Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics
Getty
Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics
For the Boston Celtics, it’s been a busy week. Not only did the team make the difficult decision to ship out guard Anfernee Simons–who had become popular within the locker room for his play on the floor and willingness to learn and improve in practice–but also did just enough to get themselves under the luxury-tax threshold. That’s not all that important to fans in the short-term, of course, but it is important as far as freeing up more flexibility, whether on the buyout market or in free agency next summer.
The Celtics will bring in former All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, who is still productive at age 35, as he averaged 16.9 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists for Chicago this season. He is not expected to post those numbers in Boston, as he played 30.8 minutes for the Bulls but will split time more evenly with Neemis Queta for the Celtics.
The Celtics also salary-dumped Josh Minott, Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher on Thursday to get under the tax, but for the organization, the focus continues to be on the one guy the team might add back to the mix in the coming weeks: star forward Jayson Tatum.
Jayson Tatum Has ‘A Ways to Go’
The notion of Tatum returning in the coming weeks has cooled lately, as Tatum has acknowledged he might remain out the entire year, as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon. Speaking to Celtics media on Friday, team president Brad Stevens said there’s still hope for Tatum, but tempered that, as Tatum has done.
“He’s hit a lot of the thresholds, he’s doing more and more, and will continue to do more and more. He’s still got a ways to go,” Stevens said.
That’s a lot different than some of the early projections for Tatum’s return, which included his father predicting he could be back on the floor for the Celtics as soon as nine months after his injury. That would put his return at next week, and it’s clear that’s not happening.
Indeed, if Tatum can’t be back and ramping himself up in games by early or mid March, it’s likely to be too risky to even try to bring him back.
Celtics Would Be Too Small for Playoffs
Stevens did say that the Celtics’ decision to trade away the scoring pop that Simons brings on the perimeter had nothing to do with the anticipation that he’d be replaced, eventually, by Jayson Tatum himself. It was more about needing more size to survive the playoffs.
“I would say (Tatum’s return) had very little impact on that singular decision. Just because, at the end of the day, kind of look at who you have to go through, the paths you might have to take, you have to—you just can’t get worn down, physically. And we were gonna be much smaller. Now we at least have big options,” Stevens said.
“Obviously, any team with Jayson Tatum is going to be better. If that happens, that happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t. So, we just thought that redistributing our positional needs was probably the most important thing. You hope that doesn’t necessarily cost you a player of Anfernee’s caliber, both as a person and a player. But obviously, to get a guy as accomplished as Vuc, you have to give something.”