Marcus Smart, James Young bring urgency to Boston Celtics summer league practices

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Marcus Smart, James Young bring urgency to Boston Celtics summer league practices


Print Email Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com

on July 02, 2015 at 3:00 PM




WALTHAM -- After a marathon opening practice Wednesday, Boston Celtics summer league coach Jay Larranaga decided to go a bit lighter the following morning. He planned a more intense practice for later Thursday, and anyway, he has liked the spirits of his young team.

The Celtics summer squad features enough guards that Larranaga joked, perhaps, he has studied Villanova for ideas. More important than offensive sets is indoctrinating the youngsters into the culture Brad Stevens has established in Boston.

"That's a defensive-first mentality, a team-first mentality," Larranaga said Thursday. "So everything that we are doing, it's reinforcing and trying to demonstrate to them that this is how we do things here. To their credit, they've been great."

Setting the tone, unsurprisingly, is Marcus Smart. As by far the most accomplished player on the roster, the 20-year-old could feel above the summer league; a couple of months ago, he started in a playoff series against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, one gets the feeling a competitive hunger rumbles in Smart's stomach regardless of the circumstances. After the first practice, first-round pick R.J. Hunter pegged the intensity level at "100."

"Especially with Marcus Smart leading the way," said Hunter, one of four draft picks on the team. "He's an all-time competitor."

Smart entered the NBA with that mindset. The other Celtics returner on the summer club, James Young, needed work in that category, but appears to have adopted a new mentality over the offseason. Incredibly, Young remains the youngest player on the summer league squad -- younger than all eight rookies. He has been hardened by his professional experience, though, and indicated his work ethic is now better than ever. The lefty stopped using social media to "put aside" the distraction and claims he has gained 20 pounds of muscle in a quest to improve his physicality.

It remains to be seen how Young's changes spill over onto the court, but, in discussion, the shift in his urgency felt startling. One person he will miss: assistant coach Darren Erman, who departed for the New Orleans Pelicans last month. The two spent weeks in the gym this offseason working on defensive slides, communication, and awareness. Like any teenager, Young's defense could surely use more tightening, but he said he took the lessons to heart: "I've kinda got it built into me now."

By the end of last season, the 19-year-old almost sounded resigned to a small or nonexistent role. On Wednesday, he admitted inconsistent minutes and a constant shuttle to and from the D-League sapped his confidence. Now he appears reenergized by what he considers a fresh start and vows he will not be manhandled anymore.

"I felt like how I was, skinnier, getting pushed around and stuff like that," Young said. "That's not going to happen no more."

Elsewhere, first-round draft pick Terry Rozier has earned praise for his attitude, with Smart saying, "That's a good person to go up against every day in practice and that's a good person to have on your team."

Rozier has stated a desire to win the summer league championship, but the experience is about more than winning games. The young Celtics are learning how to grow, developing habits they hope will carry over to the regular season.



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