Boston owner Wyc Grousbeck: 'These guys are fired up to be Celtics'

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4720641/boston-owner-these-guys-are-fired-up-to-be-celtics







Boston owner: 'These guys are fired up to be Celtics'

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Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck (holding the ball) sees many positives from the team's overseas trip. Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Staff Writer




WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck accompanied the team on its European exhibition expedition earlier this month and even beyond the two lopsided victories the team posted overseas, came away gushing about the makeup of this year's squad.

"I think I’ve seen 13 teams now and this is as good an energy -- positive energy and teamwork -- as we've had," said Grousbeck. "No fooling, the glass is more than half-full with these guys. These guys are fired up to be Celtics; they are glad to be here. They’ll do anything for the team."

Grousbeck is aware of rising expectations and those lofty computer-generated win projections. He cautioned against expecting too much out of this team as currently composed, but acknowledged he expects the team to take a step forward again this season. And much of that optimism comes from the chemistry and cohesion he saw in this group on the trip.

"I think [Celtics president of basketball operations] Danny [Ainge] picked some of these guys [based on their desire to help Boston build]. I think we’ve brought in guys, just as an example, David Lee and Amir Johnson, we’re not bringing in divas," said Grousbeck. "We’re bringing in guys who have been in the league and know how to do it right. And Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley, those guys aren’t worried about individual stats and they are not going to pout. They are going to get after you and try to strip the ball and try to pass it to somebody else. I love it. I loved the trip. The trip was one of the best weeks I’ve had with the team."

These overseas trips tend to get romanticized when teams go on to enjoy regular-season success, but Grousbeck truly believes it helped this team.

"I think so because we’re gone, we don’t have distractions of family, friends, wives, girlfriends, those folks all stayed back home. This was just us, and we’re on a boat in the middle of Lake Como [in Northern Italy] going up to a beautiful restaurant," he said. "And we are playing a couple of good teams and we’re seeing Celtics green all over the stands. I’m telling you, legitimately, no spin, it was a really good week."

So what are his realistic expectations for the season?

"I expect, right now, that we’re competitive, hard-nosed, and unselfish. It’s basically Celtics Pride," said Grousbeck. "But we’re not going to say we’re contending -- we’re not contending at the moment. But we’re taking another step forward and we’ll be alert to a major trade whenever we can do it. Otherwise, we could have three or even four first-round picks in June and a lot of depth on our team."

Grousbeck said his players have even higher expectations and he won't stop them from dreaming big. Watching the Celtics get ready for practice on Saturday, Grousbeck beamed watching Isaiah Thomas practice one-foot floaters on the practice court.

"Look at Isaiah practicing those one-foot shots. He is just so -- he’s a priceless addition," Grousbeck said of Boston's February trade deadline acquisition. Did the owner know he'd give the team as much of a boost as he did in vaulting Boston to a 24-12 record over their final 36 regular-season games and the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference?

"I was pretty sure. I was told by Danny and [coach] Brad [Stevens] that if we got I.T., we would be a notably better team," said Grousbeck. "And their pitches were correct."

A handful of news and notes from Saturday's pre-practice access:

• Guards Marcus Smart (illness) and Terry Rozier (knee) were available for Saturday's workout, putting Boston at full strength, though the team planned to go light after flying back from New York after Friday's loss to the Knicks.

• Stevens' thoughts after reviewing the film from Friday's first preseason loss: "We didn’t play very well. So we’ll address that this afternoon. ... Hopefully we’ll learn a lot from the film. I said it [Friday] night, you could hear their engagement on [the Knicks'] end, defensively. And you could see our lack of engagement. Hopefully we get better from it. I actually anticipated a little bit of this coming off of our travel, but, nonetheless, you never want it to happen. But it’s better that it happens now than 10 days from now. I said it the other day, I probably jinxed myself: We hadn’t had a dud yet. And the Knicks had a lot to do with it but we didn’t play well."

• Amir Johnson liked what he saw when Stevens received a rare technical on Friday night: "When he almost killed the ref on the floor and got a tech. That’s the first time I’ve kind of seen him get rowdy. I like that." Added Johnson, "He doesn’t show it very often, but, on the floor, you saw the vein go down his head and he was angry about [a lack of a call]. And I’ve got his back, too."

• Reflecting on rookie R.J. Hunter's brief cameo at point guard, Stevens quipped, "I think he could definitely do it, but it might be 10 years again until he does it [again]." The coach added, "The one thing about R.J. is that he can pass. He really has the ability pass in small areas, but I wouldn’t want to put him through the stress of being a point guard and making shots. That’s a really hard thing to do, to be able to handle the ball under that kind of duress and create offense." Hunter, the 28th pick in June's draft, has distinguished himself in training camp and has positioned himself to compete for immediate minutes despite Boston's depth.

• Johnson can understand Hunter's plight with adding weight. Said Johnson, the last prep-to-pros player in the league, "They used to call me Thin Wallace when I was in Detroit back in the day, but the weight gets on as you keep working as the years go by."



bob



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And, there will be more and more guys wanting to play for the Cs as the next couple of years pass by to the point that the "cold weather" will even no longer be considered a "factor". Stevens and company are about to start a new season that will further change the minds of many other NBA players about our team.

wide clyde wrote:And, there will be more and more guys wanting to play for the Cs as the next couple of years pass by to the point that the "cold weather" will even no longer be considered a "factor".   Stevens and company are about to start a new season that will further change the minds of many other NBA players about our team.

clyde,

Match this article, and what you posted about it, to the article about Philly tanking and your comments about that and you start to realize we have it much better than a lot of fans. At least our heads and hearts, as well as the ownership's, management's, coaches' and players', are in the right place.


bob


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