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The Athletic NBA Daily

Tatum's return + Wemby's ascension

09 Mar 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

9.717 - 37.243 Dave DuFour

Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon Prime for March 9th, 2026. I'm Dave DeFore. Here with Zena Keda and Espera Henney. Coming up, Jason Tatum is back. We're going to talk about his return. Victor Wiminyama is morphing in front of our eyes. And we're going to hit some of the big games from the weekend. Good morning, everybody. What's up, Zena? What's up, S?

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37.283 - 40.315 Dave DuFour

How are you guys doing? First of all...

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40.885 - 47.191 Zena Keita

Happy International Women's Day. You stole my joke. Stepped right on it.

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47.491 - 53.517 Es Baraheni

Good job, S. For those of you listening, I am putting my hands in a prayer formation to say thank you. You know what's funny?

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53.537 - 60.784 Zena Keita

I purposely didn't put it in the notes so that you didn't know it was coming. Well done, S. I love it. The LeBron meme was too much.

60.884 - 61.044 Es Baraheni

So good.

61.324 - 68.631 Zena Keita

Now that I, you know, we didn't talk about it before the show. We didn't say anything. I was like, oh, this is a perfect opportunity. We're locked in right now.

68.611 - 73.397 Es Baraheni

We had no idea it was coming. So thank you. That was great. That's awesome. Speaking of lockdown.

73.417 - 76.26 Zena Keita

In all seriousness, though, happy International Women's Day. Yeah, really.

Chapter 2: What impact does Jayson Tatum's return have on the Celtics?

334.549 - 337.753 Dave DuFour

They might be a better team than they were last year.

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337.868 - 346.308 Zena Keita

Yeah, I was going to bring that up. I totally agree with you that they are better than they were last year because Christoph Sporzingis was a non-factor for them last year.

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346.488 - 349.656 Dave DuFour

Al Horford is, you know, 45 years old. Yes.

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350.718 - 352.322 Zena Keita

And then on top of that.

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352.342 - 352.823 Dave DuFour

Thank you.

354.608 - 372.213 Zena Keita

And on top of that, like Drew Holiday was giving them something. But I think what they've developed with this Ugo Gonzalez, Sam Houser, Baylor Shireman, Jordan Walsh kind of quartet of wings that they can throw out there is just better depth. They're a deeper team than they were last year.

372.233 - 382.928 Zena Keita

And I think the one knock that you could have on last year's Celtics team is that they didn't have options to go to. They didn't have the depth to be able to plug holes everywhere else. So I think they are better than last year, truthfully.

382.908 - 408.122 Es Baraheni

I'll say this too, non-basketball related, but I think still valid to the story of the Celtics. They did a tremendous job rolling him, Jason Tatum, coming back out. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, they did a great job. You could see how much he mattered to this team. I was trying to think as I was watching it, the last person to come back that was this high profile of an Achilles tear was...

408.102 - 432.051 Es Baraheni

probably kevin durant and it it still didn't feel one kevin durant didn't come back um with the same team so i think that that probably yeah uh had something to do with it but the way that he came back the commercial around it everything felt like we're ready for this moment and i think that also is going to help ride this wave into the playoffs of we want him back

Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Celtics' new team dynamics?

775.915 - 796.23 Dave DuFour

They had 21 threes against the Rockets. Do you want them doing that? Or are you going to try to guard Wimby one-on-one? This is why the Thunder, I think, are kind of fascinating if we get this matchup in the playoffs because they've got guys that they've shown that, like Alex Caruso, they trust them to do it. But by the time we get there,

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796.21 - 799.854 Dave DuFour

What if Wimby's not guardable by those smaller guys anymore?

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799.954 - 822.616 Zena Keita

Yeah, this is the thing. It's like he's moving at an exponential rate that just doesn't make sense for what we've seen before. I really can't even put a comp to it as far as how quickly he's processing things on the floor and adding it to his game the following game. That's just the absurd part. By the way, we just talked about the Celtics. We just talked about the Spurs.

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822.996 - 829.129 Zena Keita

Those two teams play on Tuesday. Yeah. Could be a finals preview, which I'm very excited for.

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829.41 - 829.771 Es Baraheni

Yeah.

830.352 - 838.896 Dave DuFour

Throwing that out there. You saying it out loud is like, ooh. Yeah. All right, guys, stick around. After the break, we're going to talk about the Pistons and what the heck, four straight losses?

839.077 - 839.177

Yeah.

856.792 - 885.106 Dave DuFour

It seems like there might now be some debate about which team is the best in the East. And especially, look, Jason Tatum coming back for the Celtics, huge. The Pistons losing four in a row, including back-to-back losses to the Brooklyn Nets, who aren't even trying, and the Miami Heat, who plays for them right now, guys. I agree.

885.146 - 889.731 Zena Keita

There are weird teams, you know, they're a strange basketball team, but they're playing well.

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