Brad Stevens won’t complain about returning to work so soon.
The Boston Celtics head coach revealed his expectations for the training camp his team will hold ahead of the 2020-21 NBA season. With the campaign set to begin Dec. 22, Stevens predicts a “unique” training camp and he’ll depend on lessons he learned prior to the resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season in the Orlando, Fla., bubble in order to position the Celtics for success.
“It is a short offseason,” Stevens said. “But in talking to our guys, we’ve always recognized that these are unique times. We’re really lucky to do the jobs we do and to have the opportunity to compete.
“It is going to be a unique training camp, probably for us. (It will be) almost more like the (NBA Orlando) bubble training camp than a normal training camp just because we’re going to have to ramp them up at the appropriate rate just because we’ll have just gotten done playing two months ago by the time we start.
“That’s assuming all this stuff passes. I’m going with that assumption because we’ve got to be prepared for that.”
For those with the shortest of memories, here’s a refresher: the Miami Heat eliminated the Celtics from the Eastern Conference Final after six games Sept. 27.
Just under three months span the end of the old and start of the new NBA seasons, giving the Celtics a narrow window to refresh and restart.
Like much of what has transpired in 2020, the NBA schedule is out of the Celtics’ control, so it’s no surprise Stevens is willing to give it his best shot regardless of the circumstances.
