The Celtics’ training camp actually started weeks ago

BOSTON — Laughter reverberated across the Auerbach Center as the Celtics opened training camp on Tuesday morning.

Mike Conley and Payton Pritchard kicked off the day with some synchronized dribbling drills, Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman practiced corner three-pointers through contact, and Mitchell Robinson and Amari Williams worked on form shooting and push-shots. All the while, general manager Brad Stevens sat courtside to watch the roster he constructed this offseason take the floor.

For the first time since May, when the Celtics’ season abruptly ended at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers, beat reporters returned to the parquet to film the players’ on-court work and ask a litany of questions.

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But though Tuesday marked the first official day of camp, it quickly became clear it was far from the players’ first day working together, as evidenced by Baylor Scheierman playfully shoving Mike Conley as if they were longtime teammates.

Jayson Tatum invited the team to come out to Los Angeles, where he spends a portion of his offseason, for offseason workouts, and a critical mass took up the offer, including Paul George, Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Jordan Walsh, Mike Conley, and rookies Chris Cenac Jr. and Dillon Mitchell, among others.

“JT hit the group chat, invited us all out, and most of us were able to make it work with our schedule,” Hauser said. “So it was cool to get a bunch of guys out there earlier and get acclimated and get used to being around each other.”

While in LA, players spent time together both on and off the floor.

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“We did a lot of work on the court, played some golf, had some dinners,” Hauser said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Walsh, fresh off his fourth summer as a Celtic — and the signing of a 3-year extension — said the intensity of this summer’s workouts stood out.

“It’s been really, really competitive,” Walsh said. “I would say it’s one of our better summers for sure. There’s a lot of guys that came to compete every day.”

Scrimmaging took center stage: “We played 7-game series in a day, or 8-game series, 9, whatever it is, in a day. So every guy [was]…

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Publish date : 2026-09-29 16:43:00

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