With nearly six weeks before training camp, the sweet sounds of sneakers squeaking on the hardwood or the roar of 20,000 fans at TD Garden in a series clincher. And now that free agency is relatively over and trade season has died down, the NBA is finally settling in on the offseason and players and coaches are getting their last destination vacations done and wrapping up basketball camps.
However, there’s still plenty of chatter. For the Celtics, a recent report that Boston was looking to trade for Kevin Durant and the slew of rumors that followed, including a leaked trade package that included Jaylen Brown and/or Marcus Smart, has made the last two weeks interesting. Brown responded with a “smh” tweet and the team hasn’t made any official statements.
Really, the only public voice from the Celtics has been Jayson Tatum’s. After addressing the rumors at a movie premiere at the end of July, former CelticsBlogger and The Athletic’s Jared Weiss caught up with Tatum at his Beat the Heat camp in St. Louis. When asked about the prospect of trading for KD or standing pat with his younger teammates (re: Brown and Smart) and trying to lengthen their collective championship window, Tatum said:
“I never like to look into the future; it’s just so unpredictable what can happen. The NBA changes so much every year. Every two, three years, and you just try to win,” Tatum said. “Every year, I’ve tried to win a championship. My first year, I wasn’t thinking about winning my fifth year. I was just trying to win then, and that’s what I’ll try to do this season.”
Tatum also further reiterated that his focus was on the floor and not the front office. While the 24-year-old is Boston’s undisputed franchise player, he keeps his distance from his former coach and now President of Basketball Operations and the decisions that Brad Stevens has to make.
“The cool part about his job is Brad don’t tell me how to do my job anymore. You not the coach,” Tatum said with a sly grin. “He lets me do my thing. I let him do his thing. In all honesty, that’s his decision and that’s his job.”
Make sure to read the full interview at The Athletic.
