BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla showed off his intensity while celebrating with fans during the Celtics’ championship parade. He marched the Larry O’Brien trophy around the North End of Boston and carried it into restaurants. He created some unforgettable memories over the summer.
Still, Mazzulla said Tuesday morning at Celtics media day, “I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the offseason.”
Really?
“I mean, I enjoyed some parts of it,” Mazzulla said. “I think attachment was something that you have to be aware of, right? Like, I think one of the challenges of this offseason was detaching from the past and having an understanding of if you’re attached to a success or a failure for too long, that can be really dangerous.”
On the eve of training camp, Mazzulla’s words could be viewed as an informal mission statement for his team. After breaking through for a long-awaited championship last season, Mazzulla believes the Celtics need to look ahead to their next task. Even for a team that returned the entirety of its regular rotation, the quest to become the league’s first repeat champion since 2018 will pose new challenges.
“When you go through an experience like last year, it really just tests your internal motivation,” Mazzulla said. “And if you’re going to be externally motivated, that’s going to die out and you’ll kind of be exposed for your external motivation relatively quick, whether that’s one year or two years. But I think going through successes and failures kind of test your internal, intrinsic motivation as to like, what you’re really going after, you know?”
Can the Celtics use last season’s championship to propel them to a sustained run atop the league? No team has won back-to-back titles since the Warriors did so in 2017 and 2018, but Boston will enter the season well-positioned to compete for a second consecutive ring.
The team’s two All-Stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, could just be entering their primes. Their loaded supporting cast helped the Celtics complete a dominant regular season and playoff run. The team lost only two players from last season’s playoff roster, Svi Mykhailiuk and Oshae Brissett, who combined to play 87 minutes during the postseason.
Brad Stevens did make some fringe roster additions, including first-round pick Baylor Scheierman, but also focused on keeping all the key pieces around. Tatum, Derrick White and Sam Hauser all signed contract extensions over the offseason, joining Jrue Holiday who inked one shortly before the playoffs started. Stevens said he normally wouldn’t have minded “a tweak or two” to the rotation because such changes can galvanize a team, but said he believes the returners galvanize each other.
“I do think that these guys have a unique chemistry that I truly believe matters,” Stevens said. “And they deserve the opportunity to attack this challenge together.”
The Celtics won’t be whole when the regular season starts while starter Kristaps Porziņģis continues his recovery from offseason ankle surgery. Even so, Stevens shared positive news on the big man, saying the organization is “very, very pleased” and “maybe a little surprised” with Porziņģis’ progress. The center said he is already running and going through light contact work on the court. He said the medical team wants him to avoid rushing back, but he would move even faster through the rehab if the decision were up to him.
“For myself, obviously, if you ask me and I had to do my own protocol, I would probably go quicker, but that’s a good sign, I’m feeling really good,” Porziņģis said. “My ankle’s feeling really, really good and the quicker or the sooner I can get the green light to do more and more stuff … I’ll be happy and I’m sure I’m gonna be more than 100 percent ready for each stage (of the recovery) that’s coming up now.”
Returning the vast majority of production doesn’t promise the Celtics will recreate the brand of basketball that led to the franchise’s first championship since 2008. Can they stay so hungry now that they’ve won a ring? Can they remain committed to selfless basketball throughout another long season? Will each player return with a similar mindset even after accomplishing a lifelong goal?
Jaylen Brown delivered his best season ever after drawing motivation from a crushing 2023 Eastern Conference finals loss. Now, he’ll need to try to do it all over again after winning the Finals MVP award.
“Honestly, I feel the same,” Brown said. “Last year, before we lost, it was like the lowest of low for me. I felt like it was my responsibility when we lost in Game 7 and fell short. Now it’s like we won and it’s the same kind of deal, but just the opposite end of the spectrum, right?
“But it kind of feels the same when you look at it in hindsight. Because you can go one way or the other in both of those directions. When you’re at the bottom, you can go one way or the other. When you’re at the top, you can keep going or you can go down. It kind of feels like, really oddly enough, the same. So I’m excited just to start the journey again. Could’ve used another couple weeks (in the offseason), but no complaints here. I’d rather end every season like we did last year. So let’s get it going.”
The Celtics sounded predictably optimistic at media day. While explaining why it does feel different to begin the season as a champion, Tatum said “It was never just about trying to win just one.”
“Now you get to at least be in the same room with the other Celtics great teams, great players,” Tatum said. “All the guys I looked up to growing up won at least one championship. Now it’s just a conversation of, how great are you trying to be? What room or what tier are you trying to be mentioned in when it’s all said and done? And understanding the window you have to maximize that time.”
In the NBA, a championship window never seems to last for long. To maximize theirs, Mazzulla wants the Celtics to distance themselves from their recent title.
“The world tries to keep you attached to the past,” Mazzulla said. “The world tries to keep you attached to your latest success or your latest failure. And that’s where people get stuck where they’re in, is attachment. And so it was a balance of we can’t be attached to this past success. It would be the same as being attached to a past failure. So how can we detach from that with the understanding of taking the things, the DNA of the things that we need to do to try to go after greatness again?”
Mazzulla said the Celtics need to be honest with themselves. They are the returning champions now, but in some ways, not much has changed.
“If we would have lost last year, our goal would be to win a championship this year,” Mazzulla said. “So I think just clearly stating we want to win a championship every single year. That’s the goal, that’s the standard, that’s the expectation. So what happened in the past really doesn’t change when we step foot in the building on this day, it’s to win a championship. So that’s always going to be the goal.”
(Top photo of Jayson Tatum: Maddie Malhotra / Getty Images)
