Celtics retool around Brown as Tatum sits out 2025-26 season

With Jayson Tatum expected to miss the 2025-26 season, Jaylen Brown is set to assume the primary offensive and playmaking role for the Boston Celtics, a shift that will test both his scoring burden and the team’s ability to retool around him. The change comes amid roster moves, offseason debate about Boston’s long‑term direction and offcourt developments that have kept Brown in the headlines.

The Celtics will enter the season with Joe Mazzulla likely to design an offense more centered on Brown, who was the 2024 NBA Finals MVP and has shown the capacity to score at a high level in Tatum’s absence. Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz graded Boston’s new look offense a C, noting reasons to thrive including the addition of Anfernee Simons and returners Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, but also reasons to struggle such as a thinned frontcourt and the loss of the complementary star power that Tatum provided.

An anonymous NBA executive told Heavy on Sports that Simons could emerge as Boston’s second scoring option, saying the guard is one of the team’s best pure scorers and is likely to take on a heavy offensive workload in the final year of his contract. Former Celtics forward Malik...