It seems the Boston Celtics are set with building around the Jays — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
The C’s find themselves a bit heavy at the wing position with Tatum, Brown and Gordon Hayward, which reportedly led some teams to reach out to Boston to see if it would be open to trading one of the three.
With Tatum the most coveted, and youngest, of the three, his asking price obviously was going to be the highest, but according to one opposing executive, the cost was excessive.
“We tried to get him. The price they asked was insane, as it should be,” the executive told Keith P. Smith of SB Nation’s Celtics Blog. “He’s going to be an All-Star. If his numbers were down, it’s only because no 19-year-old had been at that level before. Kemba (Walker) is a great addition and (Gordon) Hayward is going to be better, but Tatum is the franchise in Boston.”
Tatum’s shooting percentages dropped in year two, converting at a 45 percent clip last season, compared to 47.5 percent as a rookie. He shot just 37.3 percent from three after converting 43.4 percent from deep in year one.
But expectations are there for Tatum to take a leap forward in 2019-20, and according to a team executive, there are few players out there they would trade for the 20-year-old.
“To keep getting better. People say he took a step back, but he was in the toughest spot of everyone last year,” the executive said. “He didn’t get the touches he got as a rookie. And his bar was ridiculously high. There are very few guys we would even talk about trading Jayson for. That should tell you how high we are on him.”
