Hey there, Last Night In Basketballers — I am, as I do every year, re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2026-27 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA) (Podcast)
- Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Boston Celtics, who had themselves quite the summer after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
Jayson Tatum, the re-return
Tatum miraculously returned to the court just shy of 10 months after tearing his Achilles, and he largely looked pretty damn good. He surprisingly didn't really have his minutes managed (32.6 per game), and he averaged 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 5.3 assists a night.
He didn't shoot it well (41.1% from the field and 32.9% from deep, fueled by his worst two-point percentage — 49.3% — since 2020) and he wasn't tasked with challenging defensive assignments pretty much ever, but he did, for the most part, look pretty healthy.
But whether because of the lack of minutes management or some other reason, he suffered a mysterious injury in Game 6 of the playoff series against the 76ers and had to sit out Game 7. The Celtics reported it as left knee stiffness but it sure looked to everyone and their mother like a calf injury, but who the hell knows.
This season, more than last, will tell us how healthy he really is. I want to see how much of the short-area burst is back in self-creation situations. I want to see how much of the agility is back when he's asked to change directions multiple times in quick succession on defense. I especially want to see how well he holds up over the course of a long season. (The Celtics would do well to manage his minutes and his games played, but we'll see if they actually do that.)
The Celtics might actually need more from Tatum than they did in previous years, because they no longer have Jaylen Brown to carry a significant portion of the offensive burden behind him. So it's a little facile, but I also just want to see if he comes back an improved player overall, with new skills and new moves, like he has in most previous seasons. He's had an offseason to work on his game rather than his rehab, and most players of Tatum's caliber come back with more in their bag after a summer of work.