On Sunday and Monday nights, Celtics followers have been handled to a crisp back-to-back of video games ending within the whole embarrassment of a wildly inferior opponent. The primary of which noticed the Wizards—who’ve received fewer video games at their residence Capital One Area this season than the NC State Wolfpack did on their solution to win the ACC Match—trot out a squad of gamers so horrible that the Celtics most likely might have rested half their workforce and are available away with a cushty victory.
Oh wait, they did do this! Celtics mainstays Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis all sat out with smiles plastered on their faces as Jayson Tatum and Sam Hauser mixed for 60 factors in entrance of a “Wizards” crowd that gave the previous MVP chants and the latter a standing ovation.
After presumably the least worrying street recreation of his profession, Tatum was requested about his determination to go well with up in such a lopsided affair, even whereas on the harm report with a left ankle impingement.
“I don’t like to sit down out,” Tatum mentioned, matter-of-factly.
He elaborated additional, acknowledging that he would sit if actually injured whereas additionally emphasizing how he takes delight in suiting up for the followers that don his #0 and are available to see him hoop. He simply likes to play basketball, and doesn’t take as a right that his bodily prime solely contains so many video games.
Nevertheless, on the second night time of a back-to-back, Tatum conceivably yielded to the needs of Celtics coaching workers and sat the second recreation, with Porzingis, White, and Brown returning to unceremoniously dispatch of the Pistons. All in two days’ work.
Picture by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE by way of Getty Photos
Resting journey back-to-backs isn’t something revolutionary, however when taken together with his feedback after the Wizards recreation, Tatum is unknowingly offering a launchpad to debate one of many silliest matters within the burnt stir-fry of NBA discourse: famous person harm danger.
I’m going to get the housekeeping out of the way in which earlier than we do any enjoyable stuff. Sure, loads of stars miss video games with precise accidents, however the league oversight on what constitutes an “harm” is positively horrendous. Until the league intends to usurp particular person groups’ personnel selections, a star participant can miss any recreation they need with left thumb soreness and name it a day.
Tatum’s “left ankle impingement” that sidelined him for the Pistons recreation might be actual, however hasn’t appeared too severe as he places collectively possible his third consecutive All-NBA First Crew-level marketing campaign.
As an alternative, let’s give attention to actual accidents in the meanwhile. Save for just a few very particular outliers, accidents are both freak accidents or the results of long run pressure on a specific physique half. Joel Embiid tore his meniscus when Jonathan Kuminga dolphin dove on prime of it, however nobody noticed that coming till it occurred. Kristaps Porzingis’ left knee, however, has been a difficulty because the late 2010s and can proceed to be going ahead contemplating the near-decade of damage and tear it’s endured.
Tatum has been some of the sturdy gamers within the league ever since he was drafted. He’s began in each single playoff recreation the Celtics have performed in since he confirmed up, and continues to place collectively marathon seasons whereas taking little or no time without work, even main the NBA in whole scoring final common season.
However no participant seven years deep is with out battle scars. Tatum performed by {a partially} fractured wrist within the 2022 NBA Finals, and has managed this left ankle situation all season, although it’s a type of accidents that you simply start to query the validity of when he performs by it consistently.
The Celtics are staring down a clumsy stretch of seven-to-nine-ish video games the place they’re prone to have mathematically clinched the primary seed within the Japanese Convention. Video games will then turn into actually meaningless till the playoffs start, and we’ll all rightly surprise if the Celtics stars—Tatum foremost amongst them—ought to really be enjoying in these video games.
Reply primary is oh-my-god-no-absolutely-not-why-would-you-even-suggest-such-a-thing-wrap-the-entire-team-in-bubble-wrap-until-mid-April-and-maybe-just-keep-Porzingis-in-bubble-wrap-just-to-be-safe. If that’s you, I really feel you.
