Jayson Tatum is heading into a season unlike any other in his NBA career.
For the first time in a long time, Boston won’t have Jaylen Brown beside him. After a decade together, Brown is gone, and Tatum enters training camp as the Celtics’ lone star on a roster that’s still taking shape. He’s also doing it with a surgically repaired Achilles tendon that is finally getting its first real stretch as part of a fully functioning Tatum body.
That alone makes this a different kind of year. The end of last season was about something much more personal: Tatum proving to himself that he could still be himself after the injury. Now the job shifts back to the bigger picture - leading a team again.
“I was able to prove to myself that I could play this game at a very, very high level,” Tatum said in his final interview of last season. “Checking that box off mentally [was important] because that was a question in my head and there were doubts of will I be able to be the same player, will I be able to play at a high level after this injury?
Now I've proven it and showed that, even at 80-85% of myself. Now, getting an extended period of time to deload and take some time off and come back next season 100%, 110% ready.
Get my body right and get my right calf bigger compared to my left one. I'm excited about that."
That return mattered for Tatum, even if it came with complications for Boston on the court. You can debate whether it was fair to throw a high-usage player who still wasn’t fully back into a team that had found its rhythm, but nobody wanted the season to open with lingering questions about his Achilles.
Tatum needed to answer those questions for himself before summer. The Celtics needed that same clarity before they could move forward.
Now they’ve got it.
And the biggest thing to expect from Tatum this season is a fresher version of him. He finally got something close to a real offseason after nearly two years without one.
He played in the 2024 Olympics, then went through the entire 2024-25 season, got hurt at the end of it, and went straight into rehab before returning in 2026. Boston’s early exit at least gave him a chance to get off his feet and reset.
That should matter.
There’s also a mindset shift here. Tatum has been through the worst injury a basketball player can face and made it to the other side looking like himself again.
That kind of experience changes how a player sees the game, and probably life too. He sounds like a guy who understands how fragile this all is now, even if he still does impossible things on a court.
“I'm very happy that I came back to be a part of his team, to get back to doing what I love,” he said. “To prove to myself that I can get back to being the guy who I was, and hopefully better. And just to kind of defy what this injury kind of means, not necessarily from the standpoint of, like, ‘I'm great, look at what I was able to accomplish,’ but to give other guys hope.”
That perspective is nice. The Celtics will also need something more concrete: growth.
If Boston is going to get the most out of this version of Tatum, he has to become a more dangerous play-maker. He’s already shown he can see the floor better, but this roster asks for more.
Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta give him bigs who can screen and finish at the rim. The perimeter has shooters.
There are also teammates who can shoulder some of the scoring load and create for themselves. Tatum will still drive the offense, but he needs to be an even bigger engine for everyone else around him.
His three-point habits also need work. The shot diet hasn’t been helping him, even if he trusts it.
Tatum has been below average from deep in three of his last four full seasons, and that has dragged his career percentage under 37%. Too often, he seems to reach for the first decent pull-up three when a possession gets sticky instead of letting it breathe.
If he passes on a couple of those looks each game and uses those possessions to probe and initiate, the whole offense should benefit. The first pass in a set often leads right back to a good shot, sometimes an even better one.
There’s also the question of how opponents will defend him now, and how much they’ll worry about the players around him. Tatum is a superstar who can adapt his game to what his team needs, and he should be entering the season healthy enough to handle his usual workload. That gives him room to make adjustments without having to worry about the rehab piece hanging over him.
If that happens, he’ll have a real shot at landing on the All-NBA first team again and maybe getting into the MVP mix.
But none of it comes free. He’ll have to solve this next phase without Brown, something he’s never really had to do before.
That’s a new test. Then again, Tatum has already handled the hardest one of his life.
There’s every reason to think he can figure this one out too.
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Derrick White Suddenly Feels Less Safe In Bostons Core
Derrick White has long looked like one of the safer pieces in Bostons core, the kind of player who fits almost anywhere because of his defense, decision-making and steady all-around game. Sports Illustrateds John Karalis recently underscored that point while also noting the tension around the Celtics cap situation, where even dependable contributors can become complicated fast when the financial picture tightens.
Whites recent shooting has added another layer to the conversation, since a swing in performance can change how a team views a player whose value is built on balance rather than volume scoring. None of that means Boston is preparing to move him, but it does make his roster security feel a little less automatic than it once did, especially with the Celtics already navigating a squeezed financial outlook. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Trade Return Rides On One Complicated Pick Twist
The Celtics return for Jaylen Brown is straightforward on the surface: Paul George, two first-rounders and two second-round picks from Philadelphia. But buried in the package is the kind of draft-night accounting that can shape a franchise years down the line, including an unprotected 2031 pick from the 76ers and a protected 2028 first from the Clippers that comes wrapped in swap rights and layered protections involving Boston and San Antonio.
For the Celtics, the second-round pieces add a little more value to the haul, too. They come in 2028 and 2030 and are structured as the most favorable of several teams selections, which is the sort of detail that can look minor now and matter later when front offices are hunting for flexibility. The headline of the deal is the star-for-star swap, but the real long-term intrigue sits in how those picks eventually shake out. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Just Got A New Eastern Conference Threat To Worry About
The Eastern Conference picture may be about to get a lot more complicated for Boston. With the NBA punishing the Clippers over the Kawhi Leonard trade, the path has opened for Leonard to return to the Toronto Raptors, and ESPNs Shams Charania reports the deal is expected to be finalized in the next few days. For a Celtics team already measuring itself against the conferences best, the timing matters.
Toronto with Leonard back in the fold is a very different problem than Toronto without him. Even with the obvious questions about his health and durability, his arrival would be viewed as a major upgrade and would put another proven playoff force back in Bostons lane. The Celtics do not need more contenders making the road harder, but this one has the kind of star power that can change the balance in the East quickly. [Read more 🡒]