Tatum played 16 games last season and Boston still finished 56-26 with the league's No. 4 net rating before blowing a 3-1 lead to Philadelphia. George, limited to 37 games of his own last year, now replaces Jaylen Brown as the second half of an unresolved question: how many games this core can actually give Boston.
Boston won big last season without a full year from its best player.
Tatum appeared in just 16 games last season, averaging 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists when he did suit up. The team around him still went 56-26, posting the league's No. 2 offense and No. 4 defense for a net rating of 8.3, good for No. 4 in the NBA. Depth carried that record; it did not survive the postseason, where Boston blew a 3-1 series lead and lost in the first round.
George brings the same arithmetic from the other side of the trade.
Paul George played 37 games last season, averaging 17.3 points on 39.2 percent shooting from three. He is 36, in his 16th season, and now the second-highest-paid piece on the roster at $54.1 million, behind Tatum's $58.5 million. Boston traded Jaylen Brown for George and four future picks on the bet that his shooting fits beside Tatum better than Brown's slashing did; nothing about that deal changes how many games either body allows him to prove it.
Preseason cleared both men without settling anything.
Tatum and George were each listed with unspecified ailments during the week of October 8, then cleared within days. Boston won 124-113 at Cleveland and 144-106 at home over Philadelphia with both available. Those results answer the easier question; the harder one, whether this roster stays whole into games that count, starts October 20 at Detroit.
The answer favors patience over certainty.
Boston's payroll runs $203.9 million, clearing the $200.4 million tax threshold, with no obvious cushion left to patch a long absence from either star. The franchise's own math argues both ways: a 56-26 season proved depth can carry a record, and a blown 3-1 lead proved it cannot carry a title. Until Tatum and George log minutes together deep into winter, Boston has not yet answered its own question.
How many games did Jayson Tatum play last season?
Tatum appeared in 16 games last season, averaging 21.8 points and 10.0 rebounds when healthy.
Is Paul George likely to play a full season for the Celtics?
George played 37 games last season at age 36, and Boston has not guaranteed a workload plan for him, so his durability remains unproven entering this season.
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