What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About Jayson Tatum’s Return to Celtics

Jayson Tatum is nearing a return to the floor for the Celtics.

The superstar forward has been out all season recovering from a torn Achilles. On Thursday, ahead of Boston’s clash with the visiting Mavericks at TD Garden on Friday, Tatum was upgraded to questionable for the first time all season. ESPN’s Shams Charania then reported the Celtics star will play this season and could take the floor against Dallas.

It’s an exciting development for the Celtics but even before Thursday’s news, talk of Tatum’s return has dominated NBA discourse all week long. The Celtics are one of the few true contenders for this year’s NBA title and have won 41 games to date thanks to a Jaylen Brown-led offense and a roster filled with young, energetic defenders. They are not as dominant as they have been in recent years, but this is a very good team with a genuine shot at a title. Adding Tatum to the mix is perfect on paper.

Even taking into account the likelihood he’ll need a lot of ramp-up before getting anywhere near the level he was before the injury, injecting his talent and skillset to Boston’s roster is exactly what the team needs to go from good to great. But basketball is not played on paper. Reintegrating a player of his caliber is not a simple task after the Celtics have played over 60 games without him—something Tatum himself recognizes. Earlier this year he acknowledged he thinks “every day” about the challenges of rejoining Boston after the team spent all season establishing an identity and a working formula for success.

All of those question marks are genuine. However, as the chances of Tatum returning have climbed, discussion about how he’ll fit has also gotten louder. But the questions are not about his fit schematically on the floor, necessarily. Instead there have been big personalities asking how Tatum will work together with Brown given that Brown has previously served as the 1B to Tatum’s 1A.

Thursday brought numerous discussions of this ilk. Carmelo Anthony went viral on his 7pm In Brooklyn podcast for his take that Tatum must be “very mature” in sacrificing for Brown after Brown did the same earlier in their careers. Thursday’s First Take featured a panel discussion asking if this Celtics team would belong to Tatum or Brown once the former returned to the floor.

These segments are indicative of the larger talking point surrounding Tatum’s return: can he make it work next to his star teammate now that Brown has gotten nearly a full season’s taste of being the undisputed top player in the locker room? Will this new dynamic negatively impact their title chances this year?

Those are ridiculous questions to pose based on how their careers have unfolded to this point. Whether the team belongs to Brown or Tatum is a fun topic to discuss but questioning how it will impact the product on the floor misses the point entirely.

What everyone is getting wrong about Tatum’s return to Celtics

Anybody asking whether Tatum and Brown can make it work in a new dynamic hasn’t been paying attention to their eight seasons as teammates.

Throughout their careers the two Boston stars have been forced to morph their roles constantly. Both were fairly low on the hierarchy when they entered the league; Brown joined the Isaiah Thomas-led Celtics, while Tatum came aboard the same season Boston acquired Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. They carved out minutes as high-level role players, even if Tatum’s star potential was obvious from the outset moreso than Brown’s. Then they made room for Kemba Walker after Irving self-destructed.

Once Brad Stevens took the reigns as general manager he turned the keys over to the Tatum-Brown pairing and built a team on their prodigious talents. At this point Tatum’s playmaking edge over Brown became clear and thus he had the ball in his hands more often; Brown took over as a legitimate No. 2 for the first time in his career and thrived. In order to get over the championship hump Stevens went out and acquired several star teammates to flank the pair of elite wings. They both adjusted accordingly, remaining as top options but ceding touches to Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis.

Nearly every year has presented new challenges for Tatum and Brown. They’ve seamlessly adjusted every time. The Celtics have won the most games in the NBA over the last five years despite dramatic roster turnover every other year. They have taken a backseat for their star teammates when necessary. This may be a unique situation as far as Tatum’s injury goes, but it won’t be the first time they’ve been asked to change their game—even when things are going well.

As far as their own dynamic, Tatum has been seen as the traditional No. 1 since he has a slight edge over Brown as all-around players. But the two have deferred to each other when the moment calls for it consistently over the years, and particularly in high-leverage moments. Brown won Finals MVP in 2024 because Tatum didn’t play as well, yes. But Brown was able to ball out in part because of how he leveraged the defense’s attention on his star teammate, and Tatum was content to maximize that leverage instead of trying to hunt his own shot every time down the floor. They have both lauded each other constantly for the sacrifices they’ve made over the years.

The situation they will find themselves in when Tatum returns to the floor is certainly different than what they’ve experienced thus far. To say as much is fair. And it’s easy to question the intangibles; how egos will be handled in this kind of situation will be something for Joe Mazzulla to juggle.

But for many years there have been questions about whether the order is Tatum before Brown or Brown before Tatum. The reality? It’s always been Tatum or Brown. The Celtics have been great for many years because one of those two players will lead the team to a win. And they never once cared who it was—just that Boston earned a victory. To wonder aloud whether it’ll be different this time ignores everything they’ve done so far together.

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