If Jayson Tatum Stays Healthy The Celtics Can Win It All 2026

We make the case for why the Boston Celtics belong in the contender tier right now, even if it pains us to admit as a Lakers-leaning show. We break down what the roster proves, what Jayson Tatum still has to prove after returning, and which matchups could actually test Boston in the playoffs and Finals. 
• Recent stretch against the Mavs, Cavs, and Spurs as the temperature check 
• Why Jaylen Brown looks like a true No. 1 option and MVP-level leader 
• Derrick White as the swing piece who defends, scores, and creates 
• Bench and role-player value from Peyton Pritchard and the energy guys 
• The missing question that decides everything: Tatum as a real second option 
• Eastern Conference threats from the Pistons, Knicks, Cavs, and 76ers 
• The Embiid health variable and the Maxey matchup problem 
• Finals-level tests against OKC, Denver, San Antonio, Houston, and Minnesota 
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Transcript

Lakers Pain And Celtics Setup

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What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. This topic is not gonna be my favorite one. Because as a Lakers fan, I gotta talk about our quote-unquote rival, meaning the Boston Celtics. But it hurts because I don't see my Lakers really doing much of anything this season. Next season? Oh. Enough about us. Celtics. I actually view their contender status as a strong contender. There were three games that took place. We got the Celtics versus the Mavs, Celtics versus the Cavs, and then the Celtics versus the Spurs. They went 2-1 during that spell. And keep in mind, too, Jalen Brown didn't play versus the Spurs. Now, they dominated against the Mavs, which they're supposed to do. Mavs are at the bottom of the barrel, essentially, especially in the West. We expect that to happen, right? The thing is, I expected it to happen even without Jason Tatum coming back. But Jason Tatum came back. Like I on my last, on one of my last videos, I stated I could see the 76ers beating the Celtics. There's still a world where that happens, to be clear. It just gets a little trickier now, especially if JT can remain healthy and do some things. They played against the Cavs. I was expecting a competitive game, win or lose, right? They ended up winning by 11 points. Against the Spurs, they ended up losing, I want to say, by like 11, 9. But keep in mind, again, Jalen Brown gets ejected after two back-to-back technicals. But at that point in time, the game was tied. And the experience, I would lean versus to the Celtics. So, when I'm looking at this team, I do see a contender. Reason why. We got Jalen Brown as a one option, right? On a championship team. He's an MVP candidate. He's already won finals MVP. We know who Jalen Brown is. He's literally one of the better players in the game, top 10 player in the league. Derek White, he's a certified third option. Like when I'm thinking third options on a championship team, blah owl. He's that guy. He can defend, he can score, he can playmate. At a respectable clip. So because of that, and we've seen it time and time again, whether we're talking about NBA, whether it's regular season, playoffs, hell, we we can talk about the Olympics. He's shown his value. So he's the third option. He's been like this for quite some time. Peyton Pritchard, sixth man of the year. Could be it this year, too. I think he started too many games. But he has that capability. We've seen him hit some 30 balls. We've seen him mess up even my Lakers. Man solid. They got Nikola Vusevich, who's a stretch five with playmaking ability and re-playmaking ability and rebounding. Yeah, they lost him for a month because he broke, he fractured his hand. We'll give you that. All right, but he's supposed to come back. Nemuscada, energy guy. Love him. Good big. Quality big. Should he get like a pay increase? I don't know. But he's not a premier big. He's just a quality big, though. Same with Hugo Gonzalez, energy role player. Should you pay him a lot of money? Ah, debatable. I wouldn't mind him on the squad personally. Good player. But he fits in with their mold. Jordan Walsh, I understand Jordan has fallen out of the rotation a little bit. Still, he is a defensive pest. We're talking about somebody who could be one of the better perimeter defenders in the NBA before long. Like when I think about it, him, I'm in Thompson, Carter Bryant, Scottie Barnes, like all those guys, they are premier defenders. They can guard virtually one through fives. At least an ideal. Definitely one through fours. Because fives require height. Like Wimby, I don't know if they guard Wimby, but they can do something. They can at least try. That's why I see Jordan Walsh. So I expect him to get back into the rotation at some point in time, especially if his offense comes up. Sam Hauser, three-point shooter. They need, they they have a bunch of what they need, ladies and gentlemen, to become contenders. Only thing I have not mentioned is a second option. And that's where we got to look at Jason Tatum. Can he return and prove to be a second option? Now, I think the boy actually can when we think about it, right? Because when he came back, ladies and gentlemen, he did his thing. Let's pull up some of his stats real quick and just throw these out right fast. In his debut game this season, playing 27 minutes, he gave 15 points, 7 assists, 12 rebounds. That's not bad. Next game, 20 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds. A little bit of a dip. Alright, cool. We don't got to talk about the efficiency right now. Just knowing the fact that he's getting out there, that's what matters. How about against the Spurs? 