Boston Celtics: Brad Stevens preaching unity as season rapidly approaches

The dog days of the NBA offseason are behind us. In just one week the Boston Celtics and all 29 other NBA franchises will be reporting to training camp. Luckily, Brad Stevens is displaying hopeful optimism about his team for the upcoming 2019-20 season…and unity is his main goal.

The 2019-20 Boston Celtics have a unique characteristic that last year’s team did not: a fresh start. Last year’s squad was a mess of egos and overlapping talent. The end result was an underachieving team that saw many of its most utilized offensive talents go their separate ways.

Now with last year’s toxicity in the rearview, Head Coach Brad Stevens can focus on building a contender for not only the upcoming season but for years to come. While Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Marcus Smart will all be returning from the ashes of the Kyrie Irving-led dumpster fire that was the 2018-19 Boston Celtics, there are several key elements to this year’s team that never knew how bad it was in Beantown last season.

Obviously, chief among them is new franchise point guard Kemba Walker. Even with all of the dysfunction of the Charlotte Hornets front office, Walker always dealt with his bad situation with class. He now plays on a contender for the first time in his eight year career.

Likely starting center Enes Kanter also welcomes a fresh situation after a tenuous tenure with the New York Knicks and a successful run with the Portland Trailblazers that unfortunately led to borderline disrespectful negotiations with Rip City management.

In addition to Kanter and Walker, the Boston Celtics could be welcoming up to four new rookies in the rotation with Carsen Edwards, Grant Williams and Romeo Langford all on guaranteed deals and Tacko Fall looking to nab the 15th and final roster spot. Stevens’ Celtics have a clean slate, and with that, he plans to get his guys playing together.

In speaking with Jay King of the Athletic, Stevens laid out pretty clearly what he wanted from his guys in 2019-20:

"“My care is that we play with great effort and togetherness. … All the technical basketball plays and system and all that stuff, that stuff will figure itself out. I feel like we’re in a good foundation there. But we have to play like a Boston team should.”"

To be clear, last year’s Boston Celtics were not a bad team. 48 wins and a first round playoff sweep is not what anyone would consider a failure of a season. But to see how the talent all failed to mesh when it was needed most (lost in a gentlemen’s sweep in the second round) shows what kind of organizational dysfunction the team suffered through.

Dysfunction is not typically a word synonymous with the Boston Celtics or, frankly, New England as a whole. The Patriots showed what they thought of Antonio Brown’s dysfunction, releasing him from the team even after catching a touchdown pass in his first and only start. The Boston Red Sox overhauled their entire 2011 “super-team” after finding out players were drinking in the clubhouse during their incredible late-season collapse.

The Boston Celtics would be playing like a Boston team should by overcoming the dysfunction of last season and bringing championship number 18 to title-town. As the man who couldn’t control the locker-room last season, Stevens understands that getting his guys to come together is the only way to overcome more talented teams around the league.

It’s on him to make it happen. In a week’s time, that process begins.