Jayson Tatum talks about the necessity for every member of the Celtics’ roster to buy into every rotation they try this season, even if it means coming off the bench.
Much like the 2008 Celtics following coach Doc Rivers' 'Ubuntu' ideology, everyone in Boston is buying into Joe Mazzulla's way of team before self.
When asked who the starters would be prior to Thursday's preseason finale against the Charlotte Hornets, Mazzulla quickly dispelled any notion of a stereotypical starting lineup.
"They are not our starters," Mazzulla said, "They are the first five guys starting the game from 12 [minutes] to seven [minutes]. What I mean by that is we can't get into this narrative of 'Al (Horford) is sacrificing' or 'Jrue (Holiday) is sacrificing.'"
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Mazzulla is making it a point to put egos aside in an effort to accomplish their main goal of bringing Banner 18 to Boston. For Mazzulla, the starting lineup is not an indication of the five best players on the roster. Instead, he will assumingly rotate the starting five based on their matchup, which is something the Celtics did often last season, rolling out a total of 26 different starting lineup combinations.
"All 17, 18 players are going to be asked to do things they don't want to do," Mazzulla added. "If we want to win, we all have to lose at something, and we are all going to lose a little bit of ourselves, and that is the goal. That's the narrative."
Personal accolades will mean nothing to Mazzulla this season - it's all about what everyone can do for the betterment of the team. Luckily, Mazzulla appears to have the players bought into the idea of a team-first approach.
"I think all of our guys at this juncture are open-minded to understand that if we want to win together, we have to lose individually at stuff, and that's the route we are going to take," said Mazzulla.
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The Celtics have been one of the more successful teams in the past few years, making deep playoff runs year after year. Following last season's heartbreaking exit in the Eastern Conference Finals, it's good to see players like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown help lead this team under Mazzulla's team-first approach.
Tatum proved his commitment to the Mazzulla mentality following the 123-110 preseason win over the New York Knicks, stating that, "Any given night, somebody might come off the bench, somebody might not finish. It's on all of us to understand it's for the betterment of the team. We have to buy into that."
While some players chase individual accolades and achievements, the Celtics will head into the season as a collective group with only one goal in mind: to win the 2024 NBA Finals.