24 points, two assists, five rebounds. I'm seeing I'm seeing the second option form up. If he can't get to a definitive second option, which is in question, you do have Derek White who can give you second option vibes. But you need a solidified second option, in my personal opinion. The East is still a little, still a little open, but you got some teams across the board that may be able to make some things shake. For example, the Pistons. They're defensive minded. They got youth. It goes Cade, then who? That's the problem for the Pistons. So I think the Celtics could actually get past the Pistons because they have enough offense, they have enough defense, and the Pistons are still looking for that next person outside of Cade. Jalen Duran has been a problem, but again, someone like Cade can go up against him. So I would like to see the Pistons versus the Celtics. I might lean Celtics, especially if Jason Tatum has proven to be a second option by the time playoffs rolls around. The Knicks, this is your time to get that redemption, right? As the Celtics. So y'all did lose last year. I have to question whether or not if Kat can dominate. If he can dominate, this makes things a lot interesting. A lot more interesting. I don't know if he's going to be able to dominate the Celtics, though. And then my question is who has the better depth? We could argue both teams. I might lean Celtics on this one, but again, if JT is playing like a second option, respectfully, the best player on the floor is Jalen Brown. I like Jalen Brown over Jalen Brunson personally. I don't know about y'all, but I do. So I favor them over the Knicks. How about against the Cavs? I don't believe in the Cavs personally. Let's just say that off top. But we got Donovan Mitchell. He's still not the best player on the floor. Jalen Brown is. Matter of fact, Donovan Mitchell's not even the best two guard. He hasn't been the best two guard for quite some time, for quite some years. Then we got James Harden. Do you believe in James Harden? I don't. I think Derek White can actually guard James Harden. Same with Jalen Brown. And they both can guard Donovan Mitchell. I don't think those two can guard Derek White and Jalen Brown. And then we got to talk about matchups like Jared Allen versus Voosey or even Cada. Because those matter. I think Voosey can still get the better of Jalen of Jared Allen. And I think Cada can match what Jared Allen does. What's going to be the tipping? Yeah, what's going to tip the scales in the Cavs' favor is if Evan Mobley can be the best player. And I've said that for a while now. Until he becomes the best player, I don't believe in the Cavs. How about the 76ers? Because again, I did say that there's a world where they can beat the Celtics. Is Embiid healthy? And is he the best player on the floor? Because that could very well happen. Both situations. Have we seen him be fully healthy? Uh no. But have we seen him be the best player on the floor? Yes, we have actually. So if those two, if both of those things hold up, I think the 76ers have an excellent chance. Not to mention, will Maxie be able to dominate Derek White? Is there a world where that could happen? Yes, because again, Travis Maxie is a pretty good point guard. I got him at number six right now. But that's because of youth. Holler at me next season where I might move him up in the rankings in terms of point guards. And then my question is who's going to be the third option for the 76ers? Because they could have a rotating cast of players. You could have Paul George be your third option, Kelly Ubre be your third option, VJ Etchcon be your third option. They have a bunch of players. But again, a lot is banking on health. If Tatum is still healthy, if he's still playing like a second option, can he do that? If Joel Embiid is healthy, that series is going to go pretty, it should be pretty decent. But again, I might lean Celtics, even though I can still see a world where the 76ers win. How about the Thunder? For this one, it's going to come down to who has the better coaching? Because now we're talking about can the Celtics actually win a championship? They can get to the finals. I genuinely believe that. At minimum, they can get to the Eastern Conference Finals. I genuinely believe that. But can they win the finals? That's the question. Can they beat a team like OKC? And I think better coaching is going to have to come into the mix. Who's the better coach? OKC or Celtics? And then Jason Tatum versus Jalen Williams. Because it's not like J Dub ain't been injured himself with that hamstring injury. So which second option actually pops back up? That's the question. Because we got two MVPs battling out for one another. And then things like rebounds and free throws, those are going to be the battles because that's where execution lies. See, these these teams are good offensively and defensively. So I'm expecting the little things to make the difference stand out. How about the Nuggets? We got JB or Jokic. Can they dominate? Which one can dominate more? Again, MVP battles. Then can Jamal Murray outplay Jason Tatum? Jamal Murray's been having a pretty good season, actually, so there's a possibility, especially when Jason Tatum's just coming back off of surgery, right? Off injury, right? But if Jamal can't, because again, we got someone like Derek White out there hooping, he can defend. So if he can't dominate his matchup, well, Celtics might have an easier time of winning. And let's also not forget, too, Aaron Gordon, he hasn't been playing that much. So he's been dealing with the injury himself. So would he be able to come