BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla gave the most tried and true reminder to minimize pressure one day before the Celtics begin their regular season path to repeating as NBA champions.
“We’re all gonna be dead soon, and it really doesn’t matter anymore,” Mazzulla said. “So there’s zero pressure.”
Mazzulla managed expectations artfully in a far more pressurized, title or bust environment last season by shifting the team’s focus toward the details. He told the team repeatedly to have no expectations for how games or series should go.
Delivering the similar message to begin training camp, he stressed that Boston might not win the same way this year, the environment internally and externally might change. He emphasized being able to adapt, and playing not just for this year, but beyond.
That approach played out effectively in the preseason as the Celtics struck their opponents in waves, flashed improvements in areas they wanted to get better at and looked like the smarter team they wanted to become last year.
The players feel the expectation to do it again, though. They’re the team to beat and will handle what comes with that on the long road back.
“A lot of people can do it once,” Payton Pritchard said on Monday. “I know a championship is hard. A lot of people have won one, but winning multiple times and creating almost like a dynasty — that’s hard to do. That’s greatness and that’s something we’re trying to achieve.”
When Jrue Holiday arrived from Milwaukee last year, he shared his experience having won a championship two years prior. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, he said, and the path to accomplishing it will push you to the physical maximum.
Later, several Celtics shared in that sentiment. Now, as the team’s only player who experienced trying to repeat, one thing stood out — we lost to Boston.
The challenge comes with teams targeting them, Holiday also mentioned, something Brad Stevens talked about going back to the summer. They’ve experienced that before. They return almost the entirety of their roster from one year ago, who learned how to play in Mazzulla’s system. Some of those players repeat his mantras now, with Holiday saying on Media Day that some people are going to think the Celtics are really good, while others will believe they suck after the 2024 run.
“We’re either gonna win or you’re not,” Mazzulla said. “When you win, you try to forget about it a week later. When you lose, you try to forget about it a week later. It’s not pressure; it’s an opportunity. We have an opportunity here, over the next few years, however long we’re together. I’ve said this in the past: we have an opportunity to carry the organization forward. To double down on the tradition and the history of what this organization has. What else would you expect than someone expecting you to win all the time? I wouldn’t want someone expecting me to lose all the time. That would be debilitating.”
With Kristaps Porziņģis on track for a December, or possibly November return, the Celtics comparatively have little to worry about entering this year. New York meets them on Opening Night with multiple injuries and two new starters they hope they improve on what was already a successful team. Many teams around the league begin with uncertainty, and while a looming ownership change loops the Celtics in with that group, it’s largely out of sight and out of mind for now.
Wyc Grousbeck has been around the team throughout training camp and has hoped to bridge to the team’s next majority owner, who should take over into 2025. The money question remains when it comes to how open this team’s window truly is to compete at the highest level. With extensions secured and most of the roster signed long-term, that won’t creep into the locker room. Even Stevens said the front office is operating with a business as usual mindset despite the unprecedented luxury tax bill that looms in 2025-26.
Mazzulla spent some of his final moments on the floor at Auerbach Center on Monday before the 2025 campaign begins talking with Jordan Walsh, Neemias Queta and Baylor Scheierman about their roles. He reminded Queta that he took over at center for stints that helped Boston win games one year ago. Stressing patience, he prepared the team’s less experienced players for lesser initial roles, reminding them that their time will come.
When Mazzulla looks back at 2024, he listed as many as 18 regular season games turned into wins due in part to the team’s depth players stepping into larger roles and contributing. That, their attention to the details and a commitment to roles must remain the same to succeed, while also being open to new challenges and a new kind of noise.
Pressure exists. Everyone involved will either embrace it, or change their perception of it.
“(It’s) the same thing,” Holiday said. “Being hungrier. I think, like you said, locking in. Knowing that we have a goal we want to, and it’s going to be a day at a time. It’s not gonna be, just get through the regular season. We will set goals and we’ll have those goals and it’s to be better every day until we, hopefully, have another one of those banners. I feel like as a team, you’ve seen us do it, we talk about it and that’s what we’ll continue to do. So few people have had the chance to (repeat), so it means a lot. It’s definitely a challenge I feel like, as competitors, we accept, and I feel like I have the ultimate competitors on my team. So it won’t just be me.”
