Despite $60-million-a-year Jayson Tatum being useless to the Boston Celtics due to his injuries, he’s still management’s class pet.
That is sticking in the craw of Jaylen Brown, who despite loyally filling the gap left by Tatum’s extended medical leaves isn’t the front office’s fair-haired boy.
“Yup, either he’s bout to ask for a trade so he can run his own show or Tatum bout to be moved,” Mo Sports Network on Facebook commented Monday. “They not going to keep them both together past next season.”
By the numbers, Tatum is the better player, according to a NESN analysis published by Yahoo.
“For their entire careers, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have been compared to each other,” NESN’s Tyler Maher writes.
“While Tatum has had better regular-season stats and is generally regarded as the superior player, it was Brown who won Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP during the Boston Celtics’ 2024 championship run,” Maher said.
“When Tatum missed most of this season with an Achilles injury, Brown proved he could lead the Celtics, carrying them to 56 wins and the two seed in the East with an MVP-caliber season,” Maher pointed out.
All season, however, plus/minus showed that Boston was actually better when Brown was off the court.
That proved true again in the playoffs as the Celtics shockingly lost their first-round matchup to the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games.
Boston finished the series minus-23 when Brown was on the court versus plus-43 when he was on the bench.
In its four losses, Brown had a staggering negative-66 plus/minus, including a minus-57 over the final three games.
Sure, Tatum has better numbers – but only when he’s well enough to play.
So there’s that. He’s not scoring points in the whirlpool bath.
Tatum only played in 22 games this season due to his injuries, which effectively made him useless.
Useless at $60 million a year – the highest-paid NBA player in history – has to have management not ruling out finding him a new home.
If not, Brown may walk.
