How Jayson Tatum, Payton Pritchard, and different Celtics are making ready for the season

Celtics

“I can not wait to get to Boston, man.”

Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard each sharpened their expertise over the summer season. Erin Clark/Globe Employees

The Boston Celtics will start enjoying basketball in just some brief months. However lots of their gamers have already began.

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A number of Celtics have been seen figuring out in preparation for the upcoming 2023-24 NBA season, or have posted themselves doing so (h/t Celtics Weblog). A few of these gamers have made public appearances at pro-ams, whereas others have engaged in non-public exercises surrounded by just some folks.

An instance of the latter can be ahead Jayson Tatum’s exercises in Los Angeles. Tatum labored together with his coach, Drew Hanlan, and Celtics legend Paul Pierce, who was in awe of Tatum all through the entire course of.

“Watching JT sharpen these instruments, seeing what greatness appears like,” Pierce stated in a video posted to Tatum’s Instagram account.

Pierce has by no means been shy to reward Tatum. He has watched the expansion of the Celtics’ latest celebrity over his six seasons within the NBA, and he believes that Tatum might finish his profession in a approach that few folks have ever finished earlier than him.

“[Tatum] might find yourself the best Celtic to ever placed on that uniform,” Pierce stated in February. “I’m telling you, that’s what I see. He’s obtained that sort of potential.”

Most individuals are properly conscious of Tatum’s expertise by now, however many are beginning to find out how good Payton Pritchard is. The guard has spent portion of his summer season in Las Vegas, coaching alongside a few of basketball’s finest younger gamers as a part of the USA Choose Workforce. And only recently, Pritchard teamed up with former Celtics star Isaiah Thomas on the Ball Don’t Cease Professional-Am in Vancouver, a sport he completed with a record-setting 61 factors.

Pritchard’s pro-am dominance is nothing new. The Celtics’ guard went viral through the summer season of 2022 after he scored 92 factors throughout a pro-am in Portland, Ore. With Marcus Sensible now not in Boston, Pritchard will doubtless have extra alternatives to indicate that he can dominate video games like he can pro-ams.

Even a number of the newer Celtics are beginning to get work in. Guard Jay Scrubb instructed Celtics Weblog’s Adam Taylor that he, rookie ahead Jordan Walsh and guards JD Davison and Dalano Banton have been figuring out collectively, and have additionally traveled to Atlanta to work out with guard Malcolm Brogdon and heart Al Horford. 

“I can’t wait to get to Boston, man,” Scrubb instructed Taylor.

The Celtics lool able to compete for his or her 18th championship subsequent season. All journeys begin with preparation, and it appears like many Celtics have began to take action.