Jayson Tatum reacts to Celtics’ trades, losing Fournier originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
A lot has happened over the last three days while Jayson Tatum was sleeping.
The Boston Celtics star is competing for Team USA at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where he helped the men’s national team defeat Spain early Tuesday morning to advance to the semifinals.
Back home, his Celtics are busy reshaping their roster. Boston agreed to a trade Friday that would send Tristan Thompson to the Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks teammates Kris Dunn and Bruno Fernando to the Celtics. They swapped Moses Brown for Dallas Mavericks wing Josh Richardson in another trade Saturday, then saw Evan Fournier agree to a four-year contract with the New York Knicks when free agency began Monday.
Fournier explains why he left Celtics for Knicks
Those moves all happened during nighttime in Tokyo, but Tatum has been keeping tabs from afar. After Team USA’s win Tuesday morning, the 23-year-old was asked how he felt about Boston’s changes.
“You always hate to see guys leave, especially guys you build a relationship with,” Tatum said, via The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn. “I guess that’s the nature of it. As a player all you can do is show up for training camp and whoever is there is there and get ready to play.”
While Fournier joined the Celtics at the NBA trade deadline in March, both he and Thompson played significant roles in Boston last season, so it’s understandable why their departures are bittersweet for Tatum.
The C’s likely aren’t done making moves, either: They have the money to sign a few low-cost free agents using traded player exceptions and reportedly could expand the Dunn-Thompson deal to include more assets.
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Boston also overhauled its coaching staff and front office by hiring head coach Ime Udoka and replacing president of basketball operations Danny Ainge with Brad Stevens, so there’s been plenty of change for Tatum to digest in a short period of time — all while playing on the international stage 23 hours away.
No matter what the Celtics’ roster looks like by training camp, though, the team still will revolve around Tatum and Jaylen Brown. So, it will be up to the two young All-Stars to get on the same page with the newcomers and help Boston bounce back from a disappointing 2020-21 campaign.