The Deep 3 Podcast - Jayson Tatum Just Completely Changed The NBA Season | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Jayson Tatum has returned to the NBA! Are the Boston Celtics finals bound now? #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We had to begin today off talking about the Boston Celtics and specifically Jason Tatum. I don't know if you're aware of this. Zero's back. Yeah. Zero's back. Call him by his nickname, man. Zero's back.

Cadoosh. Cadoosh. Caddooch. Cadoose. Cadooge. Cadoo. Come on, man. We have now seen two games of Jason Tatum

since coming back from his Achilles injury in 10 months. Absolutely outstanding. The fact that we see him now in this season, let alone like playing it all is crazy. We've already crossed that bridge mentally, though. I think we all knew he was coming back. Now he's here. And now you, like I said,

you've seen two games of him playing. How are we feeling about them, Celtics? All in Cavs, by the way. Stinky. They didn't have Jared Allen, man. What are you talking about? They needed somebody to get those offensive rebounds and nobody. Exactly.

I guess. So let's talk about how we feel about Jason Tatum coming back, how he looked in his first two games, how that affects are outlook now for the Boston Celtics, who are already the two-seat without him. Now they have him, how his level of play, impacts the ceiling, all of it. Where do you want to start?

I'm not going to lie. I think the whole entire Eastern conferences got fucking shook, bro. I think everyone needs to reevaluate their expectations and look themselves in the mirror, like the New York Knicks, like the Detroit Pistons who are on like a, what, losing street for the first time the entirety of the year, to have Tatum come back and you look yourself in the mirror and be like, holy fuck, like, we need to lock in now because Tatum, although he shot like, what, 40, sub 40% from the field for the last two games since he played, bro, he looks like good, legitimately. Of course, like the scoring has been up and down, but when it comes to all the other

things that he's good at, just being that big, being a rebounding presence while also being another distributor on the floor to just adds so much adds another layer of just like stardom to this team that's been needed for throughout the entirety of the year. Meanwhile, of course, they still have Derek White. They've developed all their young talent. Jeline Brown's still playing like at a top 10 player level still throughout everything that all like the main, the main your media has been pushing. This team is scary as fuck. And now throughout these two games, you can call it no reaction, but I think they may be

the team to come out the east. That's not an overreaction at all. We've been saying this for months now, that if Jason Tatum comes back, this team should probably be the favorite. You know, that was something we talked about in like December. And when it was first queued up, we were like, okay, that's cute to say, we'll see what he looks like, right? It's easy to say that if Jason Tatum comes back and he looks good, they can be the favorites.

That's fun to say when we hear he's coming back in March, but we got to see. it because the Pistons deserve so much respect because we know what the Knicks are, what the Knicks are, which maybe that's not even a good thing these days. We can get to that later in the show. But it was thrown in the air a few months ago and slowly as more time has gone on and we've seen the Celtics maintain this two C level. We've seen all the flaws in the other Eastern Conference teams. I think it started getting more and more believable in recent months that, wow, this

Celtics really can win in their gap year. Now that we see him on the court, not even looking 100%, I think I've gone from, yeah, that's possible. Maybe I'll be right to that feels like a certain. that they should be the favorites. They're winning these. Like it's... Damn, you just give up like that.

It's like... I think unless you have another another like miraculous, you know, first two games where they completely choked down a stretch and missed 25 threes in game one and then miss another, you know, 40-something threes in game two and, you know, the Knicks are able to come back

unless you have a situation like that. I don't see a team beating them because the like while we were doing the the the numbers for like you know what would it take how how much of a percentage of jason taiton would it take to to get the Celtics to be at the top like 75% 80% yeah outside of the scoring everything else was the same the rebounding is still there the playmaking was fine like he came out and he wasn't i think he did a very good job in his first game not not like forcing the issue and not like oh i'm coming out here it's my first game back i'm I'm getting 20 like the game seemed very easy for him and there were so many times where he was coming

off of a pick and making very very nice nice passes to cater down low their chemistry was already really good which I feel like for for him in the first game back the chemistry that he had with everybody and with the bigs on the pick and roll was really really nice and so you have all of that the shooting it's it's going to it's going to happen like he missed a dunk in his first game that was tough to see it was it was tough and I was nervous about it of like like, dang, like, is he cooked? Any air ball to 3-2, and I was like, I'm not going to like, getting rim-stuffed is the worst,

the single worst thing that could happen to you in your first game back. Because there's a wide open lane too. Yeah. No, he just straight up the ball just hit the front of the rim. It wasn't even close to contests. But how he exploded before that too, how he made that cut to the rim was wildly impressive.

