Now that Team USA has won the gold medal and Jayson Tatum even played in the championship game, the Celtics roster can finally rest for the summer. But The Athletic still has some work to do, answering our readers’ questions about all things Celtics. In part one of our offseason mailbag, Jared Weiss answers your questions after Tatum, Derrick White , and Jrue Holiday won their gold medals Saturday.
Questions have been edited for style, length and clarity. Advertisement Are you nervous about the mindset Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will bring into the coming season after their mutual summers of Olympic “disrespect?” — Tom D. I know Celtics fans, myself included, are upset with Steve Kerr benching JT on top of JB not being selected for the USA team.
But maybe there is a silver lining. I think this will be a rallying cry for the 2024-2025 team, serving as motivation to repeat. It’s hard to repeat, but the disrespect shown to the Jays might end up helping the Celtics.
Do you agree? — Had M. Repeating is usually hard for several reasons. You can rarely keep your entire rotation together since a role player usually gets a big free-agency offer.
Boston managed to lock everyone down long-term. Then, those players who emerged over the championship run have to buy into their roles the next season. The way this rotation is set up, there isn’t a player who can reasonably say they deserve to move up the depth chart.
Brown and Tatum’s snubs, even if they are effectively du.