{"id":197433,"date":"2025-10-08T09:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/197433\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:37:07","slug":"4-things-to-watch-for-as-boston-celtics-open-preseason-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/197433\/","title":{"rendered":"4 things to watch for as Boston Celtics open preseason play"},"content":{"rendered":"

By all accounts, the Celtics have gotten after it<\/a> when it comes to training camp practices. The new-look C\u2019s have talked extensively about pace and physicality, dropping little crumbs of information about what they might look like this season.<\/p>\n

As the Celtics discover a new identity without Jayson Tatum<\/a>, they also went through major offseason changes. That means a few familiar faces will mix with an interesting supporting cast, many of whom are trying to prove they can be NBA contributors.<\/p>\n

The road starts for the Celtics this week with their first preseason game, set for 8 p.m. Wednesday against the Grizzlies in Memphis.<\/p>\n

Here are four things to watch for as the Celtics open preseason play this week:<\/p>\n

Physicality and pace<\/p>\n

The Celtics sound like they\u2019ve readied themselves for a mix of a track meet and a football game throughout training camp. Pace will likely be turned all the way up going forward. Plus, after a clearly-physical playoffs last summer, the Celtics have also put a lot of their focus on that part of the game<\/a>. The C\u2019s aren\u2019t as talented a team as last season, but that hasn\u2019t stopped C\u2019s coach Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff from tinkering with how to maximize the roster. As Jaylen Brown said, while the C\u2019s aren\u2019t as experienced as past years, they\u2019ll have to make up that difference with effort and speed. For now, that sounds like it\u2019ll be parts physicality and pace.<\/p>\n

How do the bigs look?<\/p>\n

Arguably the biggest unknown on the roster is the state of the big man rotation. A mix of Neemias Queta, Luka Garza, Xavier Tillman and potentially Chris Boucher are set to soak up those minutes. No position saw more turnover this summer with Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet<\/a> all elsewhere. While the Celtics certainly still have talent on the roster, their ceiling will likely be determined by what kind of production they get out of the big spot. That\u2019s too valuable a defensive position on a nightly basis. Who emerges out of the bigs will be a season-long watch as the Celtics were blessed with steady production over the past several seasons. But they\u2019re onto a new era now.<\/p>\n

Who emerges at wing?<\/p>\n

The Celtics still have Jaylen Brown, who\u2019s healthy after offseason knee surgery, and Sam Hauser, another guy who wasn\u2019t quite healthy throughout last season. But beyond them are a bunch of a hungry, young players trying to prove they belong in the league. That cast features Josh Minott, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh and perhaps some Hugo Gonzalez. All those guys have shown flashes with Minott playing his first three years in Minnesota. Otherwise, this is a group that hasn\u2019t had a consistent rotation spot in the NBA. The Celtics will need someone to step up among this group, especially if there are any injuries to one of their top guys.<\/p>\n

Do any of the two-way guys make any noise?<\/p>\n

The Celtics overhauled their three two-way guys this summer with three older rookies: Amari Williams (46th overall pick), Max Shulga (57th) and RJ Luis Jr. (undrafted, acquired from the Jazz). Last year, it was a mix of JD Davison (now on the Rockets), Drew Peterson (now on the Hornets), Anton Watson (waived, now with the Lakers) and Miles Norris (waived, now with Real Madrid). Williams and Shulga showed off a bit during Summer League as they\u2019ll spend time with the Maine Celtics this season. Luis didn\u2019t get to play in Summer League due to injury, so he hasn\u2019t been able to show as much yet. Regardless, while expectations are relatively low for two-way guys, they\u2019re also all new faces in the organization.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By all accounts, the Celtics have gotten after it when it comes to training camp practices. The new-look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-197433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}