With Jayson Tatum (left) out, what will next season look like for Jaylen Brown and the Celtics?
With Jayson Tatum (left) out, what will next season look like for Jaylen Brown and the Celtics?Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
This is the third in a three-part series evaluating the Celtics’ roster, highlighting the starters.
Part 1 | Part 2
Jayson Tatum
Tatum, whose season came to a crushing end when he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks, has cemented his place among the league’s elite. But there is room for improvement.
Sometimes the Celtics’ offense gets bogged down in his isolation-heavy sets. This season, 25.9 percent of Tatum’s plays came in isolation, but he scored on 44.8 percent of the opportunities, second lowest among 10 players who operate in isolation most frequently.
Tatum also shot a career-low 34.3 percent from the 3-point line. This was partly because of an uptick in attempts, but there were some potential signs of fatigue, too. Tatum shot 35.8 percent from beyond the arc prior to the All-Star break, and just 30.5 percent after.
He did make strides as a playmaker, however. He has become increasingly comfortable navigating frequent double teams, and his assist percentage (26.6) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.06) were career highs.
On the night Tatum was injured he was in the midst of one of his finest performances as a Celtic (42 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals). Now, the team will wait to see how long it takes him to recapture that form.
Jaylen Brown
Advanced stats have never been fond of Brown, a four-time All-Star. But there were encouraging signs. Last season, the Celtics were 8 points per 100 possessions worse with Brown on the court. This season, that deficit was sliced to just 0.2.
Fans still hold their breath when Brown starts whirling through the lane, sometimes appearing unsure of a plan. Although his turnover percentage ticked up slightly, his 20.4 assist percentage was a career high by several percentage points.
Brown will never overwhelm opponents with sheer skill, but his athleticism makes him elite. So when a bone bruise and partially torn meniscus limited him over the past three months, he was forced to reinvent himself a bit. The results were mixed, but the process could prove beneficial for Brown as he veers into the second half of his career.
The forward’s play serves as a good barometer of team success. The Celtics outscored opponents by 17.3 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor during wins, and they were outscored by 9 in losses.
Derrick White
White is probably the most consistent and reliable Celtic at both ends of the floor. He has shot above 38 percent from the 3-point line in all three full seasons in Boston, and this season his 1.1 blocks per game led the NBA among traditional guards.
White took just 4.8 3-pointers per game during his first full season in Boston but fired up a career-high 9.1 this season. The increase was helpful, and so many of his long-range darts seemed to come at the most opportune times, to stop an opponent’s run or ignite one for the Celtics.
Of course, White has benefited from sharing the court with Tatum and Brown. While Tatum is out next season, White will have to adapt to being more of a focus of opposing defenses and find more ways to create his own shots.
The sample size was very small, but the Celtics’ struggles with White on the floor this postseason were surprising. Boston was 15.2 points per 100 possessions worse with him in the game, by far the worst differential among regular rotation players.
Kristaps Porzingis
It was a frustrating season for the upbeat big man. He missed the first 17 games following offseason foot surgery, and in March he was sidelined for eight games because of a respiratory virus. And the remnants from that illness plagued Porzingis for the rest of the season, most notably in the conference semifinals, where bouts of extreme fatigue made him almost unplayable.
Near the end, it did feel like the physical struggles had also taken a mental toll on Porzingis, rattling his confidence.
The Celtics’ regular starting lineup of Porzingis, Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, and White played opponents even during the regular season, a stunning result for a 61-win squad. To put that figure in perspective, Boston outscored opponents by 17.7 points per 100 possessions when Al Horford or Luke Kornet replaced Porzingis in that grouping.
Jrue Holiday
Holiday, who will turn 35 next month, remains effective at both ends of the court. But there were certainly moments when he looked his age.
His 17.4 assist percentage was a career low, and his 3-point shooting plummeted from 42.9 percent last season to just 35.3, even as opponents tended to give him space and dare him to fire away. Holiday made 40.9 percent of his 3-pointers in wins and just 18.4 in losses. Those open looks mattered.
He remains capable of guarding everyone from point guards to big men, but there has been some expected regression. Holiday’s plus-1 defensive box plus-minus, a metric that measures defensive impact, ranked 25th among guards.
Holiday is not eligible for postseason awards because he did not reach the 65-game threshold, but his streak of four All-Defensive teams would probably have ended regardless.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.