Celtics sale, Porzingis’s recovery: 6 takeaways from Celtics Media Day

As the team celebrates a title and braces for an impending sale, here are a few things to know.

Celtics Media Day is in the books, and it was an eventful one.

Topics of interest include the impending sale of the team, Kristaps Porzingis’s recovery, Team USA’s Olympic gold medal win, and more.

Here are a few takeaways from the action.

Jayson Tatum is reworking his jumper

Jayson Tatum has been working on his jumpshot after he shot less than 30 percent from 3-point range during the postseason for the first time in his career.

Tatum’s field-goal and free-throw percentages were relatively close to his normal output, but he struggled shooting the ball from deep during the run to the title.

“Watched a lot of film,” Tatum said. “Been working with my trainer a lot these past few weeks. A few mechanical things: pickup points, hand placement, getting lower, getting my shoulder forward, things like that.”

Porzingis is doing drills with light contact

Kristaps Porzingis is progressing well in his recovery according to Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, who said the team is very pleased with his progress.

Stevens did not offer an updated timeline, noting the uniqueness of Porzingis’s injury. Porzingis listed some of the activities he’s been able to participate in.

“I’m running, I’m on the court shooting, normal,” Porzingis said. “I’m doing a lot of stuff honestly. I was already doing some stuff with light contact also and felt really good afterwards. I think it’s a really good sign that we had from the other day and I’m optimistic as always.”

Kornet thanks Woj

Longtime NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski recently announced his retirement from sports reporting. The first transaction he reported on during his final offseason was Luke Kornet’s new deal to stay with the Celtics.

Kornet expressed appreciation for Wojnarowski’s contributions to the game.

“Thanks to Adrian Wojnarowski for all his great work,” Kornet said. “I hear he’s moving on to other things. I’m sure a contingent of social media basketball fans will mourn the loss, even though you’re still alive.”

Brad Stevens’s take on Lonnie Walker

The addition of Lonnie Walker IV is one of the few differences between last year’s Celtics roster and this year’s.

Derrick White, who began his career in San Antonio with Walker, said it’s good to have Walker’s energy around.

Stevens said Walker also works out with Jrue Holiday in the summer and was eager to join White and Holiday on the Celtics.

“Obviously he’s got a lot of talent, done a lot of good things in the NBA,” Stevens said. “We’ll see how it fits and plays itself out just like all the other 21 players on the roster.”

Jrue Holiday still energized at age 34

It was a busy summer for Holiday, who joined Tatum and White at the Olympics. Despite being the second-oldest player on the Celtics’ roster at age 34, Holiday says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“A normal regular season sometimes can seem like you have five months off because sometimes you don’t even make the playoffs,” Holiday said. “I’d much rather have this. I’m much rather play long until June, win the championship, go play the Olympics, win the gold medal and then not have a lot of time for a break and go right back into basketball.”

“I feel like I love this game so basketball isn’t a hassle to me or anything,” Holiday added. “I guess I love the job enough. I had a break and it was nice. I had some great experiences this summer that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”

Bracing for new ownership

With ownership planning to sell the team, there will likely be a learning curve during the transition to a new group.

“I think we’ve had, I’ve had, the honor to build relationships with the ownership group that we’ve had,” Brown said. “It’s been a partnership that we’ve worked on continuously on and off the floor to be able to lead to the championship that we just achieved.”

“Obviously with that ownership group switching, there will be some learning and growing that will need to be met in order to get accustomed, but hopefully it’s a smooth transition.”

Stevens said the situation is out of the team’s hands, but remains hopeful that there won’t be too much change.

“This has been a long term plan to be where we are right now,” Stevens said. “Plans don’t always go the way you want them to. This one so far has been pretty smooth.”

“There will always be challenges that come along with that but I think the way it’s been phrased to me, from the standpoint of since the sale was announced, was that we need to keep doing what we’re doing and business as usual and do what you can to build the best team that you can and we’ll see what happens from there.”