How Will Jayson Tatum Injury Impact Offseason? Brad Stevens Responds

Jayson Tatum’s impending absence presents a new problem to what figured to be an already complex calculation.

Green Teamers and media members started having those conversations one week ago, hours after Tatum ruptured his Achilles in Game 4 against the Knicks. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, however, isn’t yet ready to talk about it after the team was eliminated by New York on Friday.

“I think anytime you’re talking about an injury like that, I think it’s another piece of information that you have to ingest and figure out how that affects you moving forward, both next year and in the future,” Stevens told reporters at Auerbach Center on Monday, as seen on NBC Sports Boston.

Stevens deflected when asked about the team’s roster and financial commitments. The Celtics, who enter the offseason under new ownership, have a historic amount committed to their 2025-26 roster and thus could trade players to ensure they’re not financially penalized.

“The North Star is to have a championship contender, right?” Stevens said. “You have to do what’s best to give yourself the best opportunity to do that when you can do that. We just have to look at it all and decide how feasible that is on any given year and then make sure that we are making the decisions accordingly.

“But the reality is, like I said, we have a lot of good players. We’re a unique situation. They’re all under contract and, obviously, there are several basketball penalties that will come with that amount of salary. We just have to weigh it all and make those decisions. I’ll have more clarity after we meet and talk and go through it.”

Stevens expects to have a better idea ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft, which takes place on June 25.

“We’ll see how it all looks, but my goal is always and will always be to try to best position us to compete for championships,” Stevens said.

Tatum’s injury, unfortunately for the all-in C’s, could alter that opportunity in the short-term.