back and outclass someone like Derek White? Those are the third options right there, ladies and gentlemen. So for their hustle plays, who can out-hustle the other? AG, who's been injured, or Derek White, who's known to be a hustler? I might lean Celtics. So again, they can beat the Nuggets. Spurs, we just saw what happened. That was a close one. Celtics bigs. Can they battle the Spurs bigs? I think they can. Can JB dominate the Spurs guard play? I think he can. Because in that time that he was playing, he had about seven assists, double-digit points. That's not bad. Can the Spurs execute enough? They got a young talented team. Don't get me wrong. Coaching will matter as well, too. But some of these things factor in. But again, it does it does circle back to if Jason Tatum is healthy and is a second option, this Celtics team is a complete team, and I think they have the experience to get over that hump versus the Spurs, even though the Spurs have Wimby. But the Celtics have enough talent surrounding Jalen Brown. So that might be enough to get the job done. How about a team like the Rockets? I want to see Jalen Brown versus Amind Thompson, specifically Amon Gard and Jalen Brown. I think Amon's one of the better defenders in the game. Can KD dominate Jason Tatum? Because there's got to be some sort of like chip on your shoulder if I'm Kevin Durant every time I play against the Celtics. Especially, and this would be a fun matchup to watch too, because we saw this in the regular season or playoffs a couple years ago where the Celtics put belt to tail on the Nets with KD on it, right? We hear that. We know about the coaching changes and how Ime Udoka is now the head coach of the Rockets. So I would personally have seen this matchup. I really would. Who wins? This is actually a toss-up for me. Because I do like the Rockets in this matchup. I do. I really truly do. Could the Celtics win, though? Yes, they could. But if Singoon isn't dominating, that's gonna help out the Celtics. But to be clear, he could help he could actually dominate in this matchup. Because they're gonna be focused on KD, right? Like there's enough focus to draw the attention elsewhere. We know what KD's gonna do. He has help now. So I'd love to see this matchup. How about the Wolves? How about the Wolves? I think the battle of the of the top two guards in the NBA would commence. We got Jalen Brown versus Ant-Man. That should be a good little wash right there. But Jason Tatum, who again coming off injury versus Julius Randle. Does Randall have the advantage? This is a matchup where he should have the advantage. Does he? We have to find out. And then again, their third options. Jaden McDaniels versus Derek White. I'm expecting Derek to win that matchup. But does Jalen, I'm sorry, does Jaden enhance his play like he did when he played against us? Now, granted, he's not going up against little Austin Reeves and Luka Donic, who neither of them really defend well. But he has the potential to be able to def to score pretty well. You know what I'm saying? So again, I would like to see Celtics versus Wolves. I think my favorite matchup might be Celtics versus Rockets. I think so. OKC, I could see as well, too, don't get me wrong. But I would like to see Rockets because of top down, plus the coaching. You know what I'm saying? Like I'd like to see that a little bit. Maybe maybe Neil Long come to the game with twice. But again, ladies and gentlemen, as far as far as the Celtics being a contender, you got to throw them into the mix. You have to. Because again, they have a number one option. They have a third option. They have a six-man. They got versatile players, energy guys, role players, defensive pests, three-point shooters, good coaching. They have what you need. We just got to question if they have their second option in Jason Tatum. Who people might be saying, well, isn't he the first option? He's the face of the of the team. I don't know. I think JB has been the leader of that team for quite some time. Whether it's vocal or whether it's via play. JB, I I viewed him as the leader. And don't let him get MVP and have a finals MVP. They go to the finals and he wins another one. It's got it has got to be his team at that point in time. Which I would then be curious how Jason Tatum feels about people kind of changing up on him a little bit. Oh, it's not my team no more. It's JB's. I hope that don't mess up his his ego, right? But that could happen because it's it's been perceived as your team for a while. So the Celtics after this year, that could be very interesting. And keep in mind, too, we were people were talking about the Celtics maybe looking to tank. They traded away Drew Holiday, KP, Luke Cornet, Al Hover. They were they they were they were they were yeah, they were dismantling. And so just imagine if you had going into next season, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and I don't know, someone like Cameron Boozer entering the mix. That's kind of scary when you think about it. So I understand the appeal in wanting to tank from this seat for this season when you first started off. But with JT coming back, your team looking good, JB playing at an MVP level, I think the Celtics are contenders. Without question. Especially now. But ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I'm curious your thoughts. Are there some teams that you would worry about the Celtics facing? I kind of don't right now. They look to be complete. But I'm curious what you all are thinking. Maybe I'm too nice. But please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey, I'm the host of Get a Bucket. I hope you are all having a good one. Take care.