Not many expected the Boston Celtics to be the second seed in the East 62 games into the 2025-26 regular season. The injury to their cornerstone, Jayson Tatum, was widely considered a deal-breaker for going all the way. They were initially given a 50% chance of reaching the playoffs, but head coach Joe Mazzulla has worked his magic with this young lineup, which has stepped up. With Tatum nearing his return, though, the Celtics will have to tweak their strategy once again, which Derrick White, who is having a career-high year himself, admitted could be tricky.

“Obviously, adding a guy like JT definitely helps us a lot, and it’s not gonna be easy, it’s gonna be a challenge, but we play for the Boston Celtics, so that’s always the goal and always the standard,” White told Bobby Krivitsky of Bleacher Report.

“That was our goal to begin the year anyways,” White added, explaining how making the Celtics a contender without Tatum was the plan. “It’s gonna be a lot of work to get to that point, and we got a lot of room to improve, and that’s the exciting part, but we got to figure it out quickly.”

Across Tatum’s 10-month absence, White has taken extra responsibility and is averaging career highs in points, assists, steals, and blocks per game this season. Part of the reason the guard needed to have a big year was that Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet were all cut from the roster, reducing their payroll from a projected $540 million to $187 million.

The team traded Anfernee Simons for Nikola Vucevic, along with three smaller deals at the February deadline, but there was a clear effort to secure the team’s financial future. The Celtics were successful at doing this because these trades saw them plummet under the luxury tax for the first time since 2021-22.

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However, with Tatum returning to the roster that is unexpectedly playing well alongside an MVP run by Jaylen Brown, a genuine Finals push is very well on the cards.

How could the Boston Celtics change their on-court strategy to integrate Jayson Tatum?

The Boston Celtics have prioritized pace and versatility for the 2025-26 season. Mazzulla shifted to a strategy that allows his role players to thrive in a system rather than relying on a single player. They embraced ball movement and spacing, and the change has been evident, improving the team’s efficiency on both ends of the court.

Tatum led the team in shot attempts for the last six seasons. Among 123 players with a minimum of 500 shots this season, Payton Pritchard ranks 58th in shot quality, White ranks 94th, and Brown ranks 101st, according to GeniusIQ. However, last season, when Tatum was present alongside them, all three Celtics stars got easier looks. Hence, expect a change for the better when he returns.

It will also be interesting to see how Brown adjusts, who is currently in the middle of fighting the MVP battle with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cade Cunningham, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic.

With Tatum’s return, Brown’s usage rate may go down, but the two stars have played in tandem for years, and the expectation is that they will navigate it. He is currently second in the league this season, finishing 36.5% of the Celtics’ possessions, only behind Doncic. Last season, Brown ranked 23rd in usage rate among qualified players, finishing 28.9% of possessions.

Tatum is coming off a season in which he averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 45.2% from the field across 72 games. He ruptured his Achilles tendon in Game 4 of the Conference Semifinals against the New York Knicks. They eventually lost the series 4-2.

Tatum is now listed as questionable and could make his season debut as early as Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, according to Shams Charania.