He seems like the same guy to Doc Rivers.

“He’s normal again,” the Celtics coach said of Kevin Garnett.

Well, there is one change.

“He’s happy, he’s talking more, which I didn’t think was possible,” Rivers said following the USI Shamrock Classic at the Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord. “He’s got his quickness back and he just looks normal again.”

Talking more?

Over the last 14 years, Garnett has developed a reputation as one of the most vocal players in the league. This offseason his words have a different message.

Garnett has been joining his teammates at the Sports Authority Training Center in Waltham as they prepare for training camp. Even though the Celtics forward, who is coming off season-ending knee surgery, has not been cleared for contact drills, he has found his own way to participate during workouts.

“His presence has been felt. He has been talking more, but you don’t know when he starts playing, maybe he’ll talk less,” Brian Scalabrine said with a laugh. “But he has been leading us in a very instructional kind of way. Before he was like that, but now, like he pulled me aside the other day. He was like, ‘You know, you have to play the game within the game. If you’re trying to get something done later, you want to set it up with something early.’

“And it helps. I went out there and I did it, and it worked right away. He’s a really intelligent guy.”

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