Celtics Practice ‘Walk-Through’ (10/8/17): chemistry, cohesion, toughness and rotaries

WALTHAM - The Boston Celtics returned from their short trip to Philadelphia and held a pretty intense practice today. Outside of training camp, Sunday was more active on the practice court than I’ve noticed so far in preseason, at least during media availability. A good sign to see all of the Celts having what looked to be a regular season-like workout.

Though the attitude was more focused, their were a few light moments. After talking hoops for majority of the media availability, Gordon Hayward was asked about getting familiar with the city. Hayward said that he and his wife were still having difficulty with the streets. I asked him about “roundabouts” and he cited the narrow streets and the “roundabouts” causing him to make a lot of u-turns. I’ve since been corrected for referring to a “rotary” as a “roundabout.” Sorry, Gordon.

Aron Baynes added his usual light charm with the media. Again, referring to his wife as “the misus.” Despite his gruff demeanor, he continues to be a pleasant guy. Of course, Baynes also tackled some on-court topics. After Friday’s win over the Sixers, I started to notice people praising Baynes’ toughness as something the Celtics have been lacking. Celticsblogs’ Keith Smith and I were chatting on twitter about the Celtics last, bulky, imposing big-man. We both agreed that it was probably Kendrick Perkins.

With that in mind, and the onslaught of Aron Baynes tough, physical play mentions on the Celtics Post-Game Show, I thought it appropriate to ask him about what his toughness brings to the team. Baynes answers that and more below.

CLNS Media’s Clevis Murray put together a rough highlight reel of today’s practice. That could be found below. All player and coach pressers, and the Garden Report, can be found on the CLNS YouTube channel.

Here’s the Practice “Walk-Through” for Sunday, October 8th:

Full pressers, including Brad Stevens and Aron Baynes can be located in the playlist for today’s practice here.

Follow me on Twitter for a bunch of other cool snippets from today’s practice.