Exactly. Exactly. I think his first step looks excellent. I don't feel like his first step looks that different than what I did my remember. I'm sure if he goes side by side. There's still a little bit of ground to pick up. He looks as quick as I can remember.

He can't jump right now. and I heard his jump shots. He missed a lot of my range jumpers because not elevating. It hurt his room finishing because he can't elevate and finish over people. Missed the dunk, obviously. That'll be the physical element that I think will see how it develops as more time goes. That's probably the type of thing that when people say don't expect him to be 100% until next year. That's probably the type of thing that will be tangibly that the vertical won't come back until next year.

I could understand that. The real X factor to me is how his defense goes. Because I think offensively, if he has his burst and if a three-point shot is there off ball, he's still a good passer. easy to see how he can come and immediately elevate this team and be that version of Tatum that, call it 75%, that we say makes them impossible to be in the Eastern Conference. The defense will be a deciding factor to me if they have a legitimate championship shot.

Because I think obviously the Big Man Group is much better than we thought coming into the season when I thought they were going to be a playing level team because the Big Man Group was so depleted from last year. Nemeas Kada, Jordan, everybody on that roster has kind of like exceeded those expectations. I still think in a playoff series against elite Biggs, you're going to need Jason Tame to be a very good rim

protecting power forward in that defense like it always has been being able to guard centers and small ball units do all the defensive stuff that has made him so special that'll kind of be the thing to monitor as we go on I think and he can he can do that I think and I think the most encouraging thing for him coming back from the injury

is that he immediately started and they immediately said there's no minutes of restriction and so the ramping up point is just you literally just have to get your your legs under you. And so we have what, like 20 games left in the season, something like that.

He has enough time to get into game shape and he has enough time. Also, they're going to be the two seed. They're probably going to play some week seven seed. And it's going to, well, listen, if Charlotte gets to. Yeah, we'll see.

Yeah. If Charlie gets to the seven and that's tough. But if somehow they mess around, they end up at the eight or even the six, who knows. But like, that's tough. We fail to acknowledge the most important part of this. My bad.

So I'm sorry, I failed hosting this conversation to begin with. Jason Tatum finally has a good shoe to. And that was shown in this game. Let me see it. The new Jason Tatum fours came out during this game. These are tough. Jordan Brand finally made a good shoe. Jason Tatum finally.

Actually, I can't remember that Jason Tanin's. Maybe he's had a decent one before. Jordan Brand's shoes notoriously garbage. This is fire. Those hit for the first time in a long time. The zero on the back. It kind of looks a little Adidasie. They're kind of on that James Hardin Wave,

who's kind of a shoe that a lot of people are copying. They're copying it for the good of the brand these look Fantastic. Off white cream with the green. Tough, man. It looks like a little sway-y on the green. Yeah. Tough.

Zero on the back. Listen. Jason was going to find her swag. He came back with swag? KD was calling him zero. I was ahead of the curve. I'm just saying. Yeah, align yourself with Kevin Durant.

Go ahead and do that. And especially align yourself with Kevin Durant is on social media. I know what you are. In this case. Yeah. Disgusting. Yeah, you feel good about that? Okay.

