It Should Never Be Taken For Granted Just How Fortunate We Are To Witness Two Of The Greatest Celtics Ever In Jayson Tatum And Jaylen Brown

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

If you're an old like me, you've seen a wide variety of Celtics basketball. As someone who was born just after the glory days of the Larry Bird Era Celtics, my earliest memories of this team begin around 1993-94, a season in which the Celts went from 48 wins, to 32. My entire childhood, and really all the way through highschool is what I consider the "Dark Times" in Celtics history. You may remember this period as the Rick Pitino Era. 

From 1993 to 2001, I never saw the Celtics win more than 36 games. It's the only part of their entire history where they were objectively dogshit. At no other point did they ever have a stretch like this

Being in the Garden for every game, I would look up at the rafters and see all those banners and retired numbers and wonder what it would be like to ever see the Celtics win a title in my lifetime and have players worthy of having their number retired. My Dad and all the old timers we sat around us would spend those games telling stories of the Celtics legends of the past, how I could never understand what it was like to watch generational Celtics play etc. When Paul Pierce arrived, he was my generation's Larry Bird. We finally had a Celtics legend of our own, only the problem was we never really saw him win at the level of those other Celts greats. Every time I would try to argue Pierce was on the same level, I'm pretty sure my Dad threatened to disown me. 

You have to understand, when you grow up and are molded by this team, your bedtime stories are of when Havlicek stole the ball. Or the 1976 Finals and the greatest game ever played. Or the tales of Russell, Cousy etc. I so desperately wanted to be able to have that experience in my own era of Celtics basketball, but it wasn't until 2007-08 that we finally saw Pierce reach the mountain top. By that point, I was 21 years old. 

I say all this because I think perspective can get lost when we talk about this current era of Celtics basketball, specifically regarding Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. As a fan, you can spend your entire life praying that your favorite team is blessed with a player like this. A homegrown franchise player who is not only incredible on the floor, but also has the overall team success to go along with it. For this franchise, that of course means a championship. Getting one player like that at any point in your life is a blessing.

The Boston Celtics, have two.

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I just want to make sure everyone understands and appreciates what we are witnessing. While the rest of the basketball world continues to be weird about Tatum/Brown and tries to force a wedge between them and cause fake drama, I say we should instead focus on the fact that we are watching two of the greatest Celtics to ever play for this franchise. 

No team in the NBA has more wins since this duo was formed.

No team in the NBA has more playoff wins since this duo was formed.

They won a title.

There's a strong chance we could see both players cross the 20,000 point barrier as Celtics, something only 3 Celtics have ever done (Hondo, Pierce, Bird). 

This is not normal. This does not happen for many fanbases in their entire lives.

Even if you look back in NBA history, duos this good usually don't make it together for this long. Usually, egos get in the way, the media gets in the way, and they're split up. To me, that's what makes the Jays so unique. We're nearly 10 years in and if you listen to both players, you can understand how much they recognize they need one another, and how much they enjoy winning together. You can see it both on and off the court, which is yet another reason I think they are underappreciated.

They understand what being a Celtic is all about. I know that sounds corny to most, but for those that get it, you know what I'm talking about. This is Russell/Cousy, Bird/McHale etc, only in 2026. Generational Celtics, winners, and some of the best players in the entire league. Never, EVER, take this for granted. Take it from someone who has lived through the darkness and dreamed that this would one day be possible.

It will never be Tatum vs Brown, despite how many out there try to make it be that way. It will always be Tatum AND Brown, and we are lucky as hell that's the case.

Let's begin.

The Good

- I don't care if this is starting to sound repetitive, but holy shit Jayson Tatum looks incredible. We're now only in Game 6, and you watch this guy play and you honestly cannot tell he's coming off one of the most devastating injuries in basketball. With every game he plays, Tatum continues to not only look more and more like himself, but I would argue in some ways he's even better

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A double double in 50% of your games while on a minutes restriction is insane. Now 5 straight 20+ outings coming off an achilles, something only previously done by Kevin Durant. I'd say that's a pretty good sign considering everyone considers KD recovery the best case scenario coming off this injury. He was always the standard, well what if Jayson Tatum now becomes the standard? 

