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Since teaming up in the fall of 2017, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum forged on in Beantown as the Boston Celtics shuffled through name after name around them.

Kyrie Irving. Gordon Hayward. Kemba Walker. Robert Williams III. Marcus Smart. Al Horford. Jrue Holiday. Kristaps Porzingis.

All of them came and went while Boston pursued a title — and eventually claimed one in emphatic fashion — behind its two young, then budding, and, finally, established stars on the wing.

A year after winning a championship in 2024, the Tatum-Brown-Holiday-Horford-Porzingis core dissolved as the latter three departed. Despite Tatum missing much of 2025-26 while recovering from a torn Achilles, the Celtics pivoted toward a new group around their two pillars. Then, after a bountiful nine-year partnership, Tatum and Brown split.

In exchange for Paul George and two first-round picks (and two swaps), Boston dealt Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers over the summer. Brown’s exit represented the Celtics’ most dramatic roster reshaping in recent years. Sure, the year prior marked a wider exodus of names but none of them helped define Boston’s vision and identity like Brown.

Through nine games, that’s proven true on both ends of the floor. The Celtics have altered how they elect to deploy their offensive figureheads and spotlight George’s defensive splendor — the product of Brown’s absence (for better and worse) and George’s arrival (for better and worse).

Without Brown, Boston does not sport a creator equipped to soak up mammoth on-ball volume beyond Tatum, who sports a career-high 36% usage rate (third league-wide, per Cleaning the Glass) and is averaging 27.9 points, 8.0 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game this season.

But the Celtics have not spiked Tatum’s responsibilities by simply handing him the ball up top and demanding he stir more of their drink. His 27.2% on-ball rate is lower than in 2025-26 (28.3%) and 2024-25 (28.8%) while his 20.0 creation true shot attempts per 100 possessions (pick-and-rolls, isolation, post-ups) align with the previous two years as well (19.0, 19.4), per databallr.

Instead, they’re leveraging his size, strength and fluidity to garner advantageous touches inside, dive to the rim around off-ball screens and attack tilted defenses on the move. A 33% rim frequency is his highest since 2022-23 and tied for the second-gaudiest mark of his career.

Tatum relishes contact these days and will bludgeon through any defender to finish or draw fouls. His .510 free-throw rate is obliterating a previous career-high of .399. Only Luka Doncic (102) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (83) have attempted more free throws than his 80 this season.

He is huge, strong and emboldened. The Celtics are wielding that to their benefit.

Plays like those emphasize another crucial detail in how Tatum’s reached such towering usage: teammates are setting up him more often. Forty-seven percent of all his field goals are assisted, his highest rate since 2022-23, including 53% at the rim and 41% from midrange — also his highest rates since 2022-23, per Cleaning the Glass.

In contrast to their guard-sized contemporaries, wing-sized initiators often incur drawbacks with their burst, handle and flexibility. They are bigger and stronger, so they are slower and less adept maneuvering through tight windows. Yet they are bigger and stronger than their diminutive peers, traits that present their own upshots. As best they can, the Celtics are embracing the upshots to help mitigate the drawbacks while still bestowing Tatum cream-of-the-crop usage.

He is logging plenty of traditional creation reps, though, too. And when he is commandeering Boston’s offense, he’s looked spectacular as a facilitator. His 40.5% assist rate dwarfs his previous career-high of 26.5%.

His 16.7 potential assists per 100 are also a career high, besting his 15.8 in 2024-25. When he returned last season, he was mighty punctual and precise as a distributor, reliably dissecting opponents if they sent too many limbs into his orbit. That’s continued this year.

Most notably, he’s amended his playmaking patterns. Whereas he’s typically erred for kickout passes to shooters against gap help or blitzes — partly because he’s played with many below-the-rim and/or floor-spacing centers — he’s prioritizing more interior reads this season and averaging a career-high 5.2 at-rim assists per 100 possessions (99th percentile).

