Friday night time’s blockbuster commerce sending former Minnesota Timberwolves massive man Karl-Anthony Cities to the New York Knicks prompted many to query whether or not or not New York now has the expertise to beat the reigning-champion Boston Celtics in a seven-game collection.
It’s protected to say that the Cs don’t appear to be shaking of their boots over this one.
Sunday marked the primary time Boston held apply for the reason that information of the swap broke. Some highlights of the session included duck-duck-goose with the youngsters and wiffleball.
Now, the Knicks have been a whole joke of a franchise for my whole lifetime. I believe I’ve seen them play previous the primary spherical of the playoffs simply thrice. It’s fairly humorous that they’ve put collectively their most proficient roster in fairly a while simply to have the Celtics having probably the most enjoyable attainable, proper of their face.
Boston’s enjoyable and video games didn’t come with out a objective, although (do you actually suppose Joe Mazzulla would do something with out a cause?). The workforce was capable of invite their households to the Auerbach Heart for his or her last apply earlier than heading to kick of the preseason in Abu Dhabi.
“Gotta maintain the steadiness,” Mazzulla stated of Sunday’s household day. “Nice to have the youngsters to look at their dads compete.”
That is nothing new for the Rhode Island native. He hasn’t been shy about seeing nearly every little thing as a chance for studying. Mazzulla has had his guys take part in a number of unorthodox actions since taking up the pinnacle teaching position two years in the past. Sunday was simply one other instance.
For his gamers, the non-basketball stuff may be a good way to reset earlier than issues actually get getting in apply.
“You get to get your thoughts off the sport for a second earlier than all of us lock in for the apply,” Derrick White stated of Mazzulla’s outside-the-box apply actions (h/t Noa Dalzell). “You possibly can study a lot from each sport. Any time you may have enjoyable out right here, that’s the objective.”
Mazzulla was certain to notice that his guys had been competing exhausting from the beginning of coaching camp and that he was happy with them for setting the tone from the get-go.
As for Cities and his arrival to a rival, he was the recipient of reward from a number of Celtics.
If you happen to ask Al Horford, KAT’s versatile skillset goes to be good for Boston’s contending counterpart.
“Karl is a superb participant. It’s going to be good for them. He does a number of issues on the ground.”
Boston’s man in cost echoed the reward, however burdened that his guys have to concentrate on themselves and put within the work each single day.
“Karl-Anthony Cities is a superb participant and they’re an incredible workforce,” Mazzulla defined. “We’ve gotta concentrate on us and we’ve gotta get higher each day.”
The Celtics will fly to Abu Dhabi on Monday to prepare for Friday’s preseason opener towards the Denver Nuggets.
For extra on how the Cities commerce impacts the Celtics, try the most recent “How ‘Bout Them Celtics” episode the place Jack Simone and I break it down.