Maybe not. Now that Jal are putting me on the spot Like staring at me Look at the camera I co-sign Kevin Durant Social media activity I co-co-sign Kevin Durant

Calling Jason Taylor That's it That's all I co-signed From his tweets So what's your confidence level Let's get the Celtics fan perspective Obviously we were Cautiously noticing

That they were looking More and more like a threat For the entire of the season We cautiously got optimism Around December January That if Tidin comes back They can be the best team in the East

What has that progression been like as a Celtics fan, that's just like hoping for Jason Tatum's long-term health for the team to have a success, all that combined. Oh, getting delusional and delusional by the day. Feeling like you're insane by the day because going into the season,

especially those first three games, I was convinced this was the gap year. We were playing horrible those first three games. J.B's playmaking did not look well. Payton Pritchard and Derek White did not look well. And Derek White still, efficiency-wise, still hasn't had his best season. but over the course of the season,

the way the role players specifically has stepped up and filled in the gaps that this team had has been absolutely phenomenal to see. Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Shireman, Jordan Walsh, all these guys stepping up. We were a horrible rebounding team to start off the season.

Now I think we're the number one rebounding team in the league over the last 30 games I saw. It's just been insane to see. Yeah, and that delusioned. I like it you pointed out the fact that coming into this season, season, it was kind of thought to be a gap year. I made three games where it seemed like a mega gap year. Like it seemed like they were going to be even worse than expected.

What an emotional roller coaster. Because by all accounts, it doesn't make sense of this good. No. It doesn't make sense at all. Coming into the season, like, I was so sure they'd be a pesky eight seed, pesky nine seed, what injury would happen. And Brad Stevens would be very smart and say, I would like to get into AJ DeBons of sweepstakes. Yeah.

The fact that he didn't even have a chance to want that because they were just so good after that first week is crazy. And obviously shout out Jalen Brown, getting all the hype for it. Shout out Joe Mazula, who I think should be the runaway coach of the year. Like, to me, it's never going to be unanimous. It's always going to be a lot of good teams, a lot of teams ahead of schedule. This is the most certain I've been of coach the year in several years. I feel like there's, to me, not even really a conversation with respect to Mitch Johnson,

with respect to J.B. Bickerstaff. The way Joe Mazula has turned all these role players you just mentioned into impact pieces. I think if Jason Tatum gets back even closer to what we expect and he gets his scoring feet under him a little bit, this team might be better than what they were last year. And that's crazy. Like that might as obviously they won a champion two years ago last year's same core So not saying it's a guarantee It's not impossible that we get to a point where we feel like this team has an even better chance they would have if they kept their old guys

I think I think the name value for the Celtics were their last season like he still had that super team Celtics But if you really watch those games we were like Weirdly relied on Jason Tatum a lot throughout the last season This season the attack just feels way more balanced and closer to the 2020 Yep and to me that shout Joe Mazzulu system implementing even more off-ball action the way he's just used Jalen Brown, Derek White, and Payton Pritchard. There's three engines to get everybody going with the awful moving around them. It's been fantastic.

You mentioned Derek White's shooting isn't good. It doesn't even matter because Derek White, to me, is still having maybe the best year of his career, scaling up and being, to me, just as important as Jaylon Brown. The team is serious. Yeah, it's tough when you have an MVP candidate and then Jason Tatum and then you have a top-eye player in the world in Derek White. According to Kenny Ackinson. All of that is tough.

And I can kind of get to where. where you're going because even last year like the the porzengis will he won't exactly that that that was hanging over much more than it was in the 24 season and so you had like part of the reason why the nakes were able to come back was because porzengis was not able to to go in that series and he just he just was not impactful uh in that in that series so Andrew holiday's offense took a step back last year yeah so so I can I can understand that I do think and maybe like maybe he does get his legs under but I do think that for maybe like the next like month and a half, the offense might look similar to how it's looked in these two games,

which is very streaky, right? He missed his first, like five or six shots and then he went on a run and he got everything together. You saw him getting his getting into a rhythm. Came out yesterday in Cleveland, 12 points in the first quarter, four, six, right? Very, very good, very, very efficient. And then the rest of the game only had eight points. They were dominating for a majority of that game.

