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Tim BontempsESPN
After Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum had a tough NBA Finals, Brad Stevens had a easy message for his group’s franchise participant.
“I simply instructed him to go on trip,” Stevens, Boston’s president of basketball operations, stated with a smile throughout a videoconference name with reporters after Boston’s season ended with a loss to the Golden State Warriors in six video games within the league’s championship spherical. “Go get some relaxation.
“This man gave us every thing he had. Whenever you have a look at the minutes, while you have a look at the video games performed … I’ve stated this many occasions: He is a celebrity that does not need to sit. He needs to play, he needs to play on a regular basis. I believed that within the Finals, clearly, I feel he can be the primary to say that he want to have a few of these moments again, however I believed there have been different contributing elements to how he performed.”
The 24-year-old celebrity, coming off being named to the All-NBA first group, had an up-and-down playoffs. He completed the postseason with probably the most turnovers any participant has had in a single playoffs in NBA historical past, and within the Finals he shot 50% from the sphere as soon as and below 40% 4 occasions in opposition to Golden State — together with capturing simply 31.6% on 2-point photographs.
Consequently, not surprisingly, each 2-point capturing and playmaking had been points not only for Tatum however the group as a complete in seeing Boston fall simply in need of its targets. Nevertheless, Stevens stated it must be remembered simply how good each Tatum and Jaylen Brown have already been so far of their careers by way of postseason success and that the group would not have gotten to the place it did with out them.
Stevens pointed particularly to Tatum’s 46-point recreation on the highway in Milwaukee in Recreation 6 of the Japanese Convention semifinals as proof of that.
“The best way I strive to have a look at it’s, clearly, we’re all subjective in each second and react emotionally, however while you begin taking a look at it objectively and extra so traditionally, what Jayson and Jaylen have achieved within the playoffs, traditionally at their ages, is rarified air,” Stevens stated. “I feel we’re very cognizant of the truth that though Jayson would admittedly not have performed his finest sequence, there is not any probability we’re there with out him and with out all of his nice play all through.
“I feel again to all the occasions … Recreation 6 in Milwaukee was among the finest video games I’ve seen a person play in my time, definitely in particular person and with the Celtics. With out that efficiency, we might have had this dialogue a month and a half in the past.”
By “this dialogue,” Stevens was referring to how Boston fell brief in these playoffs and what the Celtics must do by way of enchancment. The 2 areas he singled out? Extra constant bench scoring and playmaking throughout the roster.
That stated, Stevens was equally fast to level out that the Celtics had been capable of get so far as they did this season because of a singular mixture of dimension and flexibility throughout the board — and that, as Boston appears to be like to enhance this summer time, the Celtics have to remain cognizant of these strengths and never take away from them to enhance different issues in regards to the group.
“I feel we’ve got to stroll a wonderful line slightly bit,” Stevens stated. “I feel groups are fragile. I feel the way in which groups work collectively and function collectively are fragile. And I feel your id as a group, while you discover one which’s profitable, which we did this yr on the defensive finish of the ground and once we had been at our greatest sharing the ball offensively, these issues are fragile. So simply so as to add does not imply that you just’re not taking one thing away from the group.”
He went on to say that no Celtics gamers — together with Robert Williams III, who handled left knee soreness all through the playoffs — would require surgical procedure, saying that relaxation might be sufficient for Williams and everybody else on the roster to bounce again from a grueling playoff run that noticed Boston play 24 of a potential 28 video games.
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