That shatters last year’s career-high of 3.0, which already trounced his then-career-high of 2.2 in 2024-25. Boston’s rim frequency is 9.3% higher with him on the floor this season (per Cleaning the Glass), the result of his interior-oriented style and preferences as a passer.

Whether he’s playing alongside Neemias Queta or Mitchell Robinson, he’s utilizing his 84-inch acrobats to generate easy shots as the Celtics’ primary initiator. His own height empowers him to disregard extra attention over the top and he’s increasingly manipulating help defenders with his eyes to open up passes inside, particularly when George or Sam Hauser — Boston’s most vaunted off-ball shooters — are stationed in the weak-side corner.

In totality, Tatum receiving newfound off-ball opportunities is a positive for his game. But a focus operating downhill and starting touches inside the arc has somewhat damaged his shot profile. According to Cleaning the Glass, 19% of his field goals are long midrange attempts (14 feet to the 3-point line) and 35% of his field goals fall under the broader midrange designation (beyond 4 feet to the 3-point line). The former is highest since 2018-19 and the latter is his highest since 2020-21.

Of course, there are a handful of voluminous scorers who flourish in the intermediate region. Tatum is not among them. He’s shooting 39% from midrange and has only eclipsed 40% once in his decade-long NBA tenure.

Too routinely, he will catch the ball in the post or against a switch and squander the chance with an arduous pull-up 2, turnaround jumper or fadeaway. He’s shooting 51.5% inside the arc, his worst mark since 2020-21, when he shot 52.4% — last year’s abbreviated, post-injury stretch excluded.

An uptick in looks around the rim and from midrange has seen Tatum’s 3-point rate dwindle to 30%, his lowest mark since 2018-19. And he’s been anemic from deep thus far, shooting 28.6%. That should perk up as the sample swells and 51.5% on 2s isn’t such a deviation from recent years that any long-range pulse, when paired with his premier foul-drawing emergence, should allow him to approximate or exceed the 60% true shooting he accrued from 2022-23 to 2024-25 (a very respectable 58% this year).

If Tatum has not suddenly devolved into a Thompson Twins-level outside shooter, the tweaks to his usage and passing upswing should set the stage for a career-best campaign offensively. And he is not the only Celtics wing embarking on a new offensive journey.

Boston recognizes it requires a substantial role for George offensively but cannot just hand him Brown’s shoes and tell him to fit in them. He is nowhere near the shot creator or explosive driver of Brown but does have some advantages, such as size, versatile off-ball play and passing.

So, head coach Joe Mazzulla is constantly rotating George through various jobs to influence possessions without overtaxing him on the ball — and the early returns are excellent. He’s averaging 19.6 points (58% true shooting), 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.4 steals while shooting 41.3% beyond the arc.

Despite a career-high 75% of his field goals coming via assists, he touts a 27.6% usage rate, his highest since 2022-23, and is averaging 9.1 creation true shooting attempts per 100, his lowest in the stat’s database spanning back to 2013-14; his time of possession is also its lowest since 2017-18, per NBA.com. Similar to Tatum, Boston is granting George touches in favorable contexts by leaning on its blend of elite screening, decision-making and spacing around them.

As George has aged, he’s lost much of his spunk as a driver. That physical decline has resigned him into many challenging midrange jumpers over defenders who he can no longer scoot past or chisel through to the rim. The Celtics don’t want that as a basis of their offense, so they’re implementing plenty of actions that manufacture advantages for George, whether it be off-ball screens to help him pressure the paint, forcing smaller defenders onto him or letting him catch the ball on the move to ease his creation burden.

His .508 3-point rate is a career high and he’s hoisting a career-high 13.0 triples per 100 possessions. They’re also utilizing him as a screener and roller more than any other team has in his career. According to databallr, his 3.7 finishing true shooting attempts (cuts, putbacks, rolls) per 100 is a career-high. Related: a 21% rim frequency is his highest since 2022-23. Boston’s offense is helping George optimize his shot profile and he’s taking his fewest share of midrange jumpers (31%) since 2011-12.

