Just one year ago, the Boston Celtics found themselves in the 2022 NBA Finals and they looked to be that next team up in terms of winning a championship given their young All-Star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Now, there are major question marks surrounding where Boston goes from here after their loss in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat. Both Tatum and Brown are eligible for major extensions, but given how dysfunctional this group looked at the end of the season, will the Celtics be willing to keep their roster together and run things back?
NBA Hall of Famer and Turner Sports' Shaquille O'Neal gave his thoughts on where Boston goes from here, stating that he believes it is time for Tatum and Brown to go their separate ways.
“Listen, I like both of those guys and I don't want this answer to be taken the wrong way, but the business of any business is to make money,” Shaq said of the Celtics two All-Stars on The Big Three Podcast. “I don't know what the salary cap is, but obviously they are going to be over the salary cap and now I can't get players around them. You're going to need shooters, you're going to need dogs, you're going to need another veteran and you're going to need to create a system to where it works.”
The Celtics won 57 games this year, their most since the 2008-09 season, and they were one of the best offensive teams in the league. This is certainly a team that can contend for a title moving forward, but their payroll is set to increase exponentially, which is why Shaq is looking at their situation from a big picture point of view.
“I don’t want five stars on my team,” O'Neal went on to explain. “I want a guy that I can go to every night, I want a guy that’s going to lead, and I want three dogs, three others. I would prefer if they were specialists: one to be a shooter, one to be a rebounder, and one to be a fighter. I would, business-wise, break them up and use one of them to get the pieces I want. I will say Tatum is the number one, use Brown to bring in a Brown-type player, and then just do it like that.”
Whether or not the Celtics will keep their star duo together is one of the main questions in the NBA as a whole heading into the offseason. This decision could have a drastic impact on the title race in the Eastern Conference and as Shaq says, moving on from Brown could allow him to be the top option he is capable of being elsewhere. Alongside Tatum, Brown will always be the second-best player in Boston, which is why the NBA Hall of Famer feels the way he does.
Egos always seem to get in the of great teams in this league and through the years, we have seen plenty of organizations have to start over because their best players always want to be “the guy” for the team.
At the end of the day, only one player can wear this crown and for the Celtics, Tatum is their top option. Despite being an All-Star and an All-NBA player this season, Brown will always be in Tatum's shadow, which is why he may be open to a change of scenery as well.
Shaq has had some crazy theories and suggestions through the years, but this is definitely not one of them. The days of Tatum and Brown in Boston may very well be coming to an end with money being the biggest motivational factor for change in the NBA.
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