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Last Season's Best Lineup Left Town With Jaylen Brown

Boston's most efficient five-man unit is gone, and Brad Stevens is on record about why.

By the Celtics Nightly Desk · Wednesday, September 23

Nothing new surfaced in the last day and a half. What did surface, in Brad Stevens' own account to Boston.com, was the reasoning behind a trade that broke up the lineup that led Boston in net rating.

Celtics Nightly artwork
Illustration by Hoops Nightly.
1

The quiet stretch held.

No transaction, rumor or injury update landed in the last day and a half. Camp opens with the roster already set, and the next news will likely come from the floor rather than a release.

2

Stevens put a rationale on the record.

Boston.com published Brad Stevens' explanation for sending Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George on September 22. The trade closed the Brown-Tatum era that had defined the franchise since 2016; what it opens is still to be shown on the floor.

3

The most efficient lineup on the roster is unavailable now.

All three of last season's top five-man units by net rating shared one name: Brown. The best of them, with White, Queta, Pritchard and Hauser, logged 200 minutes over 35 games and outscored opponents by 17.9 points per hundred possessions, a 122.6 offense against a 104.7 defense. None of those combinations returns this fall.

4

Queta drew a note of his own.

Boston.com named Neemias Queta a player to watch for ESPN's 2027 Top-100 list. He averaged 10.2 points and 8.4 rebounds in 25.3 minutes across 76 games last season, the interior presence now paired with Mitchell Robinson.

When do the Celtics play their first preseason game?

October 8, on the road against the Cavaliers, the first of four preseason games ahead of the October 20 opener at Detroit.

Is Jayson Tatum expected back by then?

His designation is day-to-day; the injury is left knee and leg, with a return estimate of October 1, ahead of the preseason opener.

By the Celtics Nightly Desk, written from the club's data and the reports on file, with every name and number checked against them. How the desks work.

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