With each passing game, Tatum's drives look better and better. We're starting to see this move on a more frequent basis, which to me is how you know he's feeling like himself

What we were waiting for was the jumper to come around, and I've been adamant that this was solely a conditioning thing. When you watch Tatum shoot, his form and release look great. Even his misses look good. It was pretty obvious that he just needed to be in NBA basketball shape. Now as he's started to play more, is anyone shocked his shooting is continuing to improve? Last night was probably the best his jumper has looked so far from an execution standpoint (68% TS%), and if it's only taken him 6 games to get his jumper back, what do we think it looks like after say….12 games?

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The beauty of Tatum's return isn't just his individual play and production, but what it's doing for everyone else. Adding in his gravity to this offense has been even better than we could have dreamed of. We saw Steve Kerr send multiple defenders at Tatum, and what happened? He utilized his elite ability to read defenses and made the Warriors pay. That's what you have to understand, even though he's not in his final form, opposing defenses are already guarding him as if he is, because they know that if they don't, Tatum will bury them. The problem is that his passing is so elite and he's seen every defense imaginable, that he has no problem beating teams without scoring. His off ball work has completely changed the driving lanes his teammates now have. 

Hell, the Celts have a 120 ORTG with Tatum on the court, and they're only shooting 31% from deep as a team in those minutes! Just think about that for a second! 

It's all just so surreal if we're being honest. I would say Tatum being back was enough, regardless of how he looked. The simple fact that he worked his way back was good enough for me. But now that we can see he's essentially the exact same player? I don't even know what to say. 

- As I said at the top of the blog, it should not get lost just how lucky we are to have not one, but two generational Celtics on this roster. It's a blessing to know that on any given night, it can be Tatum who dominates, or it can be Jaylen. Last night, it was both

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It's beyond awesome that the two players who came in together, and have spent their entire careers winning together, now sit next to each other for the moment on the all time Celtics scoring list. The growth of Jaylen's game over the years has been tremendous to watch, and this isn't just any franchise. This is the greatest franchise in the sport. That top 10 list is filled with absolute legends, which now includes both Jays. That fucking rules.

Also, I found this to be equally as awesome

In terms of this performance, it was very clear that the Warriors had zero ability to guard Jaylen and prevent him from getting to his spots, and when that happens, it's belt to ass time.

I just love how he's reading the floor and the pace that he's playing with right now. He's thriving in all three levels offensively, he's been absolutely NAILS from the FT line, and in terms of his approach, nothing has changed even with Tatum back. That was something I never really understood as a talking point ahead of Tatum's return. That Jaylen was going to have to "change" his approach. 

Uhhhhhhh are you braindead?

All of a sudden Jaylen wasn't going to be able to get into the midrange with better spacing? He wasn't going to be able to attack the rim? He wasn't going to be able to attack in isolation? He wasn't going to have C&S opportunities? None of it made any sense if you just thought about things for two seconds, and you're seeing that during this stretch. Pretty much nothing has changed in how the Celtics or Jaylen Brown play. The difference is now they are adding Jayson Tatum and his skillset to the mix. That's it. 

- I don't care if the Warriors didn't have Steph Curry and their roster kind of stinks. Holding yet another NBA team to under 100 points is always going to get a gigantic thumbs up from me. The Celts didnt allow a single 30 point quarter, they held GS to just 40/23% splits, ultimately leading by as much as 26 points. 

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As we inch closer to the playoffs, it is crucial that this team be nails defensively. If you don't defend, you die. It's as simple as that. I keep going back to the Knicks series last year. Many people point to the 3pt shooting, but if you were to truly dive into what plagued the Celtics, it was their inability to get stops. In Game 4, I'm pretty sure the Knicks shot 65% in the second half, so it didn't even matter that Tatum was having the best game of his career. 

To win a title, you HAVE to defend at a high level.

- If I could sum up one play that illustrates just how incredible Derrick White is as a basketball player, it's probably this

We see Derrick do this 2 or 3 times a game, and it's nothing but pure heart and hustle. It's the very definition of a winning player making a winning play. It's why you shouldn't be surprised that the Basketball Gods rewarded the Celts with that Baylor 3PM. That's how things work. 

It may seem like a small thing, but those small things turn into big things. That's how momentum swings and teams become deflated. I watch a lot of NBA basketball, and I can't think of another player who consistently does shit like this to the level Derrick White does. Of the long list of reasons why he rules, this is near the top for me. He just never, EVER gives up on a play.

- I know there are some who are annoyed with Payton Pritchard and his ball movement recently, but I thought he was pretty nails in this game which makes sense, since the Warriors stink

Another efficient 19/7 off the bench, the Celts are going to need this version of Payton as a scorer in a few months, so his finding his shot while continuing to never turn it over is important. With Vuc out, it puts more pressure on Pritchard to produce as a scorer in his role, and he's been living up to that responsibility as of late.

