Could Jayson Tatum be an X factor in Celtics’s Damian Lillard’s search? – NBC Sports Boston
Do Celtics really have an interest in signing Damian Lillard – and Lillard would really have an interest in coming to Boston?
The answer to both these questions could be yes.
The Celtics-Instead together with the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors-Sono “known to be among the many teams” who look at Lillard on the market of free agents after the Milwaukee Bucks have given up a nine-time all-star Tuesday, according to Athletic.
And according to Adam Himmelsbach of Boston Globe, the Celtics could also be on Lillard’s radar.
“A source of the championship also clarified that Lillard could also have an interest in Boston, citing his respect for the organization and his long friendship with (Jayson) Tatum”, wrote Himmelsbach on Wednesday.
Lillard’s “long friendship” with Tatum is worth exploring, above all because both players underwent serious Achille injuries during the NBA playoffs of 2025 – Lillard on April 27; Tatum on 12 May-e should lose most or the whole 2025-26 season. If Lillard wants a rehabilitation partner and has the desire to play alongside Tatum in 2026-27, this could make Boston a more intriguing destination for him.
So how far Lillard and Tatum are back? The two stars seemed to have a close relationship already in 2021, when Lillard contacted Tatum and convinced him to play for the US team at the Tokyo summer Olympics, according to Espn’s Brian Windhorst.
Lillard and Tatum won a gold medal together that summer in Tokyo, with their children who even spent some time together while the United States basket was preparing for the Las Vegas Olympics. (Tatum’s son Two was born in 2017, while Lillard’s first child, Damian Jr., was born in 2018.)
In the summer of 2023, after Lillard asked for an exchange from Portland Trail’s blazers, according to Tatum reported, he launched the veteran guard to join him in Boston, with Marc Spears of and of the landscape that reported that Tatum “tried to enter the ear (of Lillard)” to come to the Celtics.
Tatum recruitment efforts did not go short, while the blazers exchanged Lillard with Bucks in an agreement that helped to bring Jrue Holiday to Boston. But the fact that Tatum wanted Lillard in Boston only two years ago is certainly relevant now while the Celtics explore their options in a low uncertain season.
Sign Lillard would have its obvious risks; He will be 36 years old at the beginning of the 2026-27 season and has lost at least 24 games in three of the last four seasons. While Lillard’s talent is undeniable, there is no guarantee that it would return to the form of All-Star after Achilles surgery at the age of 34-founded came in the wake of a spanish blood clot problem in March.
Lillard may not cost a lot, however, and could accept an agreement close to the minimum veteran while paid the rest of his contract with Milwaukee ($ 22.5 million a year in the next five years).
If the Celtics want to travel that path with Lillard or continue their “reset” of “reset”, becoming younger around their nucleus of Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pripchard remains to be seen. But at least, we would imagine that Tatum will support Boston to grasp Lillard’s possibility of making his vision of two summers ago.