The Kristaps Porzingis head coach wants to step down due to…
In his third season as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics, D.J. MacLeay is a 29-year-old who gets to the court early at TD Garden to start his warm-ups. Every week, he looks forward to seeing Kristaps Porziņģis come out of the tunnel to a thunderous round of applause, greeting every fan he passes on the way to the court to warm up with MacLeay. Throughout his rise from Ime Udoka’s staff in 2022 as a development coach to the front of Joe Mazzulla’s bench following an exceptional career at Bucknell, where he was tutored by fellow Celtics assistant Charles Lee as a freshman in 2014, he has collaborated with large guys.
A year later, the Latvian talent was drafted by the Knicks, who thought his versatile skill set would allow him to play a different position and improve his game. Even MacLeay was taken aback by Porziņďis’s impressive performance when he arrived at the Celtics camp last summer following two successful, mostly unnoticed seasons with the Wizards due to injuries and other issues between New York and Dallas.
The Celtics pushed him because of this, and he’s now evolving into a post-up player who’s putting up historically high numbers (1.42 points per possession) that have altered Boston’s offensive strategy. His three-point shot forces opponents to move to the half-court line, where he can attack off the dribble or roll. That’s before talking about his use on defense, where the Celtics have incorporated him into every plan, most notably the 2-1-2 zone looks that have been more prevalent in recent weeks. Porziņģis got used to everything, grinning and enjoying his newfound basketball reality every day.
The goal of the Boston Celtics’ campaign has been for all five of their starters to make it to the All-Star Game the following month. Despite Derrick White’s impressive December push, PorziņĿis, together with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, have the best chance of giving Boston a rare third representative in the game because of his dominance at center. The last day of the important fan voting procedure to choose the starting lineup is this Saturday. Among frontcourt players in the Eastern Conference, Tatum came in third, Brown in fifth, and PorziŇģis in sixth. In the final round of voting on Thursday, White came in seventh place among the guards.
“My focus is so low on that, to be completely honest,” Porziņďis said to the Boston Sports Journal on Friday. “Winning is the only thing on your mind. Even though I believe those things will take care of themselves if we win the league, I would say that their value to me has decreased significantly from when I started my career. It’s not even comparable. I’ve stated it before, but I know why I’m here and what my major objective is, so if we keep winning, the individual honors will come to me.
