Before Friday night's blockbuster, the Knicks already represented arguably the top external threat to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. Now they've added a floor-spacing center in place of Julius Randle -- music to Jalen Brunson's ears.
Compared to New York's now former power forward, this also affords them more size in double-big lineups.
Losing Donte DiVincenzo will sting, and the first-round pick the Knicks are sending the Timberwolves via the Pistons could prove the most significant part of this trade. However, an offense featuring Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, who should benefit from his time as the top-scoring option with the Nets, and OG Anunoby has the potential to wreak havoc.
But when asked for his outlook on a conference rival making its second major move of the offseason as it aims to dethrone the reigning champions, Al Horford kept it brief.
"Great player," stated the 17-year veteran. "He's gonna be good for them. He does a lot of things on the floor."
While an awareness of what's happening outside of Boston is important, Horford's head coach wants the focus to remain internal.
"I mean, all teams have tried to make roster moves to get better," stated Mazzulla on Sunday at the Auerbach Center. "Karl-Anthony Towns is a great player. They're a great team. We got to focus on us, and we got to get better every day."
That pursuit of their best self and maintaining last season's "win the day" mantra has the Celtics off to an intense start at training camp, placing a premium on fundamentals and conditioning.
"Hammering those fundamentals. The stuff that we're working on now is stuff that we talked about in the Finals," said Derrick White of the primary point of emphasis during week one of training camp. "Can't take it easy on those."
Under Mazzulla, the team has also incorporated less conventional concepts, including going through drills with the rims covered and having to earn points with their impact in other facets of the game, like forcing turnovers.
"I've learned, this is gonna be my third season with Joe, is trusting him, and we're all just kind of seeing where it goes, and it usually works out for us. So, I'm trusting whatever he says," voiced Al Horford after Sunday's session, which included a chance for players to showcase their baseball skills.
After getting burned for looking ahead at times during the 2022-23 campaign, Jayson Tatum told Boston Celtics on SI leading into training camp, "I think we did an excellent job last year of not skipping steps and not looking past anything. And it's just, it's reality, it's human nature. We've learned from our mistakes, and we applied that thought process, and we were very intentional about everything we tried to do last season."
After breaking through to his first championship, the five-time All-Star is eager to start back at square one and re-attempt to reach the NBA's summit.
"The unique part, and the cool part is, right now, it's the start of the season, and we gotta start over. We gotta build it up from the ground and not look forward to June. We gotta start with our first day of practice and training camp and just get one percent better every day."
That focus, maximizing the present and being more concerned with themselves than their competition, helped Boston be at its best last season and is essential to the Celtics' pursuit of Banner 19.
