Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla’s eye-opening take on Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown parternship
Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics have been rolling as the season enters its second half, currently holders of the best record in the NBA and by no small margin–Boston is a whopping 4.5 games ahead of the next closest team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, in the overall standings. Tatum has been playing at an MVP level for the Celtics this year, continuing to stuff the stat sheet while integrating new teammates Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday into the fold.
Over the years, much has been made about the ability, or relative inability depending on who you ask, of Tatum and costar Jaylen Brown to coexist, with some wondering how close the two actually are off the court. Recently, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla gave his opinion on those slights.
“They’ve been lumped together for so long and they’re different people, they’re different types of players, they’re different types of leaders and just because they’re young and they both play a relatively similar position they’ve always been the two of them,” said Mazzulla, per Bobby Manning of Celtics on CLNS on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “They don’t have to be best friends.”
Indeed, a common criticism of the Tatum-Brown partnership has been the fact that they do have quite similar games to one another, something that NBA history suggests isn’t necessarily a great trait in a team’s best two players. However, at the end of the day, results are the only thing that matters, and there’s no arguing with Boston’s success so far this season.
