A Courtside View Of The NBA Finals

Summer has finally arrived in Portland. The Maine Celtics cleared out the locker room, and the Portland Expo was turned over from a basketball venue to a multi-purpose arena long ago. But some members of the Maine Celtics aren’t finished with basketball season just yet. The Celtics organization at large has business to attend to this June—it’s time to hang Banner 18. 

Once the G League season concluded, Two-Way players JD Davison and Drew Peterson, along with Maine head coach Blaine Mueller, headed down to Boston for the remainder of the NBA season. Since then, the Portland crew has chipped in wherever they can as the Celtics chase that eighteenth banner. For Davison and Peterson, it’s about observing success at the highest level, internalizing the lessons learned along the way, and filling the gaps for the Celtics in practices while honing their games in their own right. In Mueller’s case, rejoining the staff he spent the previous summer working alongside has provided him with another invaluable coaching experience coming off his first year at the helm. 

“It gave me a heightened awareness, appreciation and sympathy for everything a head coach goes through at the NBA level in terms of weighing all the decision-making factors, balancing team needs with player, staff and organizational needs, and doing it all in an environment where nothing is out of the question,” Mueller said. “The G League can be random — players come in, go out, are assigned, recalled, dealing with injuries, illnesses, you name it — the volatility and wild experience that is the G League is hard. You have to figure stuff out on the fly. That’s not totally unique to being a head coach, but it is from the standpoint of being the lead decision-maker. Instead of bringing ideas to the table as an assistant, you’re the one that makes the final decision and lives with the results, good or bad.” 

Living with the results of a decision—even when it’s not the desired result—and maintaining a consistent philosophy is paramount for head coaches. Reactionary decision-making puts any coach at an inherent disadvantage, never being able to catch up to or preemptively solve a problem. It’s most important for that concept to be applied when facing an opponent, dissecting their system and figuring out ways to beat it, but it’s applicable internally as well. Ensuring players within the Celtics development pipeline have a seamless transition on and off the court in terms of style of play, approach and mentality makes it easier to bounce back and forth between the NBA and G League. 

“We did as much as we could from a stylistic standpoint–our points of emphasis on both sides of the ball in trying to prepare, gameplan and implement schemes for our guys to be as successful as possible… So much of it comes down to the details—transition, rebounding, everything in the margins. We’re playing a really good team and they’re trying to take away what we do best. We have to be ready to adjust—and they’re going to be ready for that, too, so what is our next layer?” 

Mueller expanded, saying “at this level, these are the greatest basketball players and minds on the planet. Not everything’s going to work, and sometimes you have a perfect gameplan and they still beat it. Teams can still make shots even when you’re perfect defensively. But all that stuff typically balances out over the course of a series—it’s the team that’s tougher, mentally and physically, and more competitive that typically wins.” 

The Two-Ways, Davison and Peterson, along with Neemias Queta and Jordan Walsh, have exemplified how beneficial the concept of a G League team directly mirroring its parent club can be. Mueller coached those four all season long, often deploying them as his top offensive options and defensive anchors. Now with Boston, they’ve been just as successful development-wise despite being in more of a backseat, observatory role. 

“It shows their level of humility and mindfulness of being where your feet are,” said Mueller. When they’re in Maine, what’s being asked of them might be a little bit different—the reality is they’re going to get to do a little bit more on the court [in Maine]. Obviously, those guys were adjusting and toggling back and forth at different stages of the year, and that can be tough. The totality of a season takes a toll mentally, physically, and emotionally. It was pretty strenuous for everybody. To take a day or two to regenerate, and then transition back down to Boston—it’s incredible at this stage in their careers. Walsh and Drew being rookies, JD in his second year, just to be in that environment and gain an appreciation for what it takes to win, and how it feels to win, is so beneficial for their careers in the long run.  

Had we been a part of an organization that wasn’t going to the playoffs, the end of our G League season would’ve been the end of the NBA season. I’m grateful for them to have that level of appreciation for what they get to experience and be a part of something really special.” 

