Celtics notebook: How Doc Rivers ‘hooked’ Rajon Rondo on pivot to coaching

Doc Rivers wasn’t the only Celtics champion patrolling the visitors’ bench Monday night at TD Garden.

The Milwaukee Bucks head coach had a fellow 2008 champ with him: Rajon Rondo.

After what Rivers described as years of persuading, Rivers convinced the former Boston point guard to join his staff on a part-time basis this season. Rondo’s exact role with the Bucks still is nebulous, but Rivers said it didn’t take long for the job to draw the 38-year-old in.

“I knew he would coach if he wanted to do that,” said Rivers, who coached Rondo with the Celtics from 2006 to 2013. “He definitely has the smarts. He’s the smartest player I’ve ever coached. It’s been a two-year thing of me trying to get him to do it. … He’s got a son who’s a really talented basketball player, and he’s working with him, so we’re crafting out a schedule right now to try to give him enough time to be there and to be with us.

“But one thing I can tell you, just through training camp that he spent (with the Bucks), he’s hooked now. He loves it. It’s in him, and once it gets in you, it can’t get out of you. So that was my goal, and then the next steps are whatever happens.”

The Celtics had three more members of the ’08 championship team back in town last week, with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen all taking part in the banner-raising ceremony ahead of Boston’s season-opening win over the New York Knicks.

While the focus of that night was celebrating the Jayson Tatum- and Jaylen Brown-led 2023-24 team that brought Boston its 18th NBA title, it also was a moment of closure for the Big Three — definitive proof that Pierce and Garnett had squashed their long-standing beef with Allen over his 2012 decision to join the Miami Heat.

The trio evidently was eager to show Rivers they were back on good terms. The ex-Celtics coach said Pierce, Garnett and Allen all individually sent him a photo of them together at the ceremony.

“That was awesome,” Rivers said. “… It’s amazing. The people who have been here in this room understand it. It’s cool, each guy sent me that picture separately. I think they were trying to tell me, ‘Hey, look at us! We get along!’ I don’t know what it was, but it was hilarious. I got a bing (on my phone), then I got a bing, then I got a bing.

“It was pretty funny. It was cool to see, though. It needed to be seen and done. There’s a lot of cities, and this city winning is pretty special, no doubt about that.”

Tatum honored

Tatum’s torrid start earned him the first Eastern Conference Player of the Week award of the young season. It was the 11th weekly honor of him career, second-most in Celtics history behind Paul Pierce (17) and Larry Bird (15).

The Celtics star entered Monday averaging 33.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game through three contests. He appears to have repaired to have fixed the shooting issues that hindered him during the playoffs and the Olympics, and he hasn’t been shy about showcasing those improvements.

Over Boston’s first three games — all Celtics wins — Tatum averaged 11.7 3-point attempts and 5.7 made threes for a 3-point shooting percentage of 48.6%. Three games is an extraordinarily small sample size, but all three of those marks would shatter Tatum’s single-season career highs of 9.3, 3.2 and 43.4%, respectively.

Tatum also led the NBA in win shares during the opening week, per Basketball-Reference, with the Lakers’ Anthony Davis ranking second and Celtics teammate Derrick White in sixth. Davis, the only NBA player with more points scored than Tatum’s 99 entering Monday, was the Western Conference Player of the Week.

“I just like that he’s playing balanced basketball,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said pregame. “His potential assists are up. He’s not screening as much because he’s handling. He’s making some good decisions in pick and roll versus different coverages, so we’ll get to that eventually. But just a balanced attack on both ends of the floor and a good awareness to how he’s being guarded and working to to find where the advantages, where the 2-on-1 is.

“He’s good enough to impact the game every night in all statistical areas. He’s got to keep doing that.”

Another milestone is on the horizon for Tatum. He’s fewer than 50 points away from becoming the 13th Celtics player ever to reach 12,000 for his career. The 26-year-old was the youngest in franchise history to join the 10,000-point club when he hit that mark last November, unseating Antoine Walker.

Hauser sits again

Reserve wing Sam Hauser (lower back pain) missed his third consecutive game, matching his DNP total from all of last season.

To replace the off-the-bench sharpshooter, Mazzulla has employed more double-big lineups involving Al Horford, Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta (who had a substantial role last Thursday against Washington but did not play Sunday in Detroit).

With Tillman arriving midway through last season, Queta spending much of last year in the G League and starting center Kristaps Porzingis currently unavailable, some of those units haven’t seen much game action together.

“I think our offense is still adapting to a couple of those,” Mazzulla said. “We’re playing probably more double-big these first three games. We did it a lot of times last year, but that’s just kind of the personnel that we have. But I think they’re doing a good job. Our defensive system is a little bit tricky when it comes to the double-big units.

“We’ve handled that well, and we just kind of continue to work on our execution with those lineups with the pace at which we’re playing, which is fine. As long as we continue to work towards our defense, it’s the most important thing.”

Porzingis, who’s recovering from offseason leg surgery, got some shots up during pregame warmups. He is not expected to return until December at the earliest, but the Celtics have been pleased with his progress.

Off the rim

Veteran wing Lonnie Walker IV, who was cut after the preseason, chose not to join the Celtics’ G League affiliate, according to a report from Boston Sports Journal’s John Karalis. Walker, a seventh-year pro with 322 games of NBA experience, could pursue opportunities overseas. … Rivers’ scouting report on the Celtics, one of four undefeated teams in the NBA entering Monday’s matchup: ““They’re a made basketball team right now. They play without obstacles. Winning that title has taken them to another level. You can feel it when they play. They have complete trust in the pass. They trust each other. They play together. There’s nobody in the league that does it better than them right now, and they’re showing it every night.”