Getty Jayson Tatum and Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka
The summer of 2021 will forever be known as the summer of change to Boston Celtics fans. Danny Ainge called time on his 18-year stint as President of Basketball Operation, leading Brad Stevens to step up from his position as head coach into Ainge’s previous role.
Of course, with Stevens now in the front office, his first job would be to select his replacement. Enter Ime Udoka, a highly respected assistant coach with multiple years of experience working under highly respected names such as Greg Popovich and coming off the back of a season where he got to pick the brains of offensive genius Mike D’Antoni with the Brooklyn Nets.
Interestingly, after Udoka was appointed as the Celtics’ new head coach, he traveled to Tokyo with Team USA for the Olympics. With that, he had time to bond with Jayson Tatum – the Celtics star player.
Of course, Team USA achieved a first-place finish in the Olympics, with Tatum taking home a gold medal as a result, and then the hard work started for both player and coach.
Tatum Enjoys Udoka’s Hunger to Succeed
On a recent episode of the Knuckleheads podcast, Tatum spoke glowingly about his experience getting to know and playing for Udoka.
“I met Ime 2019, he was on the Spurs staff, and that’s when I played on the FIBA team with Pop, and he was on the road trip. He came on this trip with us to Tokyo, so I spent a lot of time with him, think the world of him, so I’m excited. And especially that when an assistant coach gets their first head coaching job, they’re hungry. He’s calling me, face timing me all the time, sending me stats. I can tell he’s excited. As a player, that’s what you want, somebody that’s excited and ready for the season, so I’m excited for the new start,” Tatum said.
Udoka has continually spoken of how he wants Tatum to play “big boy ball” this season, meaning he expects the All-Star to do more of his work in the post and around the rim, rather than isolating from behind the three-point line. And, after a sluggish start from his star player, Tatum has begun to find his rhythm in Udoka’s new system, averaging 27.5 points per game over his last 10 games, per Basketball-Reference.
According to his former boss, Udoka’s greatest strength as a coach is to connect with his players and get them to buy into his methods as a group.
“People overemphasize X’s-and-O’s in the league. All the coaches know their Xs-and-Os. It’s basketball. It’s not analytical geometry or something like that. That stuff’s not tough. But to understand how to get the most out of people, to develop relationships with players, to make people accountable, to make them want to play for you are really the keys. He’s got all of that,” Popovich said
Udoka Has Navigated a Tough Start to the Season
Udoka quickly found himself putting out fires left, right, and center despite the feel-good factor surrounding the Celtics to begin the season. First, the team could not hit their shots, which saw the team rank towards the bottom of the league in offensive rating for the first month of the season.
Then, Marcus Smart called out the team’s two star wings for not playing the right way. Throw in the usual injury issues, and an ice-cold start from Tatum, and Udoka has had a ton of learning on the job to do, and that’s before his baptism of fire on the court.
However, the Celtics have begun to perform at a higher standard from mid-November onwards. Initially building an identity on defense, Udoka’s team are now looking fearsome when attacking, too, making them incredibly fun to watch and a difficult opponent to face on a nightly basis.
At the time of writing, Boston is half a game out of the fourth seed and only 3.5 games out of the top spot in the East. Now, with the Celtics facing the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, December 7th Udoka and his team will be looking to right the wrongs of earlier in the season and put together a strong run of form heading into the holiday period.