The role of a coach is to act as a steward on the path to success, guiding players in the right direction as they acquire skills not just on the court, but also in life, that help them reach their end goal. Where exactly that destination may be depends on the player, but the method for getting there changes based on an individual’s situation. For any G Leaguer, reaching the NBA is a crucial aspect of achieving that goal. Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, and other former Maine Celtics have proven that Portland can be a stop along the way to finding a role at the highest level. 

“That pathway [that Hauser and Kornet took] could help all of them break through,” Mueller said of the Maine Celtics most recent alumnus. “Nobody’s asking them to replicate Jayson Tatum’s production next year, but a Hauser, Kornet, Payton Pritchard, even Derrick White and Jrue Holiday–they’re obviously big contributors in some games, but other times they play more of a role and make winning plays—that’s really what it’s about. Your window [as a role-player] is probably going to be smaller, the rotations shrink in every playoff series, so how are you going to impact winning? 

For Davison, it’s his playmaking and shot making. For Walsh, can he make quick decisions and corner crash for rebounds? And for Queta, can he create advantage situations by screening and rolling, getting offensive rebounds, and being active? Peterson is a little bit of everything; catch-and-shoot, second side playmaking. For all of them, you have to be able to guard. You have to be able to defend 1-on-1 in space, using our principles, understanding opponent personnel and tendencies, and taking those tendencies away while executing the gameplan. If you can’t do that, your margin for error is so small as a role-player. That’s not only a pathway to being in a playoff rotation, but to the regular season rotation; proving they can do it on a consistent basis to earn that opportunity in the playoffs. The level of competition keeps going up and up, so for a lot of guys just being able to observe the level of competitiveness pales in comparison to anything else. It’s a whole new animal, and when you’re around it you see it, you feel it. Everything’s ratcheted up.” 

Not only is Mueller down in Boston to help players get better, but also to help himself get better as a coach. The experience gained in his first-ever stint as a head coach has proved invaluable already—back in a role akin to an assistant, video coordinator or player development coach, Mueller is calling on what he learned as the head of the operation, while channeling back to his previous positions as he worked up the ranks. 

Mueller stated that the most important aspect is “just being as much of a resource to the staff as I can be,” but went on to say “a lot of it is spent with the young guys and the ‘stay ready’ group, working out with Davison, Peterson, playing 5-on-5 games and officiating, helping guys get warmed up. In practice, whatever I can do in terms of being a body and an asset during offense or defense drills to help with what it’s supposed to accomplish or get across. Then in the background, whatever film work I can do, working on special projects and advanced scouting on Western Conference teams from previous rounds. Pulling film edits together for the coaches to give them a birds-eye view of a series as a whole and some ideas about what I liked or not, and what worked or didn’t work. I bring that to them to try and help decide what works for our gameplan, personnel and schemes, so they’re best prepared to scout a team. It’s really however I can help contribute to winning and be a resource to anyone in this building; that should be every assistant, video coordinator or player enhancement coach’s job.” 

The rarity of an experience like this in the NBA world—making the Finals as an NBA and G League organization in the same season—hasn’t been lost on the insightful, dedicated and passionate coach Mueller. Maine reaching its first-ever G League Finals as Boston rolled through the regular season and now sits four wins away from a championship is truly a special occurrence in sports. 

“It’s pretty incredible when you think about this franchise, how storied and tradition-rich it is. It’s very humbling to be in this space and experience it so intimately, there’s nothing like it. I think I said it at the beginning of the year–it’s the greatest franchise in professional sports when it all comes down to it. For me to experience this at the highest level and accomplish everything that we have this season, from Maine to Boston, is pretty incredible.” 

Fans that packed the Expo throughout the year would likely agree; the experience over the last nine months or so has been incredible. Capping it all off with the organization’s first championship since 2008 would make for a true storybook ending.