The Celtics have had a short off-season for all the right reasons. Their trip to the NBA Finals had them playing through June 17th, with the championship parade and other celebration festivities stretching in to the summer.
Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday had to cut their victory tour short so they could help Team USA in their pursuit of gold at the Paris Olympics, and Derrick White joined them not too long after as a replacement for Kawhi Leonard. Together, they managed to bring another gold home, but their basketball activities went all the way until August 10th.
To the surprise of many, Jaylen Brown did not get invited to join Team USA at the Olympics, but he had himself a busy summer nonetheless, with trips all around the world, announcing a new nonprofit, and releasing a song with rapper A$AP Ferg.
Despite the quick turnaround, the guys are already taking the court again. The Celtics released footage from an unofficial practice held at the Auerbach Center:
The 20-second clip gives us a brief look at Jaylen, two-way signees JD Davison and Drew Peterson, rookie Baylor Scheierman, and Jordan Walsh. If you really slow it down, you may even be able to catch glimpses at Xavier Tilman and this year’s 2nd-round pick, Anton Watson.
The Celtics separately tweeted out photos of a little buddy-buddy connection between Jaylen and Derrick, as well as a photo of Al Horford who appears to be fully locked in on his stationary bike. At this point it’s unclear if the whole team is there, but if they aren’t already, they will be soon.
Ben Simmons haters and fans (if they exist) alike know good and well not to put too much stock into off-season workout videos, but what else are we going to talk about until the season starts?
From what I’ve seen, I’d like to believe that Scheierman and Walsh are in a real position to carve some time out for themselves this season.
With Baylor, part of his allure has been his “NBA readiness.” We can see him hitting JD Davison with a slick pocket pass as JD cuts to the basket for an easy dunk, the coaches complimenting the dime. Ultimately, Scheierman’s shooting ability is probably going to be the thing that determines whether he sees the court or not, but even in the Summer League, he showed that he’s a solid playmaker, and being able to read the game at an NBA level is a great way to earn yourself minutes early in your career. I’m sure as the season progresses, the game will slow down for him even more.
As for Walsh, the kid has a lanky, athletic build which can translate very well to an NBA which seems to be becoming more of a wing’s league. Here, we mostly see Jordan guarding Jaylen Brown. First, he works to deny an entry pass into Jaylen, and then hustles to save the ball from going out of bounds. In the next cut, we see him pressing up on Jaylen in the post, reaching in to poke the ball away, but ultimately conceding a layup.
Getting a stop on the Finals MVP is no easy task, even for the NBA’s best defenders, however Walsh is certainly not shying away from the matchup. After spending most of his time in the G-League with the Maine Celtics last year, it’s clear that he puts in the work. He plays a gritty game, and it seems like he’ll be trying to build his name off of his defense, at least initially.
There’s not too much more of note to see in the clip outside of Jaylen’s athletic left-handed finish through two defenders. I’m sure we’ll see more clips and familiar faces soon with the team getting ready to begin training camps.
Another factor into the shortened offseason this year, the Celtics will be starting their pre-season a little earlier as well. Their first two games will be in Abu Dhabi against the Denver Nuggets, those being on October 4th and 6th. Thus, they will officially begin practicing a week from today on September 25th.
Basketball will be back soon enough, Celtics fans.
