The Four Most Interesting Things Said at Boston Celtics Practice on Sunday

CHARLESTON, SC — The Boston Celtics took over the McAllister Field House at The Citadel on Sunday as the team took training camp on the road to South Carolina.

Baylor and Hugo working on floaters before practice at The Citadel pic.twitter.com/W2EoqIDews
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@John_Karalis) October 4, 2026

“[It’s] just a continuation we left off,” Joe Mazzulla said of the trip. “Obviously, change of environment, but no, let's continue where we left off on the things that we're doing well, the things that we have to get better at, and then just spending time together.”

Spending time together is at heart of the four most interesting things said at Celtics practice on Sunday

Mazzulla on Togetherness, Adversity

"It never ends because there's always different things. Every team in the league is the most together team right now because we haven't traveled, no one's gotten benched, no one's been on a losing streak, no one's got blamed in the media, no one's had to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes and not get the ball. You learn those things as the season goes on and, and you learn how to work through those things together and you can't stimulate those. It just comes with time and so you know right now I would say all 30 teams feel great about themselves. We got to wait till adversity hits and adversity is even a strong word. I mean there's nothing really adverse about playing in the NBA, but we gotta wait till stuff doesn't go your way and then we got to figure out who we are and how we're going to be at our best."

It’s pretty clear that Mazzulla is hyper-focused on communication and togetherness during training camp. It’s hard to pin down why right now, but it’s been the most consistent message during the first week of camp.

Maybe it has something to do with the Jaylen Brown trade. If that deal proved anything, it’s that anyone can be moved at any time, and that kind of message could put some stress on a team. Also, Paul George came into town on a real negative note, and the assumption is that he’s not long for Boston, so it could be really easy for him to be less than fully invested.

Mazzulla has also talked a lot about how things change throughout a season. I don’t know if that's a reaction to last season or just something he anticipates, but he’s been clear that one measure of the Celtics will be how they handle that whenever it hits.

Just put a pin in this line of thinking. It’s going to be important at some point.

MANDATORY YOGA SESSIONS

Jordan Walsh: “We did like a team mobility thing. It was fun. Had a good time. It was all good … We just had like team stretching and like a yoga company … It was interesting. It was interesting. Felt good getting off the plane and doing that."

Payton Pritchard: “It's nice, little 15 minutes off right off the plane. Probably make that part of the routine … It wasn't mandatory before, so many people didn't do it. I wasn't one that really did it before, but it's a lot of benefits to it. It's cool that we all did it together. So hopefully we'll continue it.”

A mandatory post-flight yoga session? This goes along with the togetherness thing. It’s one more thing Mazzulla has the team doing everything together right now, and making it mandatory is another sign that he’s not giving anyone an out from team activities.

Even something as simple as these media sessions are a sign of Mazzulla’s emphasis on togetherness. Media is now being done before practices instead of after, making it so the rest of the day is uninterrupted.

Pritchard’s Free Throw Quest

“I feel like I put the defense in disadvantages at times, and I didn't like -- I get them in the air, and I'll go through a step-through. But it's just taking those moments to just take the easy foul, get to the physical line. When their hands are all over me, like learning how to like just go up into my shot and draw stuff like that. Like I said, I don’t want to be a flopper, like just falling on the ground. I'm not really somebody that falls on the ground a lot, but like when you have the opportunity to take a foul, like, take it.

This is a great example of Pritchard trying to improve himself without adding a new skill to his arsenal. Watch for him to rise into shot attempts when he feels contact this season. He was second in total minutes played but he only averaged 1.7 free throw attempts per game, taking only 19 more than Luka Garza, who played less than half as much as Pritchard.

He’s an 87% career free throw shooter, so getting himself to the line more often would be an easy way to push his points per game north of 20 for the first time in his career. He averaged 17 points per game last season, so two more free throws and an extra three-pointer every other game is all he needs.

Jordan Walsh, the NBA Veteran

"I think this year I definitely kind of came in feeling a little bit like a vet, for sure. I told Joe that and I think that was my biggest mistake of the year so far. Now I think he's trying to hold me to a whole other standard. I'll just go around and not say that anymore. But yeah, it definitely feels different. I definitely feel older, feel more experienced, especially for this team …

"It's different because we were having a drill one day. We were losing and me and PG were on the same team. Joe was like, 'You know what the standard is here. You know what we strive for. Go tell PG that.' I was like, 'You want me to coach PG? You want me to mentor him?' He's like, 'Yeah, you've been here for a while. You should do that.' I don't know if I could tell him something that he doesn't already know. So I try to kind of bring him into the culture and obviously he's embraced it as well as anybody else. That's kind of where it has took a turn."

It’s incredibly interesting to have Jordan Walsh mentoring Paul George on anything. I’d pay big money to get a recording of George’s internal monologue after hearing Mazzulla say that.

Walsh is in a fascinating position because he has the potential to be a game-changing defensive player, but he has to find a way to be a plus on the offensive end. If he’s truly feeling like a vet, then the game should be slowing down enough for him to make a bigger contribution on offense.

The biggest thing is his corner three-point percentage, which was only 37.8%. He needs that to be in the high-40% range. If he can get there, then he’ll have a great season. If he can’t then it’ll be tough to play him because it allows the defense to sag off of him. With two non-shooters as your starting and backup centers, putting another non-shooter on the floor will make it very difficult to get to the rim.

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