Kristaps Porzingis thinks taking part in with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown ‘traces up completely’

Celtics

“These guys are all about profitable, and I wish to be part of it. I feel it might be an ideal combine.”

With the addition of Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics have three gamers at age 27 or youthful who’ve made an NBA All-Star crew.

Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum have a possibility to chase a championship collectively as they enter the prime of their careers.

“I feel it traces up completely. We’re related age,” Porzingis stated throughout an interview with Celtics in-house reporter Marc D’Amico. “I feel this can be a good age for a basketball participant since you begin to mature. You see, basketball slows down, you may have extra expertise, perhaps your priorities change a bit of bit. These guys are all about profitable, and I wish to be part of it. I feel it might be an ideal combine.”

Staying wholesome has been a difficulty for Porzingis all through his profession. However final yr, he performed in 65 video games and averaged 32.6 minutes, each of that are probably the most he’s performed since 2017. He feels that his finest years are forward of him.

“I feel the work paid off for me,” Porzingis stated. “I checked out my sport, I checked out how I could be extra environment friendly and actually simply analyzed myself. It paid off final season, and all of the work I put in off the court docket to remain wholesome with my physique maturing and attending to that age helped. I consider I’ve some nice, nice high-level years forward of me.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla stated that the 7-foot-3 Porzingis provides steadiness to a beforehand guard-heavy roster.

“I feel it’s a steadiness of how we wish to play,” Mazzulla stated. “These guys have gotten higher of their careers at taking part in collectively and taking part in as a crew. I feel that was one of many strengths we had this yr, we have been in a position to make the most of our roster and our depth. With Kristaps coming in, that’s a bit that we will implement into our system and our identification.”

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens stated that the Celtics have a North Star purpose of profitable a championship this season, and that he’s gotten approval from the crew’s possession to proceed constructing round Tatum, Brown, and Porzingis.

“We’re actually fortunate. We’ve acquired the inexperienced gentle to proceed so as to add,” Stevens stated. “I feel the largest factor for us is to proceed to be good about constructing a crew. Clearly you’re at all times it from the standpoint of this yr, but in addition down the street. However, I do suppose we’re lucky that we have been deep into the tax final yr, and we’ll be deep into it final yr with the inexperienced gentle to proceed to do it.”

Porzingis stated he got here to Boston to win, and in an effort to do this, he’ll should proceed to be a constant low submit menace who can area the ground to create extra alternatives for Brown and Tatum.

“I wish to come right here to make life simpler for these guys,” Porzingis stated. “Hopefully with my talent set and my expertise, I can take some strain off of these guys, and that’s it. I got here right here to attempt to make this crew higher. I’m excited to play with such high-level guys who’ve been there from yr to yr and have that have already. I feel it might be a terrific mixture.”