Fully meaningless video games are a real rarity within the NBA, with most groups having just one or two every year and playoff seeding gridlocks within the closing few days of the season. The 2023-2024 Celtics—who, on paper, are beginning to appear to be some of the dominant common season groups ever—might have as many as twelve meaningless video games if the Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers lose their subsequent three video games and the Celtics win all three.
More likely is the seven-to-nineish vary, however even the opportunity of clinching the one seed with 12 video games remaining speaks how badly the Celtics have bludgeoned the Japanese Convention for the higher a part of 5 months.
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Picture by Stephen Gosling/NBAE by way of Getty Photos
A pure intuition, then, is the Bubble Wrap Response. It feels insane to place anybody within the Celtics potential playoff rotation liable to a Kuminga-Embiid scenario when they’re fairly actually enjoying for nothing. Nor would the Celtics need their guys to build up any extra miles earlier than a brutal two-month playoff run that can check each ounce of resolve this workforce has within the canister.
Fast factual interlude: I do not know what the legality of doing that will really be, as whereas gamers are allowed to “relaxation” non-nationally televised video games, I’m not precisely certain what that NBA would do if the Celtics trotted out Svi Mykhailiuk and Oshae Brissett for 47 minutes each recreation for 2 and a half weeks.
Even so, I don’t assume the Celtics would—and even ought to—do that, as they need to keep heat for the playoffs and never begin a mini trip when the entire workforce is about to go zero darkish thirty. They’d most likely ease up fairly arduous, however Tatum’s feedback lead one to imagine he would need to play no matter playoff standing. Ought to he?
From the NBA’s perspective, Tatum’s mindset is stable gold, and has nearly actually come up in varied NBA-TV community negotiations over the following media rights deal. Right here’s how I think about these conversations went.
“Look! Look right here ESPN and TNT, wonderful TV networks poised to pay us billions of {dollars} over the following decade for unique rights to air our video games,” mentioned the NBA to the TV networks. “Take a look at the meritorious Jayson Tatum, proclaiming his intention to play in all video games—meaningless, lopsided, or in any other case—for the love of the sport! What fantastic stars we now have on this league, don’t you assume?”
The TV networks would retort that, sure—whereas Tatum is a splendidly marketable participant who thinks load administration is a swear phrase—the remainder of the league’s superstars assume very in another way. Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, these guys have been lacking video games with minor accidents for years on finish, and Tatum’s mindset is actually the outlier. However these three guys even have not-winning-anything-all-that-recently on their timesheets, whereas sturdiness tanks like Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo run the league.
The preservation of a killer intuition is the perfect argument for the Celtics’ stars persevering with to play by abject meaninglessness, although such a nebulous idea is unlikely to carry up within the courtroom of public opinion ought to Jaylen Brown break his hand on a dunk sitting 14 video games away from the Bucks with 10 video games remaining. Don’t fear, I’ve already knocked on wooden.
Additionally, these guys are professionals who play basketball for a residing. In the event that they need to play as a result of it’s their love and fervour to take action, no one ought to inform them they’ll’t. Everybody understands their very own strategy of getting amped for the playoffs, and if to Tatum which means enjoying in 79 of the Celtics’ 82 video games? So be it.
The issue with determining the risk-reward of essential Celtics enjoying out the ultimate video games is the entire irrelevance of the phrases “danger” and “reward” to the scenario. The chance is identical because it at all times is, except you’re a conspiracy theorist alleging {that a} rival workforce might go full Tonya Harding on one of many Celtics’ stars. Through which case… yeah. Yeah.
It’s unimaginable to know if or when a man will get injured, so most “evaluation” of groups’ selections with enjoying time and cargo administration comes ex put up facto, enjoying the outcomes and taking victory laps. There’s a purpose ex put up facto legal guidelines are prohibited by america Structure: they’re silly.
On the finish of the day, guys ought to play in the event that they really feel they’ll and sit in the event that they really feel they should. It’s not going to make a catastrophic harm suck any much less or extra, so let the fellows hoop if that’s what they need to do. Excuse me whereas I am going knock on some extra wooden.
