The Boston Celtics will be another top team from the Eastern Conference to watch for the coming NBA season. No other player comes to mind than Jayson Tatum.
With the exit of Marcus Smart, there is a huge void at the point guard slot. And while Boston still has the likes of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Malcolm Brogdon to handle playmaking duties, the Cs could be using Jayson Tatum at the point as well, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN claimed.
"Jayson Tatum is gonna spend a lot of time at point guard," Shelburne stated via Sportskeeda. "That's what he did, quite, in the playoffs is initiate the offense and I think he plays even more of that role going forward to the season."
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From one point, that makes sense. The four-time All-Star is an effective catalyst on offense for the Celtics when the ball is in his hands.
Although Tatum has been known to be an explosive scorer, he may need to work on his assists. For now, the third-overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft owns an assists career average of 3.3 per Basketball-Reference.
However, he did show improvement last season, upping his dimes average to 4.6 assists in 74 games. It was the best assist numbers he has had in the past six seasons, and the trend shows incremental improvement since the 2020-21 season.
The plan could also make sense, with Brogdon reportedly unhappy being included in NBA trade talks, NBC Sports reported. Should he be sent off, the Cs will be left with White and Pritchard as the only legit point guards in the mix.
Austin Rivers joining Cs?
Further, if Brogdon moves out, Boston could skim the market for a replacement. One name that has cropped up is Austin Rivers, who allegedly spoke to the Celtics president team president about a possible job with the team when he appeared on the Bill Simmons podcast via USA Today.
Being an NBA veteran, Rivers could be a sensible addition if the Celtics and Brogdon cannot resolve their differences.
Although he has been trying to share the ball, it cannot be discounted that Tatum could end up clinging to the ball more. If so, that could be bad news for the Celtics.
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