Boston Celtics

Hopefully, the Joe Mazz Players Check-In World Tour includes a stop in St. Louis, or wherever Jayson Tatum is putting in the work this offseason.

By Chad Finn

June 15, 2026 | 8:35 AM

5 minutes to read

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Joe Mazzulla has been spending the early days of June making the rounds to catch up with some of his players at their home courts, so to speak.

The Celtics coach traveled to Omaha and worked out Baylor Scheierman at Creighton University, the latter’s alma mater. A few days later, he was spotted in Lisbon, Portugal with Neemias Queta, where they were taking in the opening game of the Portugese Basketball Championship Finals.

Presumably they got in some on-court time as well, perhaps running some three-man weaves, low-post drills, and, most crucially, anything that will teach Queta to resist committing knuckleheaded fouls.

Hopefully, the Joe Mazz Players Check-In World Tour includes a stop in St. Louis, or wherever Jayson Tatum is putting in the work this offseason.

While the confabs with players like Scheierman and Queta — both of whom had genuine breakthrough seasons in 2025-26 despite the disappointing ending individually and as a team — are more than worthwhile, Mazzulla’s most important task this offseason is to have a frank and perhaps difficult conversation with Tatum, the team’s most important and, yes, best player.

No, this chat would not be about the possibility of Tatum being traded. That would be absurd. Not that it’s stopping some fans from thinking about it.

It blows my mind how much correspondence I have had with genuine Celtics fans who, due to short memories or aesthetic issues with Tatum’s play, have suggested trading him rather than Jaylen Brown, should Brad Stevens decide that trading one excellent Celtic for an even better player is the best (and only?) way to contend for championships in the coming years.

To summarize dozens of email and social media responses, or ever since I declared in a column that trading Brown for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was the right, if extremely risky, path:

Tatum is bigger than Brown, younger, a better rebounder, a much better passer, a more versatile and attentive defender, and the superior scorer — even while being the primary focus of the opposing defense when he and Brown share the court.

There’s an argument — not necessarily a winning argument, but one in which a case can be made — that Brown is the better player in big moments. He was the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals Most Valuable Player when the Celtics collected Banner 18 two years ago. (Feels longer ago, huh?)

Brown hit what I thought was the biggest shot of the Finals, a 21-footer with 61 seconds left in Game 3, which gave the Celtics a 102-98 lead after the Mavericks whittled down what had been a 21-point Celtics lead earlier in the quarter. The Celtics won, 106-99, to take a 3-0 lead in the series. That shot fended off the Mavs’ attempt to make it at least something of a series.

Celtics fans tend to forget that Tatum averaged 22.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game in those Finals, better than Brown’s 20.8/5.4/5.0. I suspect they forget because Tatum struggled with his shot, hitting 38.8 percent overall and just 26.3 percent from 3.

But it does not explain why so many Celtics fans dismiss Tatum’s huge postseason moments — a 46-point masterpiece on the road against the defending champion Bucks in Game 6 of the 2022 conference semifinals (a series the Celtics won in seven games), or his 51-point performance in Game 7 against the Sixers (another series the Celtics trailed 3-2 and won) in the conference semis a year later.

Tatum has five playoff games with at least 40 points, and 13 with at least 35. He has 18 playoff games with at least 13 rebounds, and nine with at least 10 assists. He also dropped 50 on Kevin Durant and that annoying Nets team, and dunked on LeBron James’s forehead as a rookie. I assume you remember those. Then again, maybe not.

This is not to suggest that Tatum’s playoff resume — or general approach, for that matter — is flawless.

And that’s why his coach needs to talk to him — and get through to him.

Watching the Knicks win the NBA Finals, and the way they did it, offers further stark evidence that the Celtics offense must change. Tatum holds the key to that.

The Knicks have a high-usage, ball-dominant fulcrum in Jalen Brunson. But they still move the ball consistently and with purpose.

It’s such a contrast to watching the Celtics at season’s end, when Tatum abandoned the initiator role he played upon returning from his Achilles injury and the offense devolved back into the ugly, unimaginative, iso-heavy offense that essentially boiled down to Tatum or Brown going one-on-one while Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and whomever else was on the court stood around in a corner or maybe, if they were feeling active, set a screen.

Particularly annoying are the multiple possessions per game where the player that brings the ball past midcourt is the one that shoots, sometimes with a eh-might-as-well 3-point attempt with 14 seconds on the shot clock. Tatum, who has shot roughly 35 percent or worse from 3 in four of the last five seasons, needs to commit to taking better shots. He must stop with the passive or conscious resistance — it’s probably a little of both — to playing faster. It would benefit him too.

Tatum and Brown have had enormous success here, and their pure talent and determination has often made the uninspired and inefficient offense work. They’re wonderful players, already assured of having their numbers retired to the rafters some day.

But if you want this team to get legitimately better this offseason … well, the best way, I still say, is Brown-for-Giannis. I’ve yet to hear a specific plan of attack on “adding around the edges” that will make them an immediate contender again, which is Stevens’s mission during Tatum’s prime. We love Robert Williams III around here. That doesn’t do it, gang.

Should Tatum and Brown remain here in tandem for a ninth season, there is another way the Celtics can improve: Share the ball. Make the defense work. Look for the best shot, not your best shot. Learn from the champion Knicks.

It’s on Mazzulla to make this clear — to Tatum; to Brown, if he’s still here; and to anyone who wants minutes next season.

Presuming, that is, that Mazzulla doesn’t need to be told himself.