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8 takeaways from Celtics Media Day
"If I ever get to the point where I start basing my motivations on the expectations of others and people I've never met before, I'll retire and quit."
After a transformative summer, the 2025-26 Celtics are set to begin a new season.
There will be plenty of new faces in Boston as the team opens training camp on Tuesday, with Joe Mazzulla, Brad Stevens, and multiple players addressing a painful summer and both the challenges and opportunities that await this season during Monday’s Media Day session.
Beyond Jayson Tatum’s ongoing recovery from a torn Achilles and Bill Nye crashing Jaylen Brown’s presser, here are eight additional takeaways from Monday’s interviews at the Auerbach Center.
Stevens isn’t putting a ‘ceiling’ on this team
A year after the Celtics opened training camp as both the defending NBA champions and title favorites, expectations have shifted for Boston in the span of a few months.
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Beyond Tatum’s Achilles injury that could sideline him for most, if not all, of the 2025-26 season, Brad Stevens and his staff had to tear down a majority of the roster due to looming luxury-tax penalties and other cap-related crunches.
Boston ultimately traded away two lineup stalwarts in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, while the team’s cap limitations also made the team unable to retain free agents like Al Horford and Luke Kornet.
Despite that overhauled roster, Stevens said that he is no stranger to Celtics teams being overlooked as title contenders — especially during his early years as the team’s head coach.
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“The one thing that I think I’ll never take for granted is being in the mix and having a chance,” Stevens said.”And as long as you’ve got the core that we have, then we have to do the very best we can to to ultimately get to the point where we can compete at that level, right? That’s our North Star. And so, yeah, there’s no question. There’s motivation.
“I’m excited for the guys — as a whole — but I’m really excited for the guys that are unproven. … Can you take what they’re capable of and make it an every night, consistent, thing — and when you have a chip on your shoulder, when you’re competitive, and when you’re motivated because you haven’t gotten opportunities yet? Some really good things can happen.
“So I’m interested to see it, and we’re just going to evaluate it these first few months and see how it looks, see how it comes together. Be patient with the fact that we are getting some new guys together, but at the same time, be very optimistic, not limit us, and don’t put a ceiling on us.”
Money played into losing Horford, Kornet
Boston’s offseason trades that offloaded both Porzingis and Holiday’s contracts were a necessity, given the debilitating luxury-tax penalties that were set to hit the Celtics’ fiscal framework.
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But, speaking on Monday, Stevens acknowledged that the Celtics tried to retain both Horford and Kornet in free agency, even with their limited cap space.
“We tried,” Stevens said. “We offered both Al and Luke the opportunity to stay, but if I think you can see where our contracts were with who we signed. We were gonna be handcuffed around the aprons a little bit.”
Kornet ultimately signed a four-year, $41 million contract with the Spurs this offseason, while Horford reportedly signed a muti-year deal with the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
“Those phone calls are hard because you’re not going to see those guys every day, but you’re also, like, jacked for him to get a chance to do that,” Stevens said. “And then Al, same thing. We gave out an offer, but there wasn’t any expectation that he wouldn’t take a bigger offer elsewhere and go play, because that’s his right. He’s been great for us, and we very much value our time together.”
Mazzulla delivers another classic quote about lower expectations
As expected, Mazzulla brushed aside a question about the presumed lower expectations put in place for this Boston roster.
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His summation of Boston’s outlook this season and the outside noise surrounding the team was on-brand for the intense head coach.
“If I ever get to the point where I start basing my motivations on the expectations of others and people I’ve never met before, I’ll retire and quit,” Mazzulla said.
“So, to me, you wake up every day and you have a standard and expectation for your family, for your household, and then when you come in, for the building. And regardless of who’s on the team, that will never change,” he added. “It doesn’t guarantee you anything. You got to be able to push yourself, you got to be able to hold yourself to a standard and that’s not only at home that’s when you come to work everyday.”
Jaylen Brown isn’t buying into narratives about being No. 1 option
With Tatum sidelined, Jaylen Brown is expected to shoulder most of the scoring burden on Boston’s roster this season.
Brown is no stranger to stepping up as a top option — averaging more than 20 points per game in six of his nine seasons with the Celtics while also taking home NBA Finals MVP honors in 2024.
Brown was asked on Monday if the discourse around his ability to be Boston’s top player motivates him.
“To be honest, I feel like in the past, the outside voices, I would be lying if I said they didn’t motivate me because they did,” Brown said. “At this stage in my life, I’m not sure if I gain motivation from that. I feel like, maybe the narrative that we have grown to see like the one option or whatever the case may be, to me, that’s never really been a thing.
