Jordan Walsh is trying to live by Joe Mazzulla’s advice entering Year 2 – NBC Sports Boston |Max Sporty|

Life as an NBA rookie can be a real roller coaster. Just ask Jordan Walsh.

One minute you’re a 19-year-old kid thrown into a new town on a team overflowing with talent and wondering if you’ll ever get a chance to show you belong. The next, your teammates are swarming you and delivering the game ball after you’ve scored your first NBA points.

One minute you’re being dragged on stage in front of all your veteran teammates and asked to perform an impromptu performance of a Boyz II Men song that came out 13 years before you were born. The next you’re riding a duck boat through a sea of ​​a million raving Celtics fans and enjoying the team’s 18th world title.

The only thing more pressing than trying to create a dance to “Motownphilly” (it had to be “Motownphilly,” right? No one should ever be asked to dance to “I’ll Make Love to You” or “End of the Road”) is the a mere 83 minutes you’ll play as a rookie, trying to prove you belong while only getting 15 shots over nine appearances.

Every single one of those young ladies gnaws at you. And then you go to Summer League with a bigger chance to show what you can do and you can’t buy a 3-pointer.

That’s when your trainer, the same one who forced you onto the stage for that damn Boyz II Men performance, offers some of the simplest advice and takes some of the twists and turns out of the roller coaster.

“[Head coach Joe Mazzulla has a] control where you get one care to give and then, you have to let it go,” explained Walsh. “So, he told me the most important thing is you get one care to give — he didn’t use care, it’s a different word — but, yeah, one care to give.”

To paraphrase Ralphie in “A Christmas Story,” Mazzulla didn’t say “take care.” He said THE a word The big one. The queen mother of dirty words. The word F-dash-dash-dash.

So Walsh does his best to give one, ahem, care, and move on.

“I’m trying. I really try,” Walsh said. “I’m working on it.”

Walsh amazingly missed the first 22 3-pointers he attempted at Summer League in July. After breaking that slump at the tail end of the Vegas expedition, he admitted he put too much pressure on himself at the summer exhibition. He leaned into Mazzulla’s grooming advice and vowed to be better when the Celtics gathered for training camp.

Walsh may have been the most pleasant surprise of the Celtics’ five-game preseason slate that wrapped up Tuesday night in Toronto. Walsh logged 104 total minutes, the second-highest total behind only Payton Pritchard, and showed the kind of progress that leaves you wondering if he could be a rotation presence despite Boston’s league-best this season.

Walsh’s 3-point shot looked smoother (though he swears there were no mechanical changes) and he connected on 36.8 percent of his attempts (7 of 19). He nearly muscled home a game-winning layup at the buzzer in Toronto but had plenty of quality moments that could position him to pick up some of the minutes left by Oshae Brissett’s departure.

The defense, his college card, was strong. There’s a role for Walsh as a gritty, defensive-first player who rolls up his sleeves and does the dirty work.

The missed shots still bother him, but Walsh knows he has to give one care, then it’s on to the next play.

After all, there are plenty of highs ahead. The Celtics open the season Tuesday night against the New York Knicks and players will receive their championship rings. Walsh spent much of the Celtics’ championship parade pointing his ring finger, while boatmate Luke Kornet worked the crowd into a championship frenzy for the ride.

More importantly, Walsh will pitch the first game of his second season on Tuesday and finally throw away the rookie title. His starting duties were light to start the new season, but he didn’t even benefit from the addition of two new freshman players in Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson.

“They’re older than me, so I can’t really tell them what to do,” Walsh said.

So Walsh focuses on what he can control, how to put his best foot forward whenever opportunities come.

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“Hopefully, going into this next year, I’ll be a much better version of myself,” Walsh said. “Hopefully I’ll get the chance I want. If not, that’s fine. But just striving for greatness, striving to finally reach a level that I think I can reach. Maybe it’s not this year, maybe it’s next year, but taking steps to get to that level.”

And how could that manifest itself on the court?

“Hopefully better shooting ability, better decision making and playmaking ability,” Walsh said. “When I’m with Boston, making the right play every time.”

But he now knows that things don’t always go as planned. You have to be able to adjust on the fly and move on. Sometimes a greater reward awaits. Just like he found out on parade day.

“I thought it was going to be quiet like a walk, a ride through town,” Walsh said. “I thought Luke would like it cold. But he got me in. And I said, ‘Okay, now.’ we count We interact with the fans.’ Like, he made it funnier and funnier…

“I think the best part, Luke started a chant. We counted from one to 18. And when we got to 18, everyone went crazy. That was definitely the most amazing part.”

Those are the kind of moments that make all the ups and downs of the roller coaster worth it.