But I can see it happening in stretches when, he's like when he's warm when he's feeling good and then depending on like coming out of half time coming out a certain long timeouts like are you able to maintain that level of consistency that's always going to be one of the harder things returning from an injury i think the biggest thing for me is that for tatum specifically this is like the best time to come back from an injury like this when it comes to the state of the celtics because they have all these things happening once like this is the best version of jane brown that we've ever seen of course derrick white go with his efficiency has been wildly up and down throughout the entirety of the year, but that doesn't matter

because he's Derek Whitey. He does so many things other than like buckets at the end of the day. But seeing guys like Payne Pitchell level level up, Nemus level up. And then these like young wings, like you said, Bessels and Hugo and Baylor Sherman and all that. Like these guys are legitimate players. Sam Houser's there and Sam Housers has been better overall. Like they're not overly reliant for team to come out and give you like 27 at all anymore.

And that lends itself back to the defense. which is like what they legitimately need him for. This team is like they set themselves apart like once again. Tomazula is just one of them guys who cemented himself as that and to go back and to think to myself like, wow, like this team legitimately was in conversation, at least for the first three games of the year for like the number and overall pitch. It's crazy. I feel that also.

Jason Tatum has a crazy opportunity ahead of him. And what is that? He got to build this. He can get the public on his side right now. Yeah. Okay. You come back from the Achilles. You have a deep playoff.

run you have a very cool shoe right every if there was ever a time to be up in public perception to not be the corn guy everything that he's ever wanted is right there in front of it's at the tip of your fingers right it's right it's right it's right there yeah he can have all of the mythology everything he you can you can have it if he comes back from an achilles faster than basically anybody else to return to like peak peak level and is able to to sustain that level that will play, get the Celtics back into conference finals, into the finals, and you start rolling that.

Now it's like, hey, man, you're just that guy. You know what's one of the coolest pieces of fan fiction that could happen this year? Them getting to the finals and winning. And then he gets finals MVP over Jaylon Brown this time after he's the one coming back from injury. That would be the best mythologizing. That might be a better storyline

than anything we can see out West. I'm not going to lie, the rollout for this Achilles return was kind of crazy. It was. Like, have y'all seen an injury rollout, crazier than this. The last one would be Derek Rose, like back in the day. When I think about

that it's not crazy than this because that self-exmedia team put on a motherfucking show for Jason Tatum. Clay Thompson coming back felt similar fanfare, and he was like the most loved athlete in the world. I remember when he came back, it was like everybody in the country was a fan of him and Rudy for Clay Thompson. This was a little bit similar. It helped like Clay Thompson missed two years,

so that made it even more impactful. This is the opposite because he come back so fast. It's like, wow, look at this guy. Yeah. But that's the only thing I can think of that had this much fanfare. Yeah. The Clay Thompson one was also crazy because, listen, Clay finished the dunk in his first game back. Did zero?

Yeah. His first bucket was a put-back dunk. You're right, it was. Come on, man. You're right, it was, actually. I remember you saw the video of Deuce watching us from the baseline? He was going to go. Put-back dunk to a step-back three injected in my veins.

Is Jason Tatum and Deuce kind of like your version of like the royal family from British people? Are those your celebrities? Like, yes. That's a first thing. I angle like Boston legitimately treats Tatum like royalties. He's kind of insane. Like when Drake brought out Tatum for his concert, I swear the crowd was louder for Tatum than the whole thing.

Oh, I'm sure. It was crazy. Yeah, it makes sense. I'm sure. All right. It's things like that. Like, he can be the guy. I'm going to name some NBA teams.

You tell me if you would pick them, if you picked the Celtics to beat them in a playoff series today. Okay. Level one, Celtics, Fish Raptors. No, actually to fuck that. Come on. Let's go towards Let's go towards an actual scenario

Let's be the first feet front You're up here You're a raptor He's fat He's like Come on, man Let's be scary I was going to say that

Let's have road discourse Actually let's go towards somebody of my playing the first round Because of the five seed I was going towards the worst team In that tier That's funny Level 1, Charlotte Hornets

Most Hot team in the NBA I'm not gonna lie That's a lot of stress on Tatum's Achilles. You got to chase Sean Lamello, Khan, and Brandon Miller. I think it'll be all right. That's a lot. I think it'll be all right. Yeah, it's a cute story.

