It's hard to feel anything other than unbridled excitement when hearing whispers about the possible return of Jayson Tatum. Between his established NBA stardom, and the Boston Celtics' ability to (surprisingly) win big without him, it's easy to think this reunion could have direct implications on the championship chase.
Is that belief rooted in reality, though? Because the truth is, Tatum won't necessarily be the same on this side of the Achilles injury he suffered last May. And the Celtics team he'd be joining looks dramatically different than the one he was forced to leave behind.
"Everybody says, 'Oh, he'll come back'—Do you know how hard it is to come back when you're thinking about coming back in March or April for a guy like this? Just to fit all the sudden into this system seamlessly, and they're going to find their rhythm?" ESPN's Jay Williams said on Get Up. "This whole team has been playing without him for a long period of time and playing very well. You're going to disrupt that."
A feeling-out process for Jayson Tatum and the Celtics could spoil everything.
Can I sit here with a straight face and say Boston would be better off without Tatum? Absolutely not. He is a great player (when healthy, obviously), and the Celtics' offense might be a touch too reliant on Jaylen Brown to thrive against playoff defenses keyed on containing him.
What I can do, though, is anticipate some ill-timed clunkiness and worry that Boston might not have a long enough runway to get this thing off the ground.
Would Jaylen Brown be expected to vacate his throne after authoring a strong enough MVP case to catch LeBron James' attention? Would Tatum be comfortable suddenly filling a support role for a team he previously piloted? Would we all drive the two of them mad with constant skepticism of and questions about their fit and chemistry together?
And what happens with the trickle-down behind them? Would Derrick White and Payton Pritchard being willing to stomach potentially significant cuts into their usage? Would young, hugely helpful energizers like Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Hugo Gonzalez be OK with perhaps getting squeezed out of the rotation?
Look, maybe these hypothetical issues wouldn't become IRL obstacles. And maybe the mere possibility of them isn't enough to pass up the big talent boost from Tatum's return.
Still, this would be a whole lot for the Celtics and their skipper Joe Mazzulla to juggle—right when their focus should be laser-locked on playoff preparations. That doesn't mean Boston should just abandon the idea of Tatum returning, but it does mean maximum caution should be exercised here. There's a way that this could absolutely work, but there might be more ways in which things could go awry.