Jayson Tatum had the opportunity to play for Gregg Popovich for Team USA during the 2019 World Cup.

Popovich touted the unique two-way potential of Tatum.

"Do you know how special you can be?" Popovich asked Tatum. "There are very few two-way players in our game, and you have the opportunity to be one of them. You could be like Kawhi [Leonard] and Paul George."

Tatum was so surprised by the comment that he initially didn't answer.

"I hope I haven't offended you," added Popovich.

"Offended me?" Tatum said. "That's a compliment!"

The Boston Celtics entered the 18-19 season with lofty expectations following their 2018 appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.

But the Celtics never managed to be as effective as the sum of their parts.

Jayson Tatum was one of the players who seemed to regress from the previous season.

"Last year for me, especially when things weren't going my way, unfortunately it translated to defense," Tatum said. "I wasn't as engaged when I wasn't happy. That happened a lot last year. They were some very tough days, more often than not. It really wasn't any fun."

Younger players on the Celtics hoped to take a step forward in their development, while Kyrie Irving and Marcus Morris Sr. sometimes had a heavy-handed veteran approach.

Tatum's closest friends on the Celtics last season were Irving and Morris, but he was also firmly in the younger player camp based on age.

"I did kinda feel like I was in the middle sometimes," Tatum said. "You read all these things on the internet. I felt like every day last year when I woke up and turned on the TV they were talking about us, our locker room and all the chemistry problems. It was tough. You see that, and then you have to come to practice.

"We all tried to stay in a good mood for the most part, but everybody was frustrated. Nobody played, either individually or teamwise, the way they wanted to. Everybody had goals they wanted to reach and nothing was going our way."

The perilous welfare of Delonte West came to light on Monday with video of him being kicked and punched while shirtless on a highway in Maryland surfacing on social media.

West has most recently worked in construction with his brother, Dmitri, and has struggled to find consistent work, one person close to the former player said. He lives in Maryland with his mother, Delphina Addison.

“Really sad,” one of West’s longtime confidants said. “Your heart breaks for him.”

“We all love Delonte, and we don’t want to see him like this,” offered another. “We want him to figure his life out.”

West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2010.

Professional basketball gave structure to West's life and that has gone by the wayside since he left the game.

The NBPA helped facilitate his residence change from Dallas to Maryland in recent years and extensively supported him financially, as recently as this month, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic. 

Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics hired him as a scout to attend games on the East Coast, but results have been mixed due to inconsistent attendance. 

Marcus Smart hit a Boston Celtics team-record 11 3's during their 123-119 loss to the Phoenix Suns.

Smart also shot a team-record 22 3-pointers.

“We run the play and no one was guarding me, so I just pulled up and shot it. I told myself it was going to be a long night for them and just keep shooting with confidence," said Smart.

Smart added that the records mean little without the win.

“Right now it means nothing. I’d trade all that in for a win, especially with the way this team has been playing. I’d rather have the win than the record. I mean obviously it’s a great accomplishment. It just shows the hard work that I’ve been putting in is paying off," said Smart.

Kemba Walker missed the Boston Celtics' game against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night after undergoing an MRI for his sore left knee.

The results revealed no structural damage, according to Brad Stevens.

"Kemba got ahold of our doctors last night and said he had some knee soreness. [He] went and got an MRI today, [and it] didn't show anything structurally wrong, but he's very sore," said the Celtics coach.

Stevens added that he doesn't think Walker will be out long-term.

"I'm always concerned when someone's not feeling right, but I don't get the impression it's a long-term thing."