Paul George, Jayson Tatum Admissions Could Shed Light on Boston Celtics Rotation Plans

They looked good on the floor together, but after the game, both Tatum and George revealed that this was their first time playing on the same side during the entire training camp so far.

Oct 10, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) is congratulated by forward Paul George (13) after making a basket during the first half against the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Paul George admitted that he was nervous before stepping onto the parquet floor for the first time as a member of the Boston Celtics. 

“Always nerves,” he said after Boston’s shellacking of his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers. “There's always an excitement … Especially here — a team that's ready to win now, a winning franchise, a winning culture, a winning tradition — there’s for sure an added extra fuel of nerves to come out and perform.”

And perform he did, with five of Boston’s 16 steals, which led a defensive attack that helped pile up 144 points. What made the night unique wasn’t just that he was suited up in Celtics gear, it’s that he got the start next to Jayson Tatum, making them teammates for literally the first time on the court.

“All camp, we've been competing against each other,” George said. “So today was the first opportunity to kind of learn each other and get a feel for one another. But my job is to try to make this as easy as possible for him.”

Now we have an explanation for why George has always been in a green jersey in the videos the Celtics have shared from scrimmages while Tatum has been in the black jersey. Joe Mazzulla has spent the past few weeks splitting them up, rather than playing them next to each other. 

“It was great because we've been teammates for a few months now, but it was like my first time sharing the floor with them and being on the same team,” Tatum said. “Somebody that I've obviously admired for a very, very long time and when I was in high school and college and competing against them and now to be on the same team and to see some of the special things that he brings to the team.”

Tatum has gone from wearing George’s signature shoes to having a line of his own, and now he’s leading a team where George is there to support him. There were plenty of moments where George gave up his own looks in order to feed Tatum, and Tatum responded with a vintage performance that erased any lingering doubt about how he’d look this season. 

Now the question becomes how much they’ll share the floor together moving forward. There's always a method to Mazzulla’s madness, but he was gone before anyone could follow up on why George and Tatum have been mostly separated in practices.

Was the Sixers game a look at a potential closing lineup? Was it a tell for future starting fives? Has training camp been an elaborate way for Mazzulla to get George up to speed on playing with Tatum by guarding him for a few weeks?

Mazzulla is meticulous and intentional, so chances are this revelation is a sign of how the Celtics will start games moving forward. It’s not out of the question, but it’s hard to imagine Mazzulla spending weeks working on a certain look with no intent of using it. Tatum, Derrick White, and Mitchell Robinson seem to have been the constants in the black jerseys as we’ve seen so far. Baylor Scheierman also seems to be a starting candidate. 

The fifth guy will either be George or someone else. Mazzulla probably doesn't weigh these in-game performances the same way fans do because this is the first time fans have seen Paul George play for the Celtics while Mazzulla has watched him every day for about a month by now. 

His information is different from our information.

Whatever he decides, Saturday night was a nice revelation on a couple of fronts. We don’t know if what we saw was the future starting or closing lineup, or just some way for the Celtics coaching staff to gather data, but their words afterwards have planted a nice big arrow in the direction we should be heading. 

But the stuff we saw on the court was pretty cool. And however that lineup is deployed, we can see how it works together. 

“He's going to be special,” George said of Tatum. “He knows how to make plays. He knows how to get his own shot. But if my aggression takes the pressure off him, and if I can find ways to steal extra possessions defensively or get him some easy baskets, that's what I'm on that floor to do.”