Amir Johnson impresses defensively during short Boston Celtics scrimmage

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Amir Johnson impresses defensively during short Boston Celtics scrimmage






Amir Johnson (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Print Email Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com

on September 27, 2015 at 8:59 PM, updated September 27, 2015 at 9:09 PM




WALTHAM -- Brad Stevens did not enter the Boston Celtics' first training camp scrimmage with high expectations. He thought the ball would fly around the gym, turnovers piling high as players started the process of rebuilding old habits and learning new ones.

Just as the head coach anticipated, the play fell far short of championship quality.

"The first time we went live (Saturday night in the second session of a two-a-day), it went exactly how we predicted," Stevens said Sunday afternoon before training camp continued with another practice. "It was awful."

After the initial batch of wretchedness, the players settled in a bit and accomplished what Stevens wanted. One who impressed head coach Brad Stevens was Amir Johnson. Asked specifically about the big man, Stevens replied: "There's little things that go into winning that you try to talk about that just don't get noticed enough. And we saw it yesterday. In a 10-minute scrimmage, I thought he was terrific defensively in a system he hasn't played in yet -- largely because he played with a motor regardless of whether he made mistakes or not."

One thing the Celtics could have used last season: a strong defender in the frontcourt.

Johnson signed with the Celtics as a free agent in July. Though he didn't expect to field any interest from the team, he received a call from Boston on the first night of the free agency period. Stevens and president of basketball operations Danny Ainge both thought Johnson's versatile skill set and selfless mentality would allow him to fit well with any other big man on the roster.

"Offensively he's just a real good team player," Stevens said. "He can catch the ball in the seam off of a pick-and-roll and make the right pass. He can catch the ball in the seam and make a floater. He can dunk it on the roll. He's a good rim-runner. I just think the biggest thing that would probably summarize it is, when we looked at our list of bigs at that time and certainly now, Amir fits with all of them. And being able to fit next to somebody is a big part of it."

Johnson plays in the frontcourt, of course, where the Celtics are stocked with capable players. Minutes will be at a premium, but the big man's ability to slide next to anyone should help him earn plenty of court time. Some front office figures around the league considered his two-year, $24-million contract (the second year is nonguaranteed) one of the summer's best values because of the many ways he can contribute to winning basketball.

Olynyk's eye still not back to form

Prompting memories of Gigi Datome, Kelly Olynyk wore his hair in a bun Sunday. The big man also sported apparent swelling over his left eye -- the five-month old remnant of a pre-game elbow he took from former teammate Shavlik Randolph in April.

"That's still from last year," Olnyky said. "Yeah, Shav got me pretty good, then he just fled the country."

Randolph signed with a Chinese team in July.



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