The Boston Celtics have enjoyed quite an eventful summer. They won the 2024 NBA Finals, kept pretty much their entire team intact, and saw some of their key players win gold medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics. And yet, along the way, their two best players in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have continued to get overlooked by their peers.
While the C's are loaded with talent, Tatum and Brown are their two best players, and they were most responsible for leading Boston to Banner 18. And yet, Brown didn't even get selected for Team USA's Olympic team, and while Tatum did, he played sparingly throughout the Games, which was a move that shocked fans.
As a result, there's been quite a bit of chatter that Tatum and Brown are going to be extra motivated to dominate once again lead the Celtics to their second straight title. And while they are clearly already superstars, it's fair to wonder whether or not that they could actually find a way to take another step forward for Boston in the 2024-25 campaign.
Why Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown both haven't reached their ceilings yet
Both Tatum and Brown had impressive seasons of work on their way to winning the first title of their respective careers. While their numbers took a bit of a step back due to the influx of talent around them on the team, they played within Boston's system, and when the team needed a bucket, they were the first two guys the team would turn to.
Looking at their playoff numbers is where you can find the potential areas of growth for Boston's two superstars. Starting with Tatum, he played an all-around game that fans weren't really accustomed to seeing from him (25 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 6.3 APG, 42.7 FG%). And then with Brown, he ended up becoming the team's most efficient scorer, as he ruthlessly hunted mismatches and found his way to his spots (23.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 3.3 APG, 51.6 FG%).
Tatum was pretty inconsistent with his shooting throughout the playoffs (he shot just 28.3 percent from behind the arc), but he offset it by being the team's best rebounder, and arguably their top playmaker. Earlier in his career, Tatum would have continued to force shots when he was having an inefficient game, or when opposing defenses were throwing more bodies his way.
In the 2024 NBA Finals, the Mavs were committed to throwing as many bodies as possible at Tatum. He responded by averaging 7.2 assists per game throughout the series in order to keep the offense flowing. The final piece of Tatum's evolution involves being able to impact Boston's offense without scoring, and he did that all throughout the playoffs.
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It helps having a star like Brown right alongside you who can pick up the scoring burden, too. It felt like everytime Boston needed someone to step up, Brown was the guy. He hit the game-tying shot to force overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers, scored 40 points in Game 2 of that series, and then hit a bevy of clutch shots down the stretch in tight wins over the Mavs in Games 2 and 3 of the Finals.
Brown is no longer struggling to find who he is on the offensive end of the floor. He's a relentless finisher at the rim who now has a deadly bag of mid-range jumpers at his disposal too, in addition to being able to knock down threes from downtown. Brown isn't ever going to be the best playmaker on his team, but he doesn't have to be, which is why he and Tatum are such great counterparts.
Sometimes after winning a title, players take their foot off the gas pedal, but the perceived disrespect that these two have continued to endure throughout the offseason has ensured that simply won't happen. Jayson Tatum will continue looking to develop into the all-around player that Team USA head coach Steve Kerr doesn't seem to believe he is, while Jaylen Brown will look to show that he is one of the best players in the league after getting overlooked for the Olympics.
Does this mean that Boston is automatically going to win another title like some folks seem to believe? Of course not, but the offseason has created a unique set of circumstances that should help the C's star duo be even more fired up for the upcoming campaign than expected. As we saw in the playoffs, both of these guys haven't reached their ceiling yet, and while they don't have anything to prove after winning a title, chances are they will be highly motivated to take their games to another level in their quest to repeat as champions.
