It bears repeating because it's still so exciting for the Boston Celtics fanbase: Jayson Tatum is back! Many are anxiously awaiting his return to the floor 10 months after tearing his Achilles tendon, but many wonder whether Tatum's return means he'll start or come off the bench. Head coach Joe Mazzulla left nothing to the imagination.
Jayson Tatum will start tonight in his return.
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) March 6, 2026
So the Celtics are throwing their returning franchise player to the wolves tonight. Granted, it's the Dallas Mavericks, who are the NBA's seventh-worst team and have only continued to trend downward, but still, it goes to show how confident both Tatum and the Celtics are that he'll pick up right where he left off.
There will likely be a minutes restriction because he still needs time to get into NBA shape, but with six weeks left of the regular season, he has more than enough time to do so.
More than that, another challenge awaits the Celtics: integrating one of the NBA's players so late in the season into a team that has done spectacularly without him. Again, Tatum's start signifies that Boston is ready to take on the challenge ahead, no questions asked.
But who gets put on the bench for Tatum?
Tatum coming back means someone else is going to the bench. Anyone with half a brain knows Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Neemias Queta have etched their starting jobs in stone. That means one of Baylor Scheierman or Sam Hauser gets put on the bench.
Who they pick between the two may not be as straightforward as one would think. Hauser is easily the more proven option of the two, but Scheierman's development won't make it easy for Mazzulla to simply put on the bench.
While not the shooter Hauser is, Scheierman's ballhandling, defense, and overall basketball IQ has proven its value since Boston elevated his role this season. He's more of a jack-of-all-trades kind of player while Hauser is one of the NBA's premier snipers.
It will all depend on who the Celtics believe would fit better next to a healthy Tatum. It would also depend on who the Celtics believe would help the second unit more.
It would be exciting to put Hauser with the likes of Payton Pritchard and Nikola Vucevic in the second unit, but in all honesty, the second unit needs players who can do a little bit of everything, so a betting man would probably take Scheierman as the one who gets the axe.
Helping Hauser's case more is his familiarity with Tatum and how well the two play together, as the latter's gravity makes Hauser's life so much easier. Tatum's NBA calling card is that he is the jack-of-all-trades player, which could make one argue that Scheierman is a little more superfluous with Tatum on the court.
That's not to say the two won't thrive if and when they share the court together, but with healthy Tatum back out there, expect Hauser to playing alongside with him while Scheierman helps hold the fort when Boston's second unit enters the game.