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Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics
There are plenty of ways to minimize what’s happened this week in Boston, where, just 10 months removed from surgery to repair his Achilles tendon, Celtics star Jayson Tatum is ready to make his debut here in the 2025-2026 season. Sure, it will be an adjustment for Tatum to get back on the floor and trust his repaired calf after that much time away.
And it will be an adjustment for a team that has done well to go 41-21 without Tatum this season–No. 2 in the East and No. 4 in the entire league–to welcome back a player accustomed to getting 20 shots per game. Among the concerns that have been raised in recent weeks as the potential return of Tatum neared has been the old trope from Celtics observers wondering whether Tatum and star Jaylen Brown can truly sacrifice enough to play together.
(Despite the fact that they have twice been to the Finals, and have a championship under their belts.)
One Eastern Conference coach rolled his eyes at that notion. “What bull(expletive),” he said. “This is massive for them, this is massive for the NBA, this is going to change everything for just about everyone. If you can’t see that, you’re kidding yourself.”
Jayson Tatum Has Not Played With New Celtics Teammates
That’s not to say there won’t be an adjustment period for the Celtics in the coming weeks. Again, Tatum is coming into a pressure situation, with just five weeks remaining in the year, and will need to both kick the rust off his game while forming chemistry with his teammates–many of whom he has not played with before.
Neemis Queta is the starter at center, and Nikola Vucevic is the backup, Tatum has barely played with Queta, and never with Vucevic. He’s barely played with second-year man Baylor Scheierman, who has been starting, or wing Jordan Walsh. Hugo Gonzalez is, of course, a rookie.
And there is the notion of Jaylen Brown, leading the NBA with 22.2 field-goal tries per game, dropping back down to the 17.7 shots he attempted last season. That’s significant.
Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics
NBA Rumors: Celtics ‘Tough Team to Guard’
But even if Tatum struggles, the feeling around the league is that this raises the ceiling on what the Celtics can do in the playoffs.
“You have to respect Joe (Mazzulla) and what he’s gotten out of those guys, but I think they’ve be a much less scary team in the playoffs if they went into things the way they were,” the coach said. “If you have Tatum on the floor, that becomes a really tough team to guard, they can attack defenses in different way and they have more guys who are really good at their roles this year. A guy like Tatum takes pressure off Derrick White and Payton Pritchard and whether it’s Jordan Walsh or Scheierman on the floor.
NBA Rumors: Matchup Problems With Jayson Tatum
Indeed, one Eastern Conference executive said that Tatum’s return is not just great news for the Celtics, it is bad news for the rest of the East, and even the top West teams.
“The Pistons have been great but they are a beatable team, they do not shoot the ball well enough, and the grittiness and toughness thing they bring, that is easier to match in the playoffs,” he said. “Everyone plays with more toughness in the playoffs. But you’ve got to have guys who can score through that, and that’s what Tatum adds to that Celtics team.
The Knicks, the Cavaliers, he is going to give them problems that you know, you’re not going to get from Jordan Walsh. Look, it could be a disaster, maybe we will all say he rushed back too fast. But if he is close to 100%, this changes the whole postseason.”