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“I think that’s just only — basketball, it’s not like that. People who know the game know that any given night anything could happen, etc. and then like you have number one options on offense, but you also have number one options on defense and stuff like that. We only focus on the offensive side of basketball, but what about defense? … We only really care about the entertainment, about the highlights, the setbacks, the offense part, but you know number one option has to do a lot with defense as well.”
Anfernee Simons ready to embrace new role
For all of the talk of Boston’s offseason departures, the Celtics do have some intriguing new faces who could play key roles on this reworked roster.
Leading the way for Boston is Anfernee Simons, who was acquired by Boston as part of the deal with Portland that sent Jrue Holiday out to the West Coast.
The 26-year-old guard could be a dependable scoring option for Boston this season, especially after averaging 19.3 points per game last season and shooting 38.1 percent from 3-point range for his career.
But, Simons will have to adjust this season as more of a secondary scoring option beyond Brown, while also fine-tuning his defensive game.
Simons — who is also on an expiring contract — believes he’s up for the challenge in his new surroundings.
“We’ve talked about it,” Simons said of working on his defensive game. “It’s just a matter of if I want to do it or not. It’s really that simple. Coming into a culture like this, you have to be able to adapt or you’re not going to be in the position that you want to be in. Whether it’s playing or not playing.
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“To me, it’s really that simple. That’s the honest conversations we’ve had about it. He always says that you’re not as bad as people think you are. That’s good to hear. But I also got to do the work, too, to get better on that end and focus on exactly what we need to do on the defensive end.”
Count Mazzulla among those who are excited to see what Simons has to offer on the Celtics beyond his scoring touch.
“I’m excited to have him,” Mazzulla said. “He’s been in this league a long time and he’s shown that he can do some things and just brings another piece to our team, to our roster. And again, the message is the same. Don’t put yourself in a box about how you can impact the game.”
Sam Hauser addresses trade rumors
It was an anxious offseason for several lineup regulars given Boston’s cap situation.
While Porzingis and Holiday were ultimately shipped out, other regulars like Derrick White and Sam Hauser also heard their name mentioned in trade rumors as Boston tried to cut down their luxury-tax bill.
Hauser was candid about the reality facing players under the new CBA as teams routinely have to cut payroll with each new season.
“Of course. You try to block it out, but you really can’t, to be honest with you,” Hauser said of those trade talks. “But I know it’s part of the business. I was prepared for whatever. If I was gonna get shipped, great. I stayed, thankfully. I’m glad to be here.
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“But even if I were shipped, I had no hard feelings here. They gave me an opportunity when no one else did. They extended me. They had to do what they had to do, and I understood it. But I’m glad I’m here, to say the least.”
New rule changes don’t change Pritchard’s approach
The NBA augmented its rule book earlier this month, with missed end-of-period halfcourt heave attempts no longer counting towards an individual player’s field-goal percentage in NBA games.
That’s welcome news for Payton Pritchard, who has made it a habit to chuck up shots from long range at the end of quarters.
But, given Pritchard’s knack for sinking those heaves — as seen during Boston’s title-clinching Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals — he said that the new rule wouldn’t have changed his approach on the court.
“I would’ve taken them regardless, but maybe it’ll benefit me in having a higher 3-point percentage,” Pritchard said. “Maybe it’s a good thing for me, because I definitely took one probably about every game. So I might go from a 41 percent to a 43 percent [shooting percentage].”
Josh Minott praises Mazzulla, despite calling him a ‘weirdo’
Even before training camp gets underway, new Celtics free-agent pickup Josh Minott has already been impressed with Mazzulla’s coaching style.
But, the 22-year-old forward Minott was also candid that some of Mazzulla’s comments and overall outlooks can be … unique.
“Man, it’s amazing. He’s inspiring,” Minott said of Mazzulla. “Truthfully. He’s a little bit of a weirdo. He’s a great dude… From the month and a half of knowing him, I feel like I’d run through a wall for the man. He just has that effect on people.”
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Minott was not the only newcomer to praise Mazzulla and his approach as head coach. New big man Chris Boucher said that Mazzulla has already made him feel like a key cog on the team after he spent the past seven years with the Toronto Raptors.
Boucher said that he was baptized last week, and Mazzulla was in attendance for it.
“Just the fact that they showed that I’m family, brotherhood… It’s not easy to move in and start over again,” Boucher said. “But Joe really helped me with that. Brad, too. It’s been a really, really, really warm welcome.”
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