The Celtics had 2 days off and short hour flight home, if you're going to play Tatum big minutes, that's probably the time to do it.
I also hear Tatum doesn't like sitting:Celtics forward Jayson Tatum recently said that there have been times over the course of a season when he and members of the team’s front office and medical staff earmark games for him to rest. Then the game arrives, and Tatum tends to push back.
“The front office gets, not mad, but they definitely wish I would rest a little more and sit some games out,” Tatum said. “There’s been times where two weeks in advance we talk about, ‘Let’s take this game off.’ And I’ll be like ‘All right.’ Then the day comes and I’ll be like, ‘[Expletive] that.’ I think that’s just something that’s the kid in me. I always dreamed about playing in the NBA and never want to take that for granted. I just love playing basketball. There’s days they make me not work out. Sometimes, I get mad when [coach] Joe Mazzulla takes me out of the game. I just always want to play.”
Ideally though (me with no medical training) would like to see Tatum play a few minutes less.
Tatum - 35.9 mpg
Curry ('15, '17-'18, '22): max 34.5 mpg
Kawhi ('19): 34.0 mpg
Giannis ('21): 33.0 mpg
Jokic ('23): 33.7 mpg
LeBron ('16): 35. 6 mpg
LeBron's the outlier there (but did he also do the most heavy lifting? Irving missed 29 games).
Before that though, heavy minutes was probably more popular (Kobe and Heat LeBron played 36-39).
Duncan went from a consistent 38+ mpg till '03, then consistently topping out around 34 mpg in '05 and beyond. Is that the Spurs getting smarter, Spurs getting better, Duncan getting older (28 in '05), or some combination of them?
For Dirk and KG we see big drops from when they won a ring to the years before. Dirk was playing 36-39mpg in the 10 years before his ring, went from 37.5 mpg in '10 down to 34.3 in '11 when they won it. KG was doing 38-40 mpg, 39.4 in '07 to 32.8 in '08. Better teams (KG definitely), getting older (probably, Dirk was 32 in '11, KG was 31 in '08), teams' getting smarter, or some combination of them all?
All that to say, I like to see my star player top out at 33-34 mpg, but not really concerned with a 25 year old Tatum playing 36.