Boston Head coach Brad Stevens wants to keep Celtic grounded, but hard to contain optimism around his team

Boston head coach Brad Stevens could only watch this week as his players got together for what he calls “open gym” workouts at the Celtic’s practice facility in Brighton. The opportunity to see Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis, the three surgically repaired Celtics sidelined during the playoffs, was an early-season joy for the coach. “No, yeah. He’s got them. He looks pretty good,” Stevens said after yesterday’s Shamrock Foundation golf tournament at Old Sandwich Golf Club. “I saw him this morning at the facility and he looks good. He’s worked really hard, I think he’s really excited and it’s good to see that. I think both he and Gordon will appreciate all the little things and all the mundane things even more, because Kyrie’s had the end of the season taken away from him twice in the last four years, and the one with us last year was such a shock because of the unfortunate event with the infection.” Two knee injuries later Irving is ready for a full training cup. “He’s been really diligent all the way through his rehab,” said Stevens. “I watched him go through the steps of working out to one-on-one to 2-on-2 to 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 in some of the open gyms the guys are having. Like anything, there’s always going to be a period of adjustment. From my eye and anybody else who has watched, he looks like he looked before.”

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