BOSTON — The Celtics gave practice an authentic feel by blasting in crowd noise, stadium sound effects and buzzers throughout Jrue Holiday’s first session with his new team. He watched practice on Tuesday after arriving, needing to pass a physical to step in. Joe Mazzulla reached out right away after the trade with film prepared. Then, the Celtics’ brass watched him debut by meeting Jaylen Brown at the rim a rejection.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen Jaylen get stopped going to the rim when he has a full head of steam,” Celtics managing partner Steph Pagliuca said.
Boston’s players, coaches and front office praised Holiday on what became a full day introducing him after the team traded for him on Sunday. The Celtics began anticipating his arrival when reports of the Bucks’ interest in Damian Lillard emerged. Holiday would inevitably land with the Blazers, who planned to re-route him, so Brad Stevens and company planned potential deals. Ownership, interested in Holiday since his New Orleans days, told him do whatever it takes. Mazzulla started his own ground work, imagining how Holiday will fit in with the team.
He’ll inevitably start and play often next to Derrick White often, but larger lineups will feature Holiday as the team’s starting point guard. That’ll carry an inevitable acclimation period, one the team undertakes already in Kristaps Porziņģis.
“It goes back to … how do we maximize each guy and then what makes the most sense in each situation,” Mazzulla said. “I think the thing this year is every time we make a decision, because we’re so good and so deep, there’s always gonna be, ‘we should’ve done this and we should’ve done that.’ But at the end of the day, you can only play five guys and we’re gonna put the best five guys in that situation … you got Derrick, you have Jrue, you have Payton (Pritchard). We have guys who have the ability to (handle the ball). I think that’ll play a part into our late game situation, who’s handling, who’s setting, who’s spaced?”
Mazzulla and Stevens teased a match-up based starting lineup to open camp, and some of the utilization of the roster will prove obvious. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will remain focal points, as will Porziņģis, with Holiday, White and others trying to find the spots to accentuate the stars. Holiday’s arrival resembled the rollout of a star, his intensity dropping jaws as team staff members watched along the sideline and above the court.
Holiday admitted he entered the first practice nervous, the same way he watched trade negotiations play out following his trade to Portland. He hoped Boston would become a destination. He didn’t want to get his hopes up. Then, it happened.
Players walked through an atmosphere of unfamiliarity with key personalities and players gone. Stevens described Wednesday’s second practice as a typical training camp mess, with errant passes nearly hitting spectators and 1,000 mistakes. The connectivity and drive felt different to Stevens and ownership, though. It had that thing.
“There’s definitely a hunger that I love. There’s this hunger to be the best that you can individually and as a team, and I think when you have that, you always have a chance of winning,” Holiday said. “You feel it in the locker room. For me, especially coming in a little nervous, just, ‘how is it gonna be the first day?’ You see Joe, the first day, almost losing his voice. He’s out there running around, passing the ball to people, telling them to get back, stopping practice. But I think once I actually got out there and was able to play and get that chemistry, I felt more of that competitiveness. … just being the first practice and what it’s gonna be like, but gradually, as it went on, it ended up being a fairly good day.”
Wyc Grousbeck described Holiday pouncing on teammates during the session and White struggled to effectively keep him out of plays screening. The offensive capabilities of a more ball-dominant point guard will become apparent, Holiday splitting time with Giannis Antetokounmpo and freeing him as a pick-and-roll partner in ways that could do the same for Tatum and Brown.
Paul Pierce attended Wednesday’s session, introducing another perspective as a former champion. Holiday joins this team as its only player to raise the Larry O’Brien trophy. His first message to new teammates conveyed how much energy and willpower a championship run requires. Holiday sensed Brown understands that and matches his competitive nature, these core players already becoming familiar in 2022 when Boston came back down 2-3 against the defending champion Bucks.
The Celtics burned out due to injuries and fatigue in the Finals after another seven-game Finals. Ball-handling and offensive issues cost Boston again one year later. Now, they hope Holiday can provide a solution. After practice, he and associate head coach Charles Lee, another member of those 2021 Bucks reunited by the trade, took the court to work on posting-up and shooting. Few shots failed to find net.
“We can both play on the ball, we both can play off it,” White said. “I don’t think either of us are really worried about positioning or anything like that. As the season goes on, we’re just gonna be more and more comfortable playing with each other and I think it’s gonna be fun … it starts with his physicality, ball pressure. He’s willing to pick-up full court, it’s hard to screen him, hard to get him off the body. So just bringing that physicality and that ball pressure will help us out a lot.”
