BOSTON — Torrey Craig threw on a warmup outfit, asked the media members in the locker room where to find the TD Garden court and sprinted to the floor to attempt his return from an ankle injury that held him out since early January.
Craig and Payton Pritchard had discussed how Craig’s old arena in Denver had a practice court he could shoot on. Boston put him in plain view of fans anticipating his debut, tossing him sharpies for autographs and inspiring an early comeback before the break.
Craig played in Wednesday’s first half finale despite a All-Star Weekend and the returning practices that would’ve allowed him more ramp-up time. Instead, he logged nine minutes with Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday out, hitting a pair of threes and playing solid defense while receiving instruction from Joe Mazzulla along the sideline.
Brad Stevens made Craig a priority when the Bulls waived him earlier this month, and the Celtics signed him last Thursday to a deal worth roughly $800,000 for the rest of the season — a tiny tax hit compared to Jaden Springer, but well worth the veteran’s experience.
“I was actually in better shape than I thought I was gonna be,” Craig said. “Just getting the rhythm, flow of the game back. That’ll come with more games being played, so I’ll take this time off to keep prepping my body and be ready to come back.”
That Mazzulla trusted Craig ahead of Jordan Walsh, Xavier Tillman Sr. and others, and received positive returns, should provide some optimism about the veteran’s outlook here. Even as he plays catch-up with playcalls and other intricacies of Boston’s system, Mazzulla stressed that it’s not rocket science and that they want to utilize Craig’s extensive experience between overseas, multiple NBA teams and playoff runs — including minutes in the 2021 Finals.
Immediately after joining Boston, Craig didn’t play due to re-conditioning from his injury in New York and Miami, but his personality shined, sporting flashy outfits, including a green top, black jean shorts and diamonds for the latter game. He stood by Mazzulla on the sideline during one timeout and they pointed to spots on the floor, the head coach saying on Wednesday that Craig has asked questions throughout his acclimation process.
“He’s got an important role, just because of his versatility,” Mazzulla said. “So it’s gonna take time for him to understand the language and the things we do on both ends of the floor, and you can watch as much film and walk through it, but until he’s in the game, it’s just gonna continue to be a conversation of how we can utilize his versatility … he did some of that tonight … making those two shots.”
Mazzulla also stressed that, like the rest of the bench, Craig will play on a matchup basis. Along with the expected learning curve, it’s unclear how consistently he’ll appear for Boston, especially when the team returns to full health. That hasn’t happened often this season, though, and Sam Hauser’s sporadic health in particular led to the need for wing depth. Walsh’s early season appearances have faded while Baylor Scheierman’s recent spot minutes didn’t translate to results.
Craig’s ability to knock down shots, a budding skill that flourished over the past three seasons between Phoenix and Chicago, amounted to 177-for-443 (40%) shooting since the 2022-23 season began. Other Celtics rotation players through Mazzulla’s coaching tenure have flopped because of their inability to space the floor. While the ability to switch defensive coverages on the fly is as mandatory, Mazzulla sounded willing to work through Craig’s learning process after Wednesday’s win. After a 90 second stint in the first quarter, he returned for five minutes in the second where he hit both shots.
“We just gotta get him up to speed,” Mazzulla said. “You gotta rely on his experience. He’s been around a long time, he’s played a lot of basketball … so I think it’s just simplifying it as much as we can … he’s done a lot of great things for good teams, and that’s why we have him. We want to take advantage of that … every team that you’re a part of, you play a different role … he’s been great at understanding that … everyone’s gonna make mistakes, even the guys that have been here in our system have made mistakes. To me, it goes back to the mistakes with effort versus the mistakes with non-effort. He’s been a player for a long time who’s played through mistakes and is a high energy, high physical guy.”
