Udoka's Tough Love, Sooner or Later, Will Pay Off

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Injuries, illnesses, and some ill-advised decisions (on and off the court) all had a hand in the Boston Celtics getting waxed 121-100, in their preseason finale at Miami.

But to focus on the loss itself is useless.

Preseason games fade away quickly, like early morning mist in the summer that’s forgotten by lunchtime.

More important than the outcome, is developing good habits - something that first-year coach Ime Udoka has been low-key stressing throughout training camp.

All coaches want to do this, but there are some coaches like Udoka who are a bit more, uh, intentional.

That intentional behavior on the surface comes in the form of following rules.

And when those rules are violated like, say, missing the team plane, there’s a punishment that will be doled out quickly.

While Udoka didn’t reveal why Marcus Smart was suspended for Friday’s preseason finale against Miami (it was later revealed he missed the team flight), he is not wasting any time putting his imprint on this team.

And that imprint will be toughness sprinkled with some accountability, for doing good or bad, that’s baked inside an overall team upgrade in discipline.

That’s why every moment, every decision, every screw-up by players in practice, on plane rides, walking to the scorer’s table instead of moving with some pep in your step … It all matters to Udoka.

And in time, it should matter more to his players.

The Celtics players are really nice guys, so I’ll say it for them.

While they were a good team defensively most of the time under then-head coach Brad Stevens who is now the team’s President of Basketball Operations, this team lost the gritty edge they had when Stevens arrived.

It was as if they became more consumed with getting lay-ups instead of locking players up defensively; tight defense gave way to taking tightly contested shots.

Those factors combined to make this team soft; very talented, but not nearly tough enough as we saw in Stevens’ early years.

Udoka hasn’t been on the job long, but it’s clear that ‘soft’ is not in his DNA.

Come to think of it, when was the last time anyone from the Gregg Popovich coaching tree was considered a softy.

The closest one might have been ex-Philly coach Brett Brown, but I chalked up his struggles on that whole “Trust the Process” plan that has been a luke-warm success before morphing into a jacuzzi-hot mess with Ben Simmons and his trade demands.

While Udoka’s tough-guy demeanor is legit, that won’t make toughening up this team any easier.

Not having a full complement of players available only adds to the degree of difficulty for Udoka whose Celtics open the season with seven of their first 10 games on the road.

But here’s what’s going to separate Udoka from other rookie coaches who might hit a little turbulence out the gates.

For starters, he is an equal opportunity disciplinarian.

We have seen him suspend Marcus Smart, the longest-tenured member of the team because he missed a team flight.

And in the Miami loss, he benched Grant Williams for spending too much time flapping his gums about a call he didn’t like, rather than hustling back defensively which led to a lay-up for Bam Adebayo.

“Just a learning moment. Can’t get caught up in that,” Udoka said of the incident.

Some of the players may not like what he’s doing, but they have to respect it because it’s clear that no one is above being punished if they don’t do as they’re supposed to according to the team’s rules. And that speaks to his low-key emphasis on individual accountability, regardless of what's happening with players and other players or officials.

Udoka has talked a lot in the preseason about getting the Celtics to stop complaining to referees and just play through bad calls or calls they don’t agree with.

“I’ll keep hammering (that point) until we get to where we want to be,” he said.

Hammer on, coach. Hammer. On.