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Would it be nice if he remembered at times that Jayson Tatum is pretty good? Sure. But that's nitpicking really. I don't think he's out there deliberately not passing the ball to Tatum, it's just an adjustment they'll figure out. 

- I cannot believe how good Garzilla has become. It's honestly remarkable what he and the Celts have done in terms of his development. The fact that Vuc went out and Garzilla has once again immediately slid in and is producing at a legit level is one of the better stories of the entire season

We're basically getting Vuc production from a $2M player. Oh, and Brad Stevens already locked Garzilla up next year for just $2.8M, so when we saw he's allergic to missing, this is what we mean.

We'll see what happens when Garzilla is forced to play against a playoff caliber rotation, but at the moment his season has been tremendous. High energy, elite offensive rebounder, can stretch the floor and make open 3s, it's all been the best case scenario.

- Speaking of OREBs, one of the more ridiculous developments of the season is the fact that Baylor Scheierman just grabs every single miss? I don't even worry when I see a player miss an open jumper because I know if Baylor is on the floor then he's probably going to come away with the ball. He's the perfect example of how you can make a crucial and important winning impact all without scoring or needing the ball. 

He knows his role, he accepts his role, and he thrives in his role. That's Celtics basketball baby.

The Bad

- Unfortunately, we've entered the DNP-CD life when it comes to Jordan Walsh, which I'm sure is frustrating for him considering he's playing well in his minutes. I just don't know who you take out? Baylor is thriving, Hugo is good in his minutes and isn't even really playing all that much either, and it feels like we're starting to see Joe roll with a somewhat shortened playoff caliber rotation at the moment.

It's just a bummer that in a game you led by 26, that Walsh couldn't even see the floor. It's a great problem to have when your roster is filled with so many quality players, but as someone who enjoys Jordan Walsh minutes, I could use some.

- He played better as the game went on, but I didn't love how Neemy started this game. Outside of the Wizards game, I could argue I haven't totally loved how Neemy has looked for the last few weeks. Maybe it's a slump, maybe it's fatigue, maybe it's playing better competition recently, but I will say for the Celts to have success in the postseason, they need a better version of Neemy than we've seen lately.

It may look better in the box score because the Warriors were small and he woke up down the stretch, but the teams the Celts will face in the playoffs are much better than this dogshit Warriors team. 

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I will say though, he continues to make GREAT reads on the short roll, so there are signs that he'll be able to be effective for when the games really matter. 

- I looked it up this morning, and 60 touches for Tatum feels a little low, with 25 frontcourt touches. That number will most likely have to be around 75+ total touches in the playoffs, so eventually Joe needs to put the ball in his hands and get those play initiator reps in. I have no problem with using Tatum off ball for stretches, but I also know that when shit gets real, the ball needs to be in his hands and he needs to feel comfortable in those situations. We saw some turnover issues creep up last night, and to me that's just a reps thing.

I'd say the same thing for high leverage situations as well. He needs to go through those reps as the initiator just because it's been 300+ days since he's done it. If this home stretch is about preparing for the playoffs, then the Celts need to have Tatum get comfortable in his playoff approach.

The Ugly

- We've lived through a lot of dumb shit in the Tatum/Brown Era, but by FAR the dumbest shit we've ever heard was the whole "how will Tatum fit once he returns" bullshit. So manufactured, so embarrassing. As if there wasn't nearly a decade of evidence of how the team will look and play when their best player returns. 

And guess what? It looks exactly the same as it always did! You'll never believe this, but Jayson Tatum fits this team like a glove! Who could have possibly seen this coming!

It's honestly just the latest example of how desperate some are for there to be tension or drama or friction when it comes to the Celtics. They forget to use their brains in favor of a fake narrative that has never, ever, existed. #1 option bullshit, playstyle bullshit, it's almost as if none of these people have ever watched Tatum or the Celtics play before, which is bizarre to me. The fact that it's only been 6 games and it looks as if he never left tells you pretty much everything you need to know.

All in all, it will always feel great to give Steve Kerr the belt, so that was fun. Looking ahead, with the Knicks facing 3 dogshit teams, it's very important the Celts handle their own business as they lead the Knicks by just 2 losses in for the 2 seed. With MEM/MIN/OKC up next, they cannot let go of the rope, now is the time to keep stacking wins.