Celtics 2025-26 Regular Season Discussion

[Goldstar88]

Tatum looked pretty "off" tonight in Memphis. A few thoughts:

Positive
He's able to play more minutes per game than I anticipated this early
His defense and rebounding are already high-level

Negatives
His shooting is very inconsistent
He still operates in extreme iso mode often and it seems to impact the offense at times

If Coach Mazzulla does not take JT out in the fourth quarter C's probably lose. JT is an exceptional player, but dynamics of the team have changed. Ball and player movement less iso ball. Hoping he buys into this new team style.

Tatum was in the game in the 4th quarter. He was taking free throws with a minute left in the game.

[Celtics2021]

Tatum looked pretty "off" tonight in Memphis. A few thoughts:

Positive
He's able to play more minutes per game than I anticipated this early
His defense and rebounding are already high-level

Negatives
His shooting is very inconsistent
He still operates in extreme iso mode often and it seems to impact the offense at times

If Coach Mazzulla does not take JT out in the fourth quarter C's probably lose. JT is an exceptional player, but dynamics of the team have changed. Ball and player movement less iso ball. Hoping he buys into this new team style.

Tatum was in the game in the 4th quarter. He was taking free throws with a minute left in the game.

Indeed.  The Celtics were up 1 when he and Brown re-entered with 5.5 minutes to go, and were up 8 when they checked out before the final possessions with a few seconds left.

[Goldstar88]

Tatum looked pretty "off" tonight in Memphis. A few thoughts:

Positive
He's able to play more minutes per game than I anticipated this early
His defense and rebounding are already high-level

Negatives
His shooting is very inconsistent
He still operates in extreme iso mode often and it seems to impact the offense at times

If Coach Mazzulla does not take JT out in the fourth quarter C's probably lose. JT is an exceptional player, but dynamics of the team have changed. Ball and player movement less iso ball. Hoping he buys into this new team style.

Tatum was in the game in the 4th quarter. He was taking free throws with a minute left in the game.

Indeed.  The Celtics were up 1 when he and Brown re-entered with 5.5 minutes to go, and were up 8 when they checked out before the final possessions with a few seconds left.

Cant make this stuff up. 

[86MaxwellSmart]

I can't believe people are worried about Tatum right now...He has to work through the rust folks, we thought he might never play again at this level, he's only 7 games in.

[satch]

Tatum looked pretty "off" tonight in Memphis. A few thoughts:

Positive
He's able to play more minutes per game than I anticipated this early
His defense and rebounding are already high-level

Negatives
His shooting is very inconsistent
He still operates in extreme iso mode often and it seems to impact the offense at times

If Coach Mazzulla does not take JT out in the fourth quarter C's probably lose. JT is an exceptional player, but dynamics of the team have changed. Ball and player movement less iso ball. Hoping he buys into this new team style.

Tatum was in the game in the 4th quarter. He was taking free throws with a minute left in the game.

Indeed.  The Celtics were up 1 when he and Brown re-entered with 5.5 minutes to go, and were up 8 when they checked out before the final possessions with a few seconds left.

Check me on this-I went and re-watched the fourth-They C's were down 8 when coach took a timeout, but he did not put Tatum back in. He did put Tatum and Brown back in when they went up one. Don't get me wrong I like Tatum feel free to go back and watch the replay. White was the one that turned the game in the fourth when they were down 8.

[Phantom255x]

Maybe Tatum is still knocking off rust and doesn't want to attack the paint constantly until he feels right. But it's kind of annoying seeing him just take contested 3s, or the occasional side-step when another guy near him is open (or there's empty space behind the defender).

So far he's 20-68 from 3 (29%) and even some of that is aided by his 5-11 3-point shooting in the Warriors game. He's been terrible from beyond the arc but is still attempting nearly 10 a game.

The law of averages could even out, but it feels like Tatum is passing up opportunities to score easier buckets. Even Jaylen isn't really going berserk from beyond the arc and he's getting his points inside more effectively. I'd just leave the 3-point shooting primarily to the likes of PP, Hauser and White, and JT should take them more when he's open or at least not attempt like 3 in a row when contested and having missed the previous 2+. Sometimes the offense stagnates that way too. There was a stretch yesterday he attempted 4 3s in a row over the course of 3 minutes in the 2nd quarter and missed them all. He went 1-7 from 3 in the first half (1-10 overall) and MEM was able to get to within 1 at halftime even after BOS had some momentum a few minutes earlier.

[moiso]

Maybe Tatum is still knocking off rust and doesn't want to attack the paint constantly until he feels right. But it's kind of annoying seeing him just take contested 3s, or the occasional side-step when another guy near him is open (or there's empty space behind the defender).

So far he's 20-68 from 3 (29%) and even some of that is aided by his 5-11 3-point shooting in the Warriors game. He's been terrible from beyond the arc but is still attempting nearly 10 a game.

The law of averages could even out, but it feels like Tatum is passing up opportunities to score easier buckets. Even Jaylen isn't really going berserk from beyond the arc and he's getting his points inside more effectively. I'd just leave the 3-point shooting primarily to the likes of PP, Hauser and White, and JT should take them more when he's open or at least not attempt like 3 in a row when contested and having missed the previous 2+. Sometimes the offense stagnates that way too. There was a stretch yesterday he attempted 4 3s in a row over the course of 3 minutes in the 2nd quarter and missed them all. He went 1-7 from 3 in the first half (1-10 overall) and MEM was able to get to within 1 at halftime even after BOS had some momentum a few minutes earlier.

I hate his 3 point launching also.  He took over 10 per game last year at 34%, so it's not just that he's rusty this year.  He has been below the league average in 3 point percentage in 3 of his last 4 healthy seasons.  It seems like lazy offense to me because he can get better shots just about any time.   I liked the entire team's shot selection before Tatum came back.  The right guy seemed to take the right shot most of the time.  Now Tatum's 3's annoy me almost as much as Smart's did.  But Smart didn't have all the other offensive options that Tatum has in terms of shot creation.