Yeah. Shout out to Charlotte for turning it around. They're whooping them. I don't know about whipping them. They're calling out. It's going to be a six-game series in which they were up three-one. Like, like any six-game series is not a whooping out. I know.

Like if I'm a hornist fan and I'll handily beat them. Yeah. I don't know. Or whatever. If I'm a hornist fan, I feel very good about pushing the Celtics. Six games this year. Pushing the six. God, we're so back.

We're so back. Yeah, push us to six. Level two, Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah, they're pushing us to six, too. I never just like Cavaliers. I'd never just like Cavaliers. I'd just my life, man. I trust the Hornets more than I trust the Cavs.

Damn. Yeah, I'll, yeah. The Celtics would beat them in five. Damn. Level three, New York Knicks. I trust the Hornets more than trust the Knicks. I'm not going to lie. Kind of do two.

If there is one team I fear in the East, it is the Knicks, just because I saw them actually do it. Nah. But that's it though. I'm not, bro, a lot of people ain't talking about it again. Jalen Brown or Jalen Brunson, he is taking a slight step back. His efficiency has fucking towered down over the last like 25 games or so. Uh-oh.

What's talking about the regression beginning? Oh, 29 years old. Small guards. We are seeing the decline. Uh-oh. We're not going to talk about it yet, though. But we'll see. He would know about smart guards declining.

Fact. He would know. expert. Level four, Detroit Pistons. They got them. They can beat them. They will beat them. They will. They will. Do you know there's any chance to beat the Celtics? Yeah, I think there's a chance, but right now you go into that series. The Celtics are the clear favorites in that series. I think, I think Celtics and six would probably be the most likely outcome. Yeah, you think there's, you think they're clearing everybody in six. Wow, Celtics and

six. Six is across the board. I think it's hard because even, even, even with the Celtics playing like this, even with Jason Tatum coming back. If he has a bad night, oh no, now we just have to go back to what we were doing before, which is Jalen Brown giving everybody buckets. And even games like yesterday against the Cavs, Jalen Brown took over in the third quarter and had a really good third quarter and was scoring like that. They have so many offensive options that Detroit just does not have. So I would take Boston in that series. Level five. Oklahoma City Thunder. If they make to the finals, can they be the Thunder? You see, if Tatum was at its peak level, like just banging on 100% firing off on all levels,

then it'll be a conversation. But right now, it's not close. It's okay, C. I'm taking my Celtics. That Thunder offense is fake. Listen, I got my guys. The offense that won a championship last year, fake. Yep, fake.

Outside of SGA, who they got, Jared McCain. Outside of the second best player in the world, who they got. Oh, my gosh. Hey man, just saying. Two other All-Stars? They went to seven twice last season at their peak. They're beatable. But did they lose?

That's awesome. Zero wasn't on the other side. I don't know. I'm going to go with the Thunder still. If Tadam was 100%, I would understand the conversation. If you make the finals, you can win. Obviously, if you make it through three rounds, you can win a fourth. But I'll safely assume the Thunder win for now.

The series is going to seven. They push, yeah, they put OKC to seven. I guess right now, I guess I would go, okay, see, just because that would be four months into into Tatum coming back. But it's definitely possible. We're going to see a lot of long series, The Thunder, as long as this team constructed this way, I'm going to continue to have faith that come through in game seven. Every single time they needed to last year, they kind of answered the bell after selling games

being forced to seven. I'm going to assume this will do that. Entering the bell, meaning shade there, I ain't got nothing to worry about. So I like. Low key. Big game, Shay was very real last year. Now, small game, Sheet, shit is down a lot. like a couple times. First round, Shea, some stinkers. But big game, Shay, always came through.

But what if it's a game seven and the other game Tatum is there? Let's go. 51 points in game seven. Never mind. I'm trying to be on your side and you're pushing it too far. Give me the thunder. Really. Give me a mile. What were you about to say though?