BOSTON \u2014 Though Jayson Tatum\u2019s potential return looms as a major variable for the Boston Celtics, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said it had \u201cvery little impact\u201d on the decision to trade Anfernee Simons earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Stevens said the trade, which landed Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107, was driven by the Celtics\u2019 desire to add another talented frontcourt player.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you kind of look at who you have to go through, the paths you might have to take, you just can\u2019t get worn down physically,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cAnd we were going to be much smaller. And now we at least have big options. Obviously, any team with Jayson Tatum\u2019s going to be better, so if that happens, that happens. And if it doesn\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t. But we just thought that redistributing our positional needs was probably the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevens said Tatum has \u201chit a lot of the thresholds\u201d he will need to check off in his rehab process but still has \u201ca ways to go\u201d in his recovery from a torn Achilles tendon. He has missed the entire season after suffering the injury during the second round of the playoffs in May.<\/p>\n
Recently, Tatum expressed on \u201cThe Pivot Podcast\u201d that he\u2019s worried about how he will fit back onto the roster if he returns midseason. He even said he has considered the possibility of delaying his return.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best time for Jayson Tatum to come back is when he\u2019s 110 percent healthy, he\u2019s fully cleared by everybody that matters in that decision, and he\u2019s got great peace of mind and he\u2019s ready to do it. That\u2019s it,\u201d said Stevens, adding that he had not listened to the podcast. \u201cThat\u2019s the objective, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to stick with.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a little more than two months left in the regular season, Stevens was asked whether the Celtics have a deadline by which Tatum would need to come back before they decide to push his return to next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s right, then we\u2019ll all sit down and talk about it,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cThere\u2019s still no force from us. There\u2019s no pressure from us. But there\u2019s also not gonna be any of us saying, \u2018Well, why doesn\u2019t he just take another week?\u2019 When he\u2019s ready, he\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Vu\u010devi\u0107, Boston acquired a two-time All-Star who remains highly productive at age 35. As excited as the Celtics have been about the play of Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, Stevens believed his team needed extra frontcourt help before a playoff run that could produce matchups against Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Duren and\/or Jarrett Allen.<\/p>\n
\u201cNikola is a good player,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a good player for a long time. Obviously, the shooting and scoring get a lot of attention. The passing is a big factor for us, and it\u2019s something we really like in bigs. So it\u2019s just something that gives us another look, and I think our two guys that have played the majority of the minutes at that position have been outstanding, so we\u2019re excited to have all three of them and see how it all fits together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In acquiring Vu\u010devi\u0107, the Celtics also escaped the luxury tax by trading Xavier Tillman, Chris Boucher and Josh Minott in salary dumps. Stevens said his front office never had a directive to avoid the tax but saw it as an opportunity after shedding about $6 million in salary in the Simons-Vu\u010devi\u0107 swap. After that deal, the Celtics were able to duck under the tax without losing any more rotation players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer we had to get under the second apron,\u201d Stevens said. \u201c(The Celtics had) every basketball reason in the world for that, and it was the right thing to do. The directive at this trade deadline was, \u2018Let\u2019s see if we can find some size that we could give ourselves a little more depth there and make sure we are more prepared for some of the physicality that\u2019s coming down the road if we\u2019re able to be in the playoffs and however long you\u2019re in the playoffs.\u2019 You have to have that. It\u2019s just a physical toll that can be taken on a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Celtics have just 12 players under contract after converting Amari Williams\u2019 contract to a standard deal. Eventually, they will need to fill two more roster spots. Stevens said they will add \u201cat least one more ballhandler and then see how the rest of the needs play themselves out.\u201d The team\u2019s two-way contract players \u2014 Ron Harper Jr., Max Shulga and John Tonje \u2014 could figure into the mix. Tonje was acquired from the Utah Jazz in the Boucher trade.<\/p>\n
Stevens said the promise of the Celtics\u2019 other young players also factored into his decision-making at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re all encouraged \u2026 by some of our youth and where they\u2019ve come,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cAnd a large part of that has been because of opportunity. And (coach Joe Mazzulla) has done an amazing job of throwing them all out there \u2014 and sometimes pulling them fast, but throwing them all out there and letting them gain great experience and great opportunity. And you\u2019ve seen kind of this jump on a couple of them. And then if you take that away for the next three months, are you actually worse, right? Or can they take another jump? So I think that\u2019s part of it, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we still have some ability to add in the free-agent market, and then we\u2019ll figure it out after this year, what that looks like. But I hope we go on a hell of a run, and I\u2019m not going to put a ceiling on us, just like I haven\u2019t from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Though Jayson Tatum\u2019s potential return looms as a major variable for the Boston Celtics, president of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2242,355,99],"class_list":["post-453347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}