Two years after Boston finished off Banner 18 with Luka Doncic standing in the way, the contrast between Doncic’s career path and Jayson Tatum’s has only grown sharper.
Doncic has been living through a carousel of change. Since that Finals meeting, he has gone from Mark Cuban to Patrick Dumont in Dallas, then into a Lakers situation that has now shifted again after Los Angeles sold for a record $12.5 billion.
In that span, he has had Jeanie Buss, a cameo from Mark Walter, and now Bob Iger and Josh Kushner introduced into the mix. For a player who reached the NBA’s biggest stage at 25 and was already a five-time All-NBA First Team selection, it has been a remarkable amount of turnover in a very short stretch.
The instability has stacked up in a way that almost feels absurd. The middle-of-the-night blockbuster that sent him to Los Angeles was dramatic enough on its own.
Add in the physical transformation, the ownership changes, and the constant reshuffling around him, and Doncic has had to build his career without ever really settling in. The only constant has been his talent.
Tatum, by comparison, has had something much steadier to lean on.
Boston has had its own ownership shift, but Wyc Grousbeck remains involved, just as Jeanie Buss has remained a presence with the Lakers. The real edge for Tatum has come from the people around him staying put.
The Celtics’ front office has been built on continuity, with some of the same voices helping run the team for nearly a decade or longer. Mike Zarren, the vice president of basketball operations, started as an intern and became an assistant general manager in 2003-04.
The coaching side has been more stable than it might look at first glance, too. Tatum has had only three head coaches in Boston: Brad Stevens, Ime Udoka, and Joe Mazzulla.
That run includes the championship team that beat Doncic. Even with Udoka’s abrupt departure, the overall structure around Tatum has stayed intact.
That continuity extends to the roster as well. Tatum and Jaylen Brown spent nearly a decade together leading one of the most successful stretches in franchise history.
Boston has still seen plenty of player movement, but there’s a clear rhythm to the group Tatum has played with, including Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser. They’ve been through playoff heartbreaks and playoff triumphs together, and they’re still together as a new chapter begins.
For all the change in the NBA, that’s the hidden advantage for Tatum: a career built on solid ground. Doncic has had to navigate the opposite.
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Mitchells challenge is especially tricky because he is battling for attention behind more established wings, and the first step is sharpening his jump shot enough to make the staff trust him in game action. Cenac, meanwhile, has the benefit of a standard rookie deal and the kind of contract status that can make it easier for the Celtics to give him a look when opportunities open up. For a team that values growth as much as fit, these next few months should say plenty about how quickly either rookie can turn promise into a real role. [Read more 🡒]