BOSTON — The Boston Celtics were back at TD Garden on Wednesday night for their last game before the All-Star break. They welcomed the San Antonio Spurs, who made a massive trade for De’Aaron Fox at the deadline, pairing him with Victor Wembanyama. But for the Celtics fans truly in the trenches, all that was secondary to the debut of Torrey Craig.
Craig signed a deal with the Celtics on the night of the deadline, filling out their 14th roster spot after they traded Jaden Springer to the Houston Rockets (dumping his salary). The 34-year-old forward missed his first few games with the Celtics, but he was available to make his debut on Wednesday.
And Craig looked solid.
Joe Mazzulla knows that integrating Torrey Craig into Celtics system will take time
He finished with six points, shooting a perfect 2-of-2 from beyond the arc. But perhaps more noticeable was how short his first stint on the floor was.
Craig checked in with 4:14 to go in the first quarter, but he was yanked in under two minutes. Though he managed to force a turnover in that short time span, it looked like Joe Mazzulla wasn’t pleased with some of his positioning.
After the game, Mazzulla spoke about Craig’s debut, and his insight is something that every Celtics fan should hear.
“One, you got to rely on his experience. He's been around a long time. He's played a lot of basketball. It's not rocket science,” Mazzulla said. “So, I think it's just simplifying it as much as we can, but also utilizing the experience that he's had. He's done a lot of great things for good teams, and that's why we have him. And so, we want to take advantage of that.
“At the same time, have an understanding of how versatile he can be for us. And every team that you're a part of, you play a different role, and so, his role is important in some of the stuff that we're able to do.”
Craig wasn’t perfect in his debut, but Mazzulla and the Celtics understand the difficulties of adjusting to a new system. And Craig gets that, too.
“He's been great as far as understanding that. Even during the games, asking questions. And during film session,” said Mazzulla. “So, everyone's going to make mistakes. Even the guys that have been here in our system have made mistakes. It, to me, goes back to the mistakes with effort vs. the mistakes with non-effort. And so, he's been a player for a long time who's played through mistakes and is a high-energy, high-physical guy.”
On top of that, Mazzulla is excited to lean into the versatility that Craig brings on the defensive side of the floor.
“He's got an important role just because of his versatility,” Mazzulla said. “So, it's going to take time for him to understand the language and the things that we do on both ends of the floor. And you can watch as much film and walk through it, but until he's in the game, it's going to just continue to be a conversation of how we can utilize his versatility on both ends of the floor.
“So, he did some of that tonight, with his defensive versatility, and then, making those two shots. So, we just got to get him up to speed.”
For fans eager to watch Craig ball out for the Celtics, it’s important to understand how much time it can take to be fully entrenched in a system. The Celtics have played with the same group of guys for almost two years now. Getting plopped into the middle of that can’t be easy.
But Mazzulla, and more importantly, Craig, are ready to work at it until they see positive results.