looking for quick maturation, the veteran nature of his lineup considered.
Here’s five things to look
for.