Al Horford, Joe Mazzulla and Payton Pritchard discuss their emotions ahead of the Celtics banner-raising ceremony at the season home opener vs. the Knicks.
The Boston Celtics bench was widely considered a weakness to start the 2023-24 season. By the end of the championship campaign, it had established itself as one of the best second units in the league.
The "Stay Ready Crew" will again play a pivotal role throughout Boston's title defense. Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser will continue to be counted on to provide a scoring punch. Big men Luke Kornet, Neemias Queta, and Xavier Tillman will be asked to step up, especially while Kristaps Porzingis recovers from injury. Jordan Walsh, Drew Peterson, JD Davison, Jaden Springer and Baylor Scheierman will each look to take a significant step forward in their development.
Duplicating last year's success is a tall task, but former C's guard Eddie House believes this group is capable of being even better for the reigning champs in 2024-25. He explained why in the latest episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast with Chris Forsberg.
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"I'm expecting them to be better this season," House said. "Because those are the type of players that they are. Everybody is looking to elevate their game, whether it be Payton Pritchard trying to average more points, maybe average more assists. Sam Hauser's been shooting maybe better from the 3, even though he shot better from the 3. I think all of them come into this season with goals. Luke Kornet's the same way. Also, (Neemias) Queta, him having an opportunity to get more minutes.
"All of these guys are looking at, 'OK, how do I affect winning? And what do I have to do to affect winning?' And to me, I feel like they're gonna take a step forward because I've been around them, I've seen them when they didn't win a championship and they were talking about winning a championship, and then they won a championship. And now they're talking about doing the things to make sure they can win another championship. I have to believe the work that they put in, the work that they believe in themselves, and then also you gotta look at Joe Mazzulla and the coaching staff. They believe in those guys. They know they're gonna have to lean on them. So I'm expecting them to take it a notch up a little bit."
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House, a member of the 2008 NBA champion Celtics, knows from experience that the stars and role players will push each other behind the scenes to be better.
"Every single day. Whether it's in the weight room, whether it's if you're doing conditioning drills, whether it's on the treadmill and guys are just doing sprints, everybody is pushing each other," House said. "I think that goes a long way. Guys that are the role players, the guys that come off the bench, when they push the stars, the stars push them as well. That's when you have something special and I think that's what this team is about. Everybody's just pushing to be the best version of themselves and to be the best version for this team."
Also in the episode:
- Brian Scalabrine on similarities between this team and the 2008 Celtics
- Michael Holley on what could derail the season
- Kayla Burton talks expectations for Jayson Tatum
- Tom Giles talks the Celtics’ chances of repeating
- Abby Chin on Jaylen Brown’s motivation
