Celtics Begin Camp Ahead of the Curve

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Celtics Begin Camp Ahead of the Curve
















By Marc D'Amico
Celtics.com
September 29, 2012



WALTHAM, Mass. – Rajon Rondo was asked by Celtics.com if today’s first
day of training camp didn’t necessarily feel like Day 1. His response
indicated that he might have taken up acting this summer in addition to
his well-known GQ internship.




“No, it felt like Day 1 of camp,” he responded.




Rajon Rondo's summer leadership has sent the Celtics into training camp ahead of the curve.

Jim Rogash/NBAE/Getty Images






We’re calling his bluff.




This wasn’t a typical first day of preseason for the Boston Celtics. Not by any means.




First of all, the team underwent a major makeover this summer. A cast
of new players, including Jason Terry, Courtney Lee and three draft
picks, were added to the roster. Lee, who’s playing on his fifth team
in five seasons, is now the starting shooting guard, replacing the large
shoes of Ray Allen.




Under normal circumstances, a major offseason makeover like this would
certainly make for a difficult first day of practice for an NBA
basketball team. However, a summer of hard work and team bonding – most
notably at a week of practice out at UCLA, which Rajon Rondo organized –
has put the Celtics ahead of the curve.




“We had a chance to go out to L.A. on our own, work some plays,” said
captain Paul Pierce. “We changed some new sets. So today, we kind of
just went in there and from the drop everybody knew what we were doing,
had an idea, and that was great to see that from day 1.”




That may seem like a moot point to those on the outside who don’t
understand how difficult it is to learn a new team’s system, but as
Pierce elaborated, it became clear that this is a massive benefit.




“Oh, it’s a tremendous advantage,” Pierce said of the entire team
understanding the system. “Because for one, Doc doesn’t have to do too
much explaining. We can just kind of jump into things.”




That doesn’t typically happen on the first day of camp unless a team
brings back most of its players from the previous season. It most
definitely didn’t happen last season, when the Celtics and the rest of
the league were thrown into a condensed training camp days after finding
out that there would be a 2011-12 season.




One of the greatest advantages to having a regular offseason is the fact
that Boston’s rookies – and there are a lot of them – aren’t being
thrown into the fire of an NBA season without any nurturing. Last
season’s rookies, JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore, had almost no
knowledge of the team’s system before the first practice. They weren’t
able to work out with the team over the summer, and they couldn’t even
talk to coaches.




This year, draft picks Jared Sullinger, Fab Melo and Kris Joseph, along
with rookie signees Dionte Christmas and Jamar Smith, are already
well-versed in the Celtic way. They all played in two summer leagues
together and have been working out here at the practice facility for
months now.




Doc Rivers, for one, can’t ignore the fact that his rookies have been
playing in Boston’s system for months and that the veterans who were
brought in this summer spent that week in L.A. He can already see the
dividends paying off.




“It’s huge,” said Rivers. “Obviously we have a lot to teach them, but
you can see that they’ve played together, and I think that makes a big
difference.”




Playing together and being around each other are the first steps toward
developing team chemistry. And after last season, we all know how far
team chemistry can go. Sometimes it’s more important than the talent on
the roster, and that’s why Boston took the eventual champion Miami Heat
to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals despite a slew of injuries
and subpar talent compared to the Heat.




The good news for Boston is that chemistry is already budding within the
2012-13 version of the Celtics, according to Kevin Garnett.




In a not-so-succinct story, Garnett told reporters about a drive the
team took to a dinner Friday night. Many of them drove separately, and
many of the new acquisitions don’t exactly know their way around the
city just yet. Still, though, the players bobbed and weaved through
traffic together in a manner that stuck out in Garnett’s mind. He
couldn’t put it into words, but it was clear what he was trying to say:
the players were already operating as one and thinking on the same page
despite the fact that they were all in separate cars.




Garnett may have gone out on a pretty long limb by using that story to
describe the team’s current state of chemistry, but his point definitely
came across. This team is already on the same page, and chemistry is
only going to improve when the group makes its way halfway across the
world on Monday to Istanbul, Turkey.




That’s plenty of proof for us to call Rondo’s bluff.





bob




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