If there’s ever going to be a silver lining, you have to have a cloudy day.
And the Boston Celtics are going to have to weather quite the storm on a long West Coast road trip this week without some key ballhandlers.
But if you can take any positives from the Boston Celtics temporarily being without Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard while starting point guard Kemba Walker continues his minutes restriction, let it be that other players are about to get a lot more touches.
Before the first game of that stretch against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, coach Brad Stevens reveled that Jeff Teague and Tremont Waters will be looked on to step up at the 1 while Boston is thin at the position.
And even better than that, is we could see Celtics star wing Jayson Tatum running the point, too.
“Jayson Tatum can play point, and so we’ll but him in that role some and play big in that way if we need to. We’ll see how the game is going, see who is productive — especially in that first half seeing how that feels. But I have no problem putting Tatum at the 1 as well.”
This could be fun to watch, as the 22-year-old has taken his game a step higher than even last year’s level, which was worthy of All-NBA honors.
With how much work Tatum has put in to grow as a facilitator, averaging a career-high 3.7 assists per game this season, reps at point guard very conceivable could help expedite that.
And with added emphasis to pass the ball off and set his teammates up, perhaps we could see Tatum record his first triple double over the next slate of games.
Look out for one Tuesday night, as the Celtics and Warriors tip off at 10 p.m. ET.
