WALTHAM, Mass. – The season-opening practice on Saturday for the Celtics was Brad Stevens’ first crack at tinkering with player combinations.
And while fans may feel a sense of urgency for the Celtics’ coach to nail down a starting five and regular rotation, he readily admits he will not try and fast track the process.
“I’m not going to rush it,” Stevens said. “I’d like to have an initial rotation by the time we play in Milan but that’ll change by the time we play our first game.”
That said, there was nothing to glean from the team’s first practice which featured 5-on-0 drills focused on defensive rotations as well as offensive breakdowns and transition play.
“It was exactly what I wanted,” Stevens said of the team’s first practice. “This afternoon will be much more competitive.”
Naturally, the players are eager to get involved with more five-on-five work.
“Looking forward to it,” Evan Turner told CSNNE.com. “We’re all looking to get back out there and get at it.”
Said Celtics rookie R.J. Hunter. “It’ll be new for us rooks, but at the end of the day it’s still playing basketball. Summer league definitely helped, but there’s still a lot to learn.”
And that more than anything else is what Stevens is focused on these first few days of training camp.
The morning session consisted of watching film, some defensive rotation work along with offensive breakdown work and offensive transition drills.
As far as how the players performed, “The first day is the first day.”
Stevens jokingly talked about how the shooting this afternoon will likely leave a lot to be desired.
“We’ll break some of these windows, throw the ball all over the gym,” quipped Stevens. “That’s just how it goes.”
Even though Stevens will be implementing a system that’s similar to what the Celtics had last season, that doesn’t mean the teaching is any less now than it was a year ago.
“We have a lot to go through,” Stevens said. “There’s a lot of stuff you need to do to even be ready to practice well in a drill. Everything in practice is applicable to how we want to play in a game. Part of that is creating a structure on both ends.”