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Nikola Vucevic arrives from Chicago, and Jayson Tatum is trying to find his place from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
BOSTON (AP) \u2014 Brad Stevens has a message for Jayson Tatum if the injured Boston Celtics star truly wonders whether he would still fit in on the team he led to the 2024 NBA championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, any team with Jayson Tatum\u2019s going to be better,\u201d Stevens said on Friday. \u201cIf he needs it, I\u2019ll tell him every day. Because every team \u2014 all 30 of us \u2014 would be way, way better with him on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatum led Boston to its 18th title and had it on track for a repeat last spring before he tore his Achilles tendon in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. The Celtics seemed headed for a rebuilding year when they traded key contributors Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis over the summer to avoid the punitive second apron of the league\u2019s luxury tax.<\/p>\n
But they hit this week\u2019s trade deadline tied for the East\u2019s second seed, with the possibility that a late-season return by Tatum could ignite another long playoff run. Asked about that scenario last week, Tatum wondered whether he might upset the team\u2019s chemistry by returning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something I contemplate every day,\u201d he said on The Pivot podcast. \u201cThey would have played 50-some odd games without me. So they have an identity this year, or things they\u2019ve felt that have clicked for them, and it\u2019s been successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s a thought in my head that is, like: \u2018How does that work? How does that look with me integrating myself off an injury,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it is a thought, like, \u2018Damn, do I come back, or should I wait?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevens said he hadn\u2019t heard the podcast, but from his conversations with the six-time All-Star he hasn\u2019t seen anything other than the usual doubts from a rehabbing player about whether he would be able to get back to the same level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are just things that go through everybody\u2019s minds,\u201d Stevens said, chuckling at the thought the team would be better off without Tatum. \u201cIn all of our conversations, he\u2019s confident he can make the team better, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Tatum still has \u201ca ways to go,\u201d and the team isn\u2019t going to rush him, Stevens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s hit a lot of the thresholds, he\u2019s doing more and more and will continue to do more and more,\u201d the former Celtics coach and current president of basketball operations said. \u201cThere\u2019s no pressure from us. But there\u2019s also not going to be any of us saying, \u2018Well, why don\u2019t you just take another week?\u2019 It\u2019s going to be: When he\u2019s ready, he\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Tatum\u2019s absence and the offseason salary dump, the Celtics (33-18) won four straight games heading into Thursday\u2019s trade deadline, when Stevens further lowered the payroll by trading Anfernee Simons to Chicago for Nikola Vucevic and then unloading Josh Minott, Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher to move below the luxury tax threshold itself.<\/p>\n
Originally a first-round draft pick by the 76ers, Vucevic made his NBA playoff debut when the Celtics of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen ousted Philadelphia in the 2011 Eastern Conference semifinals. But the 35-year-old Montenegrin has only been to playoffs three more times in a 15-year career and has never won a postseason series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I think every player wants to get a chance to do, and make deep runs,\u201d Vucevic told reporters on Friday. \u201cUnfortunately, I haven\u2019t had the chance to do that in my career. So I\u2019m excited to be here, be around a championship team, a lot of the players that have done it before and the coaching staff as well, and the Celtics throughout their history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevens said swapping the 6-foot-3 Simons for the 6-foot-9 Vucevic gives the team depth at big man at the cost of a position where they remain relatively deep. The possibility of Tatum\u2019s return didn\u2019t play a part in his thinking, Stevens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s best for Jayson to come when he\u2019s 110% healthy, he\u2019s fully cleared by everybody that matters in that decision, and he\u2019s got great peace of mind and ready to do it,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cThat\u2019s it. That\u2019s the objective, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to stick with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikola Vucevic arrives from Chicago, and Jayson Tatum is trying to find his place from the sidelines. BOSTON…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,143472,105],"class_list":["post-278523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}