Celtics Notes: Season, Sale, Scheierman, Tatum

Despite starters Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis missing several games a piece, the 7-2 Celtics have picked up right where they left off so far this season.

Tim Bontemps of ESPN even sees similarities between this year’s loaded Boston squad and the 73-win 2015-16 Warriors, noting that Boston is similarly deep in its roster construction and three-point heavy in its shot diet, and is also looking to quiet critics who may have thought its first championship was a bit of fluke.

All-NBA Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, for one, is hoping to win multiple titles with the Celtics during his tenure. The Warriors won four championships with their core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Thompson departed the team this summer to join the Mavericks.

“It was never just about trying to just win one,” Tatum said. “All the guys I looked up to growing up won at least one championship. Now it’s just a conversation of, ‘How great are you trying to be?'”

Could this Celtics club win 73 or even 74 games this season? Odds seem slight, given this extended Porzingis absence.

There’s more out of Boston:

• On the heels of his second title with the franchise, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is suddenly looking to offload the club. Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic observes that this impending potential sale represents part of a growing trend. Several longtime owners have cashed out while team valuations have soared over the decades. “Most owners that have been in for a while in any of the sports leagues are sort of asset rich and cash poor,” an investor observed. “Most of the long-term standing owners, I think, if you ask them, I think in their wildest dreams, they could never have imagined that these teams would become these mini Disneys as I call them, or these phenomenal entities that have tremendous economic capacity.”
• Celtics rookie swingman Baylor Scheierman has been assigned to the club’s G League affiliate, the Maine Celtics, with the NBAGL season slated to tip off soon, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. Scheierman had been competing for bench minutes during the team’s preseason, but was ultimately pushed out by Jordan Walsh for the opportunity. Scheierman has instead suited up for just three games with Boston proper.
• Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum‘s father, Justin Tatum, recently reflected on his underwhelming gold medal run with Team USA this summer, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “He wasn’t in the room pouting or throwing chairs around or it was a topic of conversation at dinner,” Justin Tatum, currently the head coach of the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks in Australia, said. “He said he could’ve stayed with his family, stayed home or done this… But he was happy to be out there winning the gold.”