"Right Now, The Celtics Roster Is Shit" - Jayson Tatum's Dad Going On A Podcast And Essentially Calling The Celtics Trash Is Pretty Damn Awkward
Rocky Widner. Getty Images.OK, a few things here.
For starters, I have no problem with anyone thinking the Knicks are the title favorites and might go back-to-back this season, and you shouldn't either. That's one of the benefits of being the current Champ. Until someone proves otherwise and knocks them out, they should absolutely be talked about as the favorite to raise another Larry next June. That's how it works. Things will be harder for them this year now that they have the target on their backs and the whole 8 different Champs in the last 8 years thing, but this is how people talked about the Nuggets after they won in 2023, it's how people talked about the Celts after their title in 2024, it's how people talked about OKC last year when we were told they were going to be the next dynasty etc.
When you're the Champ and you largely brought back your entire championship roster, you start at the top until further notice.
Outside of that? I could not disagree more with Jayson Tatum's Dad when it comes to his thoughts/take on the Celts and their roster.
The spinzone here is that this is just a classic case of a father motivating his son ahead of what should be a monster fully healthy season when you remember how Tatum looked immediately upon returning last year
but admittedly, that's me choosing to look on the bright side of those comments.
The other side? Not so great. It's never the best look when the father of the franchise player is on a podcast calling the entire roster trash, considering the fact that the roster is in no way "shit". In fact, you can easily make the case the roster is even better than what the Celts had last season, which saw them win 56 games, be a top 2 offense, top 4 defense and net rating, and have the 2nd best point differential in the East.
Between the internal development of the young players that ALL had great seasons last year, the ways Paul George will fit in next to Tatum as a floor spacer and good team defender, plus the addition of Mitchell Robinson, it's kind of lame to try and play the "roster is shit" card ahead of the season where Tatum will now be the unquestioned #1 option. You can either look at that comment as motivation, or maybe his Dad trying to build in an excuse should the team not perform with Tatum at the helm, but barring any sort of injury, I see almost no way that's possible.
If anything, this feels more like a take we heard ahead of last season when Tatum was out, and everything was reliant on unproven players in unproven roles. But now, after we saw what those guys look like in combination with what they added this summer? I'm not sure how the takeaway is that the roster is shit.
Advertisement
I also don't love the comment because would it shock anyone if once we get to Media Day someone brings this up?
"Hey Jayson, so your Dad was on a podcast over the summer, and he thinks this roster is dogshit. What are your thoughts on that?"
It provides an opportunity for unnecessary distractions, which in my opinion, is the last thing we need. Given last year's success combined with the Jaylen Brown trade, everything is going to be dissected and blown out of proportion when it comes to Tatum and the Celts' play this upcoming season. The last thing we need is his own family adding fuel to that fire for no reason. If Tatum is who we all think he is (a perennial 1st Team All NBA player) and who I'm sure his Dad thinks he is, then this team should be awesome barring some sort of serious Tatum injury.
Thankfully, we're only around 64ish days from seeing what this version of the Celts looks like in real games. Vegas seems to think they'll be pretty good, the advanced metrics all point to them being pretty damn good, and as long as you have a 100% healthy Jayson Tatum, NBA history tells us that team will be pretty damn good.
Hard to have all that with a "shit" roster, so unfortunately I'm going to have to disagree with Mr. Tatum on that one.