Jayson Tatum’s injury will change the NBA, not just the Celtics

Athletic has a live report on Celtics against Knicks Game 6 in the NBA playoffs 2025.

The history of the NBA is based on the ruins of the crumbled competitors.

Each plank of the basketball court pursue injuries. The fact that LeBron James did not suffer a big tear in his multi -year career is not only a performance, but also a borderline paradoxical. The injury, the operation, rehab: it is almost a transitional rite in the NBA, one that Jayson finally has to conquer.

Tatum was one of the Ironmen of the League, but the reality of sport is more difficult than metal. He spent his career turning from a finesse shooter to a bulldozing driver, and then suffered a career injury in the pedestrian road, late into one of the best games in his career.

Everything that Tatum did was to push his back foot against the New York Knicks in Bostons 121: 113 games 4, and his career, his team and his league were transformed. The Celtics announced that Tatum was operated on to repair his right Achilles tendon on Tuesday without returning the schedule. The recovery of the injury often takes 10-12 months, but each case is different. It is particularly clear when it is a 27-year-old with a potential decade of the star game in front of him.

Tatum’s injury sends a seismic wave through the Celtics organization, but the aftershocks will be felt throughout the NBA. It is rare The The player’s caliber suffers The devastating injury The catastrophic in a season in The Sed a moment for a marquee franchise.

This is a cruel memory that profit is a privilege in this league, especially under the latest CBA, which has harder penalties for high salary statements. The best healthy team wins in most years. It is the truest passage between champions.

This moment could diffuse the focus of the league, depending on what the Celtics do next. The NBA circled in Boston in Boston in the last two seasons. There are other teams with young players who enter their prime numbers who could appear next, but apart from a crime free Celtics turning in this series, this will be the seventh season in a row without repeat champions. There is not much reason to assume that this will change soon.

Now the Celtics are now entering this low season a complete unknown.

The only thing that is guaranteed is that the Celtics will not be the same team next season, with Tatum for most, if not all of them. In the successor to a title, the President of the basketball operations Brad Stevens said almost a year ago in the draft evening that his goal was to make the Celtics sustainable for years, even if some of them are below and even if they occasionally miss the playoffs.

“But it’s just not big dips,” said Stevens. “We want that. It’s hard to do because the other teams are also good.”

Will this be the guiding principle for the rest of the league? The Celtics prove that the dips are more frequently designed in this new cap environment. They should already be 37 million US dollars compared to the expected luxury tax line of the next year and the risk of paying escalating fees in the street if they continue to operate over the second apron in the future years. The second apron also shows a significant transaction and long-term design consequences that loses its best player after the team’s loss. The new rule that freezes its draft appears to be more discouraged for seven years, since Tatum’s mortality finally shows, even if the stars push their prime numbers deeper into the 1930s.

But how deep do you want to dive? What is the consequence when a team that becomes as good as the Celtics at this time becomes a complete Firesale in his franchise curve? If your players are healthy next season, you could make a big difference for another playoff team.

The Celtics have presented a monolithic duality, a team that can win through a flood of 3 hands or the heroic deeds of their two core stars. Even if they had lost to the Knicks with a healthy crime, the narrative would have been that the Celtics were simply too beaten at the time of the off -season. Perhaps a longer off -season and the lessons from this year’s, stunted playoff run would prepare it for the next April. But that could all argue after Tatum’s injury.

There is a street back so that Tatum is again a top five player in the league, but it will be a long one. He takes care of his body with such a high level as in the NBA, so he is a good candidate for a return to the form.

He has a precedent. Kevin Durant opened his Achilles in game 5 of the NBA final in 2019 and missed the following season while the Golden State Warrior’s tank. Durant’s injury (and ultimately departure in the free agency) was associated with Klay Thompson, who tear his ACL in the next game. It was one of the steepest drops from the dynasty for devastation in the memory.

But the warriors were able to rebuild by taking their lumps for a year, reviving their squad and then defeating Tatum and the Celtics in the 2022 final a few years later. Boston could take a similar way. The most important difference for the warriors: they were able to convert a healthy Steph curry.

The Celtics were the franchise building dream with two young stars who could wear a candidate as long as they could imagine. Now this dream is broken, although not broken. What does that tell us about the durability of star pairings in a draconian cap system? Now that the Celtics will disappear to say that the next season will disappear, we may be able to find out.

The luxury tax already threatened, especially with the transition to new property. The calculation used to quantify the value of a championship window before wear and tear closes. Now the question is whether the Celtics can keep your window open under this new CBA. The league tries to find out how heavy the weight of the second apron is because it was born to kill dynasties.

“It will be interesting to see how it affects the league,” said Stevens in the Draft Night in June. “It will be interesting to look back and look back in the next few years.”

Now his team will be the most important data point that everyone is studying.

The Celtics-Front Office loaded the cap leaf in the long term and signed every member of the nuclear rotation to long-term extensions outside of Al Horford. Nowadays, the teams are more willing to take over long -term salaries, since the acquisition of rotary actors is more feasible than a free agency. Boston went this street on the way with many exits.

You can navigate through this conversion, regardless of whether it is a salary dumping jrue holiday after an injury that is noticed or possibly moving co-star Jaylen Brown for a younger piece. (Someone likes Cooper Flagg?) Closes a window so that another can open.

No matter what happens, but the crossbread beezes are simply faster these days. What is a championship window at this time?

(Photo: Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Pictures)