Ime Udoka ready to cast his net

Ime Udoka took a brief moment to relax Thursday in a very New England kind of way.

The Celtics coach went fishing in Boston Harbor and pulled a large striped bass out of the water worthy of the Grand Banks. Then it was back to the Auerbach Center, a long wait as opportunities didn’t materialize further up the NBA draft board, and a chance to pull the trigger on an athletic young point guard from Alabama named JD Davison with the 53rd pick.

His time at sea may have been calming — AND rewarding — but Udoka hasn’t had much time to clear his mind.

“Not a lot. I mean, playing that late into the season, you obviously are going right into the draft pretty quickly,” he said during a Friday Zoom conference with the media. “And then free agency is on your mind, and then summer league. For us, it’s a benefit. Obviously it’s a huge honor to play into June, that late into June and have a chance. And so being there before and having a short offseason is nothing to complain about. So you’d rather do that and have months to sit around and kind of figure things out. Maybe you didn’t have a ton of success. And so for me to stay busy is fine. I think, got to go to New York with the family for Father’s Day. But other than that, been right back here in Boston preparing for everything we have about coming.”

Busy, of course, equals success, and other than the Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr, no coach’s time produced greater rewards than Udoka’s in his rookie season as a head coach.

Udoka has built up lots of time recruiting free agents — he was instrumental in convincing his former Blazers teammate, LaMarcus Aldridge, to join San Antonio — and sounds ready to jump into the fray on June 30. The Celtics will have 18 days to use their largest traded player exception — $17.1 million — and also have the taxpaying mid-level exception ($6.1m) available for use.

And now he has the elevated profile of a coach who reached the Finals on his first try.

“I’ve been a part of it in several places I’ve been — obviously San Antonio, winning a title there with a guy like Kawhi (Leonard) who kind of burst onto the scene and got the Finals MVP that year.

“Great players attract others and talk to each other throughout the season and the off-season,” he said. “Just watching us on that stage and the growth of our young guys, that’s appealing to other players. When you have guys like Jaylen (Brown), Jayson (Tatum), guys who have a bright future, you start to look at longevity and consistency across the board, that’s appealing to other guys.”

Leonard was a draw for Aldridge. Udoka now has Tatum, Brown and Marcus Smart as recruitment lures.

“Few things we try to do is put the product on the floor that’s appealing to guys, try to play as a team, myself as a coach I have relationships around the league and that’s a benefit as well,” he said. “Anytime you see guys on that stage doing what they’re doing at a young age, it starts to look like that for other guys.

“I know LaMarcus Aldridge had a big part of that coming to San Antonio based on Kawhi’s success, and the success we had as an organization. It trickled down to guys like David West, who wanted to come and play with other great players. We saw the result of that, getting to two finals in a row in San Antonio. I think our guys, with their futures in front of them, are appealing to other guys as well. The product on the floor, coaching in general, players wanting to play with other great players — that’s a benefit for us going forward.”

Udoka’s desire to jump into the recruitment effort is driven by the disappointment of falling two wins short of an NBA title.

“I mean you look back and you understand the accomplishments and some of the growth we had, and you look back and you’re proud of that but at this point in time still, you have a sour taste in your mouth based on how it finished,” he said. “Us not accomplishing the ultimate goal of getting to that point, but big picture-wise, we had a lot of progress in certain areas that we can improve on still, but like I said, kind of expedited the process of getting to where we wanted to. Laid the foundation and have some things we can look forward to going into next year. Can obviously hit the ground running a little bit differently than this first year with a new staff and us getting with a new team.”

Though Udoka dispatched his players into the summer with an order to come back better, he also wants his stars to rest. Tatum, Olympics included, has played a solid year of basketball.

“He had a great year. First team All-NBA, all the accolades that he accomplished, and obviously had a huge part of getting us to where we were,” said Udoka. “My main message to him was take a step back and rest your body, first and foremost. Had a long season, long offseason with the Olympics last year, and dove right into it, obviously, with the season.

“And the situations we went through with injuries, he was kind of the steady force that didn’t miss a lot of time due to injuries or COVID. And when guys were in and out, he had to shoulder a lot of that load. So physically get right, mentally take a step back and reflect, kind of decompress and get your mind right as well. And so just that time away. Don’t really want to bother guys as much right now, just going with what we went through, but want to relay the message that there’s still more to build on, to grow on in your areas. And I think, first and foremost, is taking that step away and reflecting on everything, when you get back into the gym and kind of take a chance to look at the season as a whole and look at the accomplishments you’ve made personally. So, for him, he’s a gym rat that wants to get right back into it. Obviously, he has his offseason routine where he takes care of himself extremely well, gets his body right, then he’ll start building up. And so from there, we just really wanted him to take a step back and rest himself and then take a look at the big picture and how much he accomplished and kind of build on that.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/NLX8WVo