Kelly Olynyk is attending Boston Celtics summer league for a third consecutive year. Sort of.
Olynyk, who’s entering his third NBA season, won’t actually be playing in any summer league games this time around, but he did accompany the Celtics’ contingent to Salt Lake City over the weekend and will continue to practice with the team.
“You’ve got access to impeccable facilities in Waltham or in Boston, and you’ve got all the knowledge here,” the 24-year-old center told reporters Sunday, via The Boston Globe. “The coaches, the trainers — not only the strength trainers but I go to the medical trainers — whatever you need is here. Why go somewhere else and pay for it all or do any of that when they want you to be around and I want to be around?”
Celtics assistant coach Jay Larranaga, who will coach Boston’s squad in the three-game Utah summer league, views Olynyk’s non-required presence as a young player buying into the philosophy of head coach Brad Stevens.
“I think it’s the culture coach Stevens is creating here,” Larranaga said, via the Globe. “We like having guys around. We’ve had a lot of guys at the facility this summer working on their games, coming back just to say hello. … You saw Kevin Durant (on Saturday) supporting (the Oklahoma City Thunder summer league team in Orlando). It’s the right example to set. Kelly is one of our younger guys, but he’s on the right path in that way.”
Boston’s actual summer league squad will begin its Utah schedule Monday night against the Jazz.
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
