Celtics

Did Jayson Tatum’s injury impact Brad Stevens’ decision to break up Celtics’ roster?

"We knew going into this year, regardless of how it ended, that we were going to have some really hard decisions to make."

Jayson Tatum suffered a torn Achilles in May during the playoffs. Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe

July 8, 2025

4 minutes to read

When Jayson Tatum collapsed to the court at Madison Square Garden on May 12, so did the latest iteration of the Celtics’ promising contention window.

As Tatum sought treatment in New York City ahead of an eventual surgical procedure the following day, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens felt as though a long-awaited (and dreaded) inflection point had finally arrived.

With Boston’s best player likely sidelined for the entire 2025-26 season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon, Stevens knew that the Celtics — as constituted in May — were going to look very different in the coming weeks.

“When Tatum goes down, yeah, it certainly makes you go — ‘Okay. Let’s all get together. Let’s talk about what this means, to talk about what it means in the near term, long term,’” Stevens said Tuesday of the discussions with Boston’s top brass after Tatum’s injury. “I think one of the things about the Tatum injury that is really important to us is that there’s no expectation on a timeline to return, but there’s an expectation on fully returning.”

By the time Tatum does return to the parquet floor — be it in the late spring of 2026 or at the start of the 2026-27 campaign — the superstar forward will have a new cast of teammates around him.

Less than two months after Boston’s title defense ended in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks, Stevens and his staff have dismantled a significant portion of Boston’s roster.

Boston traded away two key cogs in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to alleviate luxury-tax concerns, with a cap-crunched roster also losing Luke Kornet in free agency earlier this month.

Given Tatum’s uncertain status going into the 2025-26 season and Boston’s focus on not rushing him back on the court in what could be a bridge year, Stevens was asked on Tuesday if Tatum’s injury influenced just how significant Boston’s roster reshuffle was this summer.

Considering that Boston was set to take on close to $300 million in luxury-tax penalties on top of their over $200 million payroll next season if Stevens kept the roster intact, he said these recent moves were all but inevitable.

“We knew going into this year, regardless of how it ended, that we were going to have some really hard decisions to make because of the penalties,” Stevens said of the fiscal reasons behind Boston’s recent trades. “Because of the way that this apron is and where we’ve been the last couple years — we’ve been now in it for two years and and it was the two years that are the least punitive years, and now it’s fully kicked in three years after the CBA started.

“So that was part of making the decision to push and put our chips on the table and go for it the last two years, but we’ve known for a long time that hard decisions were coming. And I think of the agents and players have known that too. I mean, that’s been pretty well communicated.”

While Tatum’s injury might further limit Boston’s slim odds of running it back as the the top championship contender in the Eastern Conference, Stevens said that a step back was in the forecast well before this failed playoff run in May.

“Tatum’s injury certainly is something that we that we have to consider, but more so I think it’s about — we’ve still been very focused on, ‘Okay, we’re going to have some change. We have limited tools to bring back the guys like Luke or Al [Horford], the guys that we’ve really appreciated being here.’

“So how do we bring in the right people that have upside that can accentuate Jaylen [Brown] and Derrick [White] and Peyton [Pritchard] and Sam [Hauser] and make sure that we continue to build and grow this thing and put ourselves in position to maximize it.”

Even if the Celtics might have to bide their time as they wait for Tatum’s eventual return, Stevens stressed that Boston is not putting any sort of timeline on when the star will be cleared for game action.

“We’re not even talking about a timeline for return. We’re not even going there,” Stevens said. “And Jayson is working every single day. He has literally been here every day, except he took a few days break. But when he takes a few days break, [trainer] Nick [Sang] goes with him, so he’s still working every single day.

“It’s been unique to be here in June and the early part of July. Both Jayson and Jaylen are here. … This is usually a time where guys get away, but coming off of each of them having surgery, they both have been here. Jaylen was in this morning. Did a shooting workout, looks good. And Jayson was in, moving pretty fast on that boot today, so all indications are they’re both progressing at incredible rates, which is great. But we’re not going to put any pressure on Jayson to get back anytime soon.”