Before departing for Memphis, where the Boston Celtics will face the Grizzlies in their preseason opener, they held a three-hour practice. Jaylen Brown told Hardwood Houdini that Monday's session at the Auerbach Center was physical with an "intense pace."
Those two descriptors are the themes of Boston's training camp. At the defensive end of the floor, the Celtics intend to dial up their aggression this season. They also want to rev the pace they play with.
Their preparation, physically and mentally, to ensure they can sustain that approach throughout the upcoming campaign predates training camp. It has allowed them to build on offseason workouts leading up to that latter. That put them in a position to receive quite the superlative from Brown.
"The coaching staff has done a good job of setting the tempo on pace," he told Hardwood Houdini on Monday. "This preseason has probably been my hardest preseason, I think I've had [from] a conditioning standpoint and a physicality standpoint, but that's what we're going to need this season."
That approach, and what the Celtics are pouring into training camp, is paramount to them overcoming this offseason's loss in talent by winning with pace, physicality, conditioning, and mindset.
Jayson Tatum's new job
Tuesday, the Duke Blue Devils announced that Jayson Tatum is the men's basketball program's new chief basketball officer. In that role, he will be a special advisor to head coach Jon Scheyer.
"In this role, Jayson will leverage his career success to provide perspective and guidance on basketball development, leadership, and life as a successful athlete, leaning on the lessons he first learned at Duke."
While the Celtics star only spent one season in Durham, North Carolina, unlike when he got drafted into the NBA, it's a place he chose to take his basketball talents.
His connection to his school includes a recent return to attend the men's basketball team's intrasquad scrimmage at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Impressively, Tatum was present at the Auerbach Center the next day.
JT IN THE BUILDING‼️ @jaytatum0 pic.twitter.com/KdjeZgRdiC
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) October 4, 2025
In conjunction with the four-time All-NBA First Team selection getting named the Blue Devil's men's basketball program's inaugural chief basketball officer, he joined Scheyer for a recent edition of The Brotherhood Podcast. During his appearance, Tatum offered an update on his rehab from his torn Achilles tendon.
"I'm feeling great," shared Tatum. "I'm back on the court. I'm back working out, just starting to feel a lot more like myself…I feel great and I'm just happy to be back on the court."
While Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated recently poured cold water on the idea of him returning around the All-Star break or in March, what the six-time All-Star is already doing on the hardwood is as encouraging as it is impressive.