Most of the early returns for the Celtics and Jayson Tatum’s comeback have been overwhelmingly positive. Still, as should be expected for a player recovering from a torn achilles, there have been some hiccups, growing pains, and rust.
Tatum deserves all the credit and grace in the world as he is pushing to reintegrate quickly to help the team compete for a championship that seemed nearly impossible just a few months ago.
Things aren’t going to look perfect right away, obviously, and that’s far from a reason to panic, but Celtics fans are always going to have their guards up, and one of the most famous ones of all, Bill Simmons, talked about the dynamic with the team on his most recent podcast with Zach Lowe.
Simmons wasn’t trying to raise any alarm bells or anything like that, but he did mention how the offense seems to have changed since Tatum’s return. The guards, specifically Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, seem to be running the offense far less frequently, while the Jays have settled into a little bit of a your-turn-my-turn situation.
Tatum finding his rhythm should be Celtics’ top priority
The Celtics have had an amazing offense so far this season, and it has been predicated on ball movement, getting the defense in rotation, and making the extra pass to generate open threes. But since Tatum’s return, and especially in the last couple of games, things have bogged down a little, and they’ve fallen into a much more isolation-heavy approach with Tatum and Brown going back and forth trying to attack the defense one-on-one.
It’s a little frustrating to watch in the moment, and the results haven’t been great with a tight win over a tanking Grizzlies team and a loss to the Timberwolves without Anthony Edwards. But this is about the process, not the results.
With Tatum coming back in early March, the Celtics knew they had about a 20-game runway to get Tatum ramped up, for him to gain his confidence, and for him to be as close as possible to the player he was before the injury by the time the playoffs start.
Short term pain will be worth it for playoff success
That was always going to mean possibly sacrificing in the short term with regular-season wins in exchange for a better chance at winning the title. Even if the Cs drop to the three or even four seed, it makes little difference as long as Tatum starts clicking and the team is firing on all cylinders by May.
The team is going out of its way to get JT going and to put the ball in his hands, which is exactly what they should be doing. Let him get all the kinks out now and to get his groove back in terms of shooting the ball, then when the games start to really matter, they can focus more on playing the right way.
And if it never quite fully clicks together this season, that’s okay. The amazing season the team has had, largely without JT, has been incredible. But to actually end this miraculous run with a title, it’s going to take a big contribution from Tatum, and that’s not happening unless he gets close to the best version of himself over the next month or so.