Karalis: Fans keep asking the Celtics to make two critical mistakes this upcoming season

I get asked a lot of questions about the Celtics. Whether it’s here in a Q&A, a podcast mailbag, or when someone recognizes me somewhere and wants to chat about the team, I generally get some version of two questions. 

“They’re not going to be great this year, so why don’t they just tank and go for a draft pick?” 

And, “There’s no way Jayson Tatum should come back this year, right?”

They're both valid. They come from a logical place. What’s the point of trying really hard to be mediocre if being bad gets them something valuable? And why would you put your most valuable player at some sort of risk in a season that ultimately means nothing?

But basketball is played by human beings, and two human beings are the key to this being a “gap year” instead of the beginning of a full rebuild. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum will have something to say about these plans, and if Boston wants to get the most out of what they have left, they’ll have to listen to their two stars. 

We know why this is an important year for Brown. It's his one chance to prove that he’s worthy of being called a number one option. Over the past couple of seasons, Brown has spent a lot of time talking about how much he has sacrificed because he’s a team-first guy. He’s been willing to do it because that's what the team needs, but he is also bothered by it … or at least what it has done to the conversation about him. 

In his brief viral Instagram conversation, Brown was asked if he keeps a lot of money in the bank, and he said “no.” He then said, “a lot of the richest people, social capital is what they're after.” 

I’ve always thought they were after more money, but the social capital thing is telling. Brown is conscious and concerned about how he’s perceived, especially as a basketball player. So this season is a very important one for him. It's probably one he feels like he’s owed after all the sacrifices. 

For the Celtics to tank, they’d have to severely limit how much Brown plays. The team won’t be very good, but they won’t be very bad, either. They won’t be worse than the worst teams in the league unless their best players don’t play as much.

Brown will turn 29 in two months as he begins his tenth NBA season. He’s not a kid anymore in the professional sports sense. It’s his final season in his 20s. He’s closer to retirement than he is his rookie season. And only now is he getting his chance to be the number one option on a team. He got it without having to leave, which is an opportunity that can’t be lost on him. 

Finally, Brown gets to be “the guy,” and the best way for him to prove what he wants to prove is to make the Celtics better than expected. He’s been asked to give up a role that he obviously feels he can carry, and now he’s going to make sure everyone is aware of what he’s known for years. 

Tank? Not Jaylen Brown. So don’t even ask. If the team does, they risk ripping apart what they’ve taken great pains to build. This locker room has been one of the most stable in the league in the post-Kyrie Irving era. The team isn’t going to start needling its stars now. 

Never mind the fact that Joe Mazzulla might be incapable of making decisions to lose on purpose. Asking Brown to give up this opportunity would be cutting him to his core. It’s hard for him to hide his emotions, no matter how good he thinks he is at it. Asking Brown to take a step back so the team could tank would be a disaster for him and his relationship with the team. It would not end well. 

A best-case scenario for Boston would be Brown accomplishing his goal, proving he’s worthy of “number one option” status, and either playing at a new level in Boston, or requesting a trade that gets Boston good players and picks in return. 

Whichever way that goes, the key to it is Brown getting the role that he wants and proving it. And if he doesn’t prove it, if he goes through the season and realized “oh crap I really need Jayson Tatum around,” then he gets to calm down and understand he’s part of a duo that won him a ring and will get him into the Hall of Fame. 

No matter which way this goes, Brown has to play and the team will have to live with the results. There's no guarantee a gap year tank will get a top pick. There's no guarantee a pick near the top will pan out. Tanking is gambling, and while I understand it’s a bet people want to make, the steps the Celtics have to take to get there aren’t worth it. 

Which brings us to Tatum, who also said something online that stood out to me. It’s the video I shared on Friday. 

“I ain’t in here six days a week for no reason,” he said as he showed off his rehab workout station. 

Tatum is making progress as he recovers from his ruptured Achilles tendon. How much progress isn’t really clear, but he’s making progress nonetheless. 

And he’s right. All the work isn’t being done for no reason. He wants to come back, and it shouldn’t be surprising that an elite athlete wants to shock people with how quickly he returns. 

There's no doubt Tatum wants to play this season. He wants to be able to say he got better faster than anyone. He wants to say he’s back to himself before anyone thought he would be. It would be a source of incredible pride for Tatum to do a bunch of big interviews about his recovery, release a documentary about it, and be discussed as some kind of phenom. 

Do you think he’s going to let the Celtics take that away from him? 

If I was in Brad Stevens’ position, I’d make a simple deal with Tatum. You go through all the proper steps with the rehab, recovery and reconditioning. Don’t push so hard that you risk a setback. Whatever amount of time that takes is what it takes. If and your team have determined that you have completed your steps in January, then so be it. 

But at the end, I get my team of doctors and trainers, and I’ll try to find every medical reason I can to keep you off the floor. If they can’t find any, then congratulations, you’re active. 

And I’m sure that's pretty close to how it will go. Once everyone involved believes Tatum is ready, then Tatum will play. The team can’t stand in his way. 

Tatum and Brown each have the chance to make very powerful statements this year. I know ruling Tatum out for the season and minimizing Brown in order to tank seems to make sense, but it makes much more sense to let these guys cook in their own ways. This is not the time to be messing with all the intangible stuff that's been built over the years. That's hard to accomplish, and it’s what is going to be the foundation for a quick bounce-back the following season. If the team erodes it now, then they risk missing out on what little championship ambitions are left.