Reinvigorating George and Tatum as forces inside — and Tatum’s playmaking pivot — feels like an intentional effort to replace Brown’s driving prowess. The Celtics’ 30.2% rim frequency is their highest since 2021-22 and ranks 16th league-wide, their highest standing since 2019-20. That 30.2% mark is loftier than anything they posted with Brown on the floor over his final three years in Boston, which isn’t to frame Brown negatively but to underscore the Celtics’ revamped approach offensively.

*Billy Beane voice* Boston is aiming to recreate Brown in the aggregate.

Tatum has commanded a heftier workload and is calling the rim home more often. George is the secondary creator, albeit a lesser one than Brown. Because Tatum’s offensive role has expanded to help replace Brown, the Celtics are asking less of him defensively and calling upon George to fill that void and some of the void Brown left behind.

He’s assuming Brown’s former point-of-attack duties while doubling as an off-ball roamer who can guard bigs (Tatum’s tasks) when Queta ignores a non-shooter to patrol the paint. He’s third in the NBA in deflections per game (5.3) and fifth in steals (2.4), and owns a career-high STOP% of 4.7 (steals, blocks recovered and offensive fouls drawn per 100).

Just as Boston is highlighting Tatum’s enormity on offense, it’s doing the same with George on defense. His blend of size, screen navigation, instincts and off-ball disruption puts him in rare air defensively. He is huge and mobile. The Celtics are wielding that to their benefit.

Despite a 7-2 start with their leading men generally thriving, there is much to still sort out and navigate for the Celtics as the season further unfolds. Although I was higher than most on George’s entire Sixers tenure and his pre-suspension performance in 2025-26, it is undeniable he played much better last year once returning from a 25-game layoff.

An offseason of recuperation offered a similar reprieve. And his scoring numbers since a 38-point barrage to open the year aren’t as rosy: 17.0 points on 53.6% true shooting (37.3% from 3) over the past seven games. How will he fare on both ends as the grind of a long season mounts and transitions to a grueling playoff environment?

As splendid as Tatum’s been offensively and wondrous as George has been defensively, I still believe Boston, to etch a deep postseason run, will need more of its franchise superstar defensively. His rim protection, general activity and rebounding on that end are at career-worst levels, the last of which is bleeding into Boston’s 24th-ranked defensive rebounding rate (it’s never finished worse than 11th in the Mazzulla era).

Perhaps, that is a conscious decision from him and the coaching staff, given his prolific offensive scope. But he is, ideally, capable of more. Will he dial it up at some point? Can he? It’s a ton to ask, particularly because I don’t believe this offensive setting has an off-ramp for him to effectively scale back.

And for as cohesive and cunning as the Celtics’ offense is, I’m unsure of its playoff translation. They win on the margins with early flare screens, back-screens and drag screens that catch less-alert defenses off guard in the regular season — all details Tatum and George have ridden to early success.

When the stakes are raised in the postseason, countering schematic advantages is easier than countering talent advantages. The 2025-26 and 2026-27 Celtics have typically won because of the former, not the latter; their title team merged both components for dominance. This iteration lacks the ball-handling abundance and malleable center play the 2023-24 and 2024-25 squads enjoyed.

It is also possible a championship is not Boston’s utmost goal or one the organization internally deems plausible this year. Building a team unable to do so during its All-NBA superstar’s prime may warrant criticism but is a separate conversation.

This is Tatum’s first full year back from a torn Achilles. George, while still very good, is 36 years old and not an All-Star-caliber player anymore. His lucrative contract will be an expiring deal next summer. Derrick White, while a pillar of Boston’s prosperous last half-decade, is 32 and potentially trending downward.

Maybe, the Celtics are content to see what this Tatum-led group can achieve before parlaying George’s expiring deal and their wealth of first-round picks into a better, younger upgrade over the offseason. Maybe, they continue piling up wins and feel compelled to make a splash at this season’s deadline.

Regardless, this team is good but different than years past and still spearheaded by Tatum — who, for the first time in his career, is flanked by a new running mate on the wing.

All stats accurate prior to games played on Nov. 8.