This was supposed to be a bridge year for the Celtics. A reset of sorts. A season to stay afloat while Jayson Tatum rehabbed a torn Achilles suffered during last year’s playoff run.
Instead, Boston just keeps winning.
They sit near the top of the East, tracking toward 50 wins at the midway point, despite losing Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet over the past year. That was supposed to be too much to overcome. It hasn’t been.
Now comes the obvious question. Not if Tatum wants to return this season, but what that return might look like.
“After Tatum’s public workout in Detroit on Monday, the question for Boston isn’t whether Tatum plans to return, but how good he will look when he does,” ESPN’s Tim Bontemps wrote. “Boston’s push to second in the East and a 50-win pace at the halfway mark of the season is proof that the Celtics will believe they can make it back to the Finals this season, even with Tatum sitting out most of the season.
“But if he can return at even 75 percent of his usual caliber, Boston probably would enter the postseason as the East’s favorites.”
That says everything.
The Celtics already know they can win without him. They have proven it. A functional version of Tatum does not just raise the ceiling. It may change the entire postseason picture.
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