The Celtics begin Tuesday night against Detroit with more than a new lineup to sort through. They also have a chance to find out whether this version of Boston is ready to look a little different on offense.
That question sits at the center of everything. Boston has spent years building an elite attack on spacing and 3-point volume, but the numbers from last season tell a blunt story: just 41% of the Celtics’ shots came in the paint, the lowest share in the NBA for the third straight year.
They also finished last in free-throw rate in each of the past two seasons. It’s a formula that can carry a team through the regular season, but the playoff exits have shown how much harder life gets when the jumper goes cold.
The Celtics still have the shot-making to punish teams from deep. What changes now is the personnel around Jayson Tatum.
Paul George arrived after Boston traded Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia, and Mitchell Robinson gives the Celtics a very different presence around the rim. George profiles more as a jump shooter than Brown, per the NBA’s season preview, while Robinson brings value as a rim runner and on the offensive glass.
That combination could make the offense less one-dimensional, though simply adding a center won’t rewrite Boston’s identity by itself.
Detroit makes for a sharp first exam. The Pistons won 60 games last season, grabbed the East’s No. 1 seed and beat Boston three times in four regular-season meetings.
Every one of those games was still up for grabs late, with all four decided by three points or fewer in the final three minutes. So Tuesday should tell us quickly whether the Celtics can still manufacture quality looks when the game tightens and the defense takes away the easy stuff.
That doesn’t mean Boston needs to walk away from the 3. That remains the backbone of the offense, and the Celtics were efficient even without living in the paint.
The bigger issue is whether Tatum and George can force enough pressure at the rim to keep defenses from loading up on the perimeter. Robinson can help in that department, but the deeper shift may have to come from the whole group: get downhill sooner, attack earlier, and make opponents cover more than the arc.
Tuesday night won’t settle the whole debate about Boston’s new look. It can, though, show whether this team has another gear when the 3-point line gets crowded. In a season like this, that may be just as important as any single new name on the roster.
In Other News...
Pistons Opener Hinted At A Change Fans Have Wanted For Years
The Pistons entered the 2026 offseason determined to modernize an offense that too often settled for too few threes, and their regular-season opener against the Celtics offered the clearest sign yet that the message may have landed. Detroit launched 40 three-pointers in a 121-113 win, a sharp jump from last seasons 30.8 per game, and the shot profile alone looked different enough to catch the eye even before the comeback from a 22-point hole.
Duncan Robinson, Javonte Green, Isaiah Joe and Kevin Huerter all factored into the spread-the-floor approach, giving Detroit the kind of perimeter volume fans have wanted to see for years. One game does not make a season, of course, but after spending the offseason talking about the need to improve from deep, the Pistons at least gave themselves a template worth watching closely as the schedule moves on. [Read more 🡒]
John Collins Already Has The Pistons Facing A Tough Defensive Question
John Collins first night in a Pistons uniform offered an early glimpse of both the upside and the problems Detroit will have to sort through. He gave the team some useful minutes with a block and a few offensive rebounds, the kind of activity that can matter in a game where every possession counts. But the bigger takeaway came on the other end, where Collins had a rough time holding up defensively in his new setting.
Detroit tried to work around it by shifting Collins to center, hoping the matchup would settle in, but the adjustment did not really solve the issue. Paul George found room to score against him, and the problem only looked more complicated when bigger opponents came into play, including Mitchell Robinson. For a Pistons group trying to piece together lineups early, Collins fit may end up being defined less by what he can add and more by how they hide what he gives up. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Just Turned Bostons Big Debut Into A Celtics Problem
Bostons season opener quickly turned into a reminder that early NBA games can still say plenty about where a team is headed. The Celtics built a 22-point lead against Detroit, only to let it slip away in a loss that had Jayson Tatum finishing with 13 points on rough shooting while Paul George carried the offensive load with 38 points and also made his presence felt on the defensive end.
Social media did what it always does after a collapse like that, with fans split between frustration at the coaching and player execution and calls to remember how long the season is. From Detroits perspective, it was the kind of result that can travel well beyond one night, because handing Boston an opener like that immediately changes the tone around the Celtics and gives the Pistons an early jolt of attention. [Read more 🡒]