Even assuming the absolute best outcome for Jayson Tatum’s injury recovery, this Celtics roster had a lot of question marks coming into the season. Perhaps the biggest of all was at the center position, with no proven commodities coming into the season.
They’ve been able to overcome that in a big way, mostly thanks to the emergence of Neemias Queta, and to a lesser extent, Luka Garza. Those two have been rock solid, and with Nikola Vucevic added at the trade deadline, there’s some real optionality in the front court all of a sudden.
But if there’s one shortcoming, it’s a lack of versatility with any of the three center options. Queta is a great rim-running big man and rim protector, but he provides zero floor spacing. Garza and Vooch can hit threes and score inside on offense, but they can be major liabilities on the defensive end.
Ideally, they’d have a guy who can do a little bit of everything to throw at teams, and it’s starting to look like they actually might in the form of Jayson Tatum. We’ve seen some of this in years past, and JT certainly has proven capable of covering big men, but it’s a big ask for a guy who sat out for 10 months recovering from an achilles tear.
Tatum looking extremely comfortable playing down low
On the other hand, playing more like a big man may actually be beneficial for Tatum in his recovery. He doesn’t have to move laterally as much or try to keep up with smaller, quicker guys on the perimeter.
He’s 6’10” and strong enough that you don’t often see him get pushed around in the paint, and the rebounding hasn’t skipped a beat at all. We’ve even seen some rim protection in recent games, and overall, he looks more and more comfortable playing in the paint.
If the Celtics are able to play small-ball with Tatum at the 5 in the playoffs, that’s going to open up all kinds of potential for the Celtics. On offense, they can space the floor with five guys who are all threats to shoot and take guys off the dribble, with options around the Jays and Derrick White like Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, and Hugo Gonzalez.
And the defensive possibilities are just as tantalizing. They’ll be able to hound teams with five defenders who can basically switch across the board, making it very hard for opponents to hunt anyone out trying to create mismatches.
It’s still probably not something that Joe Mazzulla wants to turn to for long stretches, but we’re already seeing it look good in bursts here and there, and it can be a great closing time punch. Amazingly, Tatum has looked good enough to consider this a viable possibility, but with just nine games left in the regular season, that’s exactly where we are.