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Tim BontempsESPN
After Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum Having gone through a tough NBA Finals, Brad Stevens had a simple message for his team’s franchise player.
“I just told him to go on vacation,” Stevens, Boston’s president of basketball operations, said with a smile during a video conference with reporters after Boston’s season ended with a loss. Golden Empire Warriors in six games in the championship round of the tournament. “Go rest.
“This guy gave us everything he had. When you look at the minutes, when you look at the games played… I’ve said this so many times: is he a superstar? He wants to sit, he wants to play, he wants to play all the time. I think in the Finals, obviously, I think he’s going to be the first to say he wants to have those moments again but I think yes other contributing factors to the way he plays.”
The 24-year-old superstar, after being named to the All-NBA first team, had a play-off match up and down. He finished the post-season with the most turns any player has in a single playoff game in NBA history, and in the Finals he shot 50% from yard once, and under 40% four times in Boston’s loss to Golden State – including shooting just 31.6 percent on 2-point shots.
It is therefore not surprising that both 2-point shooting and gameplay were problems not only for Tatum but for the entire team as it watched Boston fall just for the sake of the goal. However, Stevens says it is important to remember that both Tatum and Jaylen Brown to this point in their career in terms of post-season success, and the team would not have been able to achieve success without them.
Stevens specifically pointed to Tatum’s 46-point game on the road in Milwaukee in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals as proof of that.
“The way I try to look at it is that we’re all subjective all of the time and react emotionally but when you start to look at it more objectively and historically, what Jayson and Jaylen do have done in the playoffs, historically at their age, Stevens said. “I think we’re very aware of the fact that while Jayson has to admit he hasn’t played his best streak, he hasn’t. there’s no chance we’d be there without him and without all of his amazing plays along the way.
“I think back to it all the time… Game 6 in Milwaukee was one of the best I’ve seen an individual play in my day, definitely live and with the Celtics. Without the performances. there, we had this discussed a month and a half ago.”
In “this discussion,” Stevens is referring to how Boston has failed in these playoffs and what the Celtics need to do to improve. The two fields he chose? More consistent scoring and list-wide gameplay.
That said, Stevens is equally quick to point out that the Celtics can go as far as they have done this season thanks to a unique combination of size and versatility across the board – and that, when Boston looks set to improve this summer, the Celtics must be aware of those strengths, and not deprive them of them to improve other things of the team.
“I think we have to go a little bit in the right direction,” Stevens said. “I think teams are fragile. I think the way teams work together and function together is very fragile. And I think your identity as a team, when you find a successful team. attack, which we did this year in the final defensive phase and when we were at our best to share the ball offensively, those things are very fragile. which means you don’t take something away from the group.”
He went on to say that no Celtics – including Robert Williams, who suffered from pain in his left knee throughout the knockout stages – will require surgery, saying rest will be enough for him and everyone else in the lineup recovering from a grueling playoff run that saw Boston play 24 of 28 possible games.
