Soooo?.are white and jrue the most important Celtics?
Brown can?t even make team USA and Tatum is basically just an end of bench bum
Yeah, and that was clear during the warm-ups that both Jrue & D White were more important to the team than Tatum was.
Part of the reason is the need for defensively capable big guards who are solid on offense. Neither Haliburton or Steph can provide this.
Position redundancy.
I wanted to throw this in here before talking about Tatum because this was the case even in the warm-up games before Kevin Durant joined the team. Tatum had a clear role to play as the backup PF/SF and be a 6th man / 7th man like Durant is currently.
Even then, Tatum was struggling and playing badly.
There wasn't a redundancy issue without Durant there. Still Tatum was unable to make a (substantial) role for himself.
Why do you really need to play anyone out of position on a team loaded with current & former NBA all stars & All-NBA players?
This is another interesting one. The team seems to get more value by playing out of position at SF by going small rather than staying big at forward. They have looked their best with Anthony Edwards at SF because he has a HUGE quickness & athletic advantage over his opponent.
Then they have used Devin Booker out of position at SF instead of Tatum. Largely because D Booker has been a more dependable outside shot maker, ball-handler and passer than Tatum. Again, the same choice. Choosing to go out of position for a smaller more skilled player than playing big at forward.
So they are playing out of position but doing it in a different way choosing to play small at SF with SGs rather than play with natural forwards like Tatum. That has reduced Tatum's minute availability also.
--------------------------
Tatum should have been able to earn that starting SF slot but he struggled when given the opportunity. In large part because of his inability to make three point shots in either the warm-up games or in Olympic play. Then add in his struggle with turnovers. His inability to adjust from his role on the Celtics to a different role with Team USA.
He has played badly. He hasn't deserved more time.
