Tis the season for corny gimmicks!

With Christmas Eve upon us, it felt only right that we ran through the wish list for Santa for your Boston Celtics (18-11), highlighting three items that some fans might deem as “must-haves” this holiday season.

After a shaky start out of the gate, the Celtics have now emerged as one of the best teams in the East, sitting in the No. 3 seed in the conference as of publishing. The only two teams in front of them at the moment are the Pistons (24-6) and Knicks (20-9) - two teams that the Celtics have beaten during their run to the top three.

With Tatum likely out most of the season (more on that soon) and an entirely new-look roster after the departures of Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet, the expectations for this team were mixed, at best.

Most people who were on the optimistic side saw them as a team that would compete for a possible Play-In Tournament spot, with very few recognizing the type of potential we are currently seeing.

Now, 29 games into the season, the Celtics are looking like a team just a few moves-and-shakes away from truly making a run at the Eastern Conference Finals.

I did a similar exercise back on Black Friday, and I think two of those items still ring true as we sit here one day before Christmas.

With that said, the way in which some of those items are still needs has changed.

Here’s what Celtics fans are looking to have wrapped under the tree on Christmas morning:

Jayson Tatum

It feels like an obvious one, but the circumstances around both him and the team have changed.

As we’ve discussed, this team feels like a “Tatum-away,” if you will, from being a real threat in the Eastern Conference. When we did this exercise a month ago, that was far from the case.

Add in the fact that we’ve had multiple stories pop up in recent weeks that point to real progress for Tatum, and we’re talking about legit smoke to the fire of a return, rather than just lip service from talk show hosts trying to have a glass-half-full approach.

These updates were:

- Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens talking with the media about leaving themselves flexible enough financially to bring Tatum aboard if-and-when he’s healthy, saying, “One of the things that everybody can see is we didn’t apply for a [displayed player exception] this year, which was a conscious decision for a lot of reasons. But the reality is, he’s not going to be back until he’s 110% healthy and he feels good about it, and that’s a big part of it.”

- Amazon’s Chris Haynes saying on his SiriusXM NBA Radio show that Tatum told him that he will be back this season. Unfortunately, this specific audio is behind a paywall, so I can only work off what the aggregators are telling me. With that said - if we’re to take Haynes at what he’s saying at face value, I’m guessing Tatum really likes where he’s at from a progression standpoint.

With Jaylen Brown playing like a league MVP, adding Tatum back to the mix would be a transition, of sorts, to deal with. But I’d venture to guess this is a problem the Celtics would love to have as they move closer to postseason play.

Frontcourt Help

When we wrote up this item on the Black Friday wish list, starting center Neemias Queta was in the midst of dealing with a turned ankle.

With Queta at 7-foot flat, the Celtics could not risk turning that now forgotten injury into a long-term issue. Because when you look at the depth behind Queta, it leaves much to be desired.

When you have an offseason that sees the likes of Horford, Porzingis, and Kornet walk out the door, along with an excellent post defender in Tatum missing most of the season, it’s going to be difficult to backfill that area of the roster overnight.

They’ve attempted to do so with Luka Garza, Chris Boucher, a hodge-podge of young wings (more on them in a bit), and midseason debut of G League center Amari Williams.

No disrespect to Garza, as he’s been playing better of late, but he’s too much of a liability on defense to be relied on in a real way later in the year.

No disrespect to Boucher, but he’s essentially a non-factor on a night-to-night basis after many thought he was potentially going to start as a two-time champion who has been among the most steady bench performers in the league for Toronto for years.

No disrespect to Jordan Walsh and Josh Minott, but they’re wings, not centers.

No disrespect to Williams, but if you’re debuting in game 18, you’re likely not a playoff-caliber player.

They’ve been winning, but this glaring weakness persists for the Celtics.

If you’re constantly outrebounded by the opponent, it becomes very difficult to advance in the postseason.

Addressing this weakness through the trade or buyout market is essential for Boston’s postseason ambitions.

Does this mean they should trade for Giannis? No. But they definitely need to get creative, even if Tatum is able to return.

MORE CELTICS STORIES:

Top 3 Items on the Celtics 2025 Christmas List

When Will Jaylen Brown Get The Respect He Deserves?

Hugo Gonzalez’s Growing Role On Full Display In Pacers Comeback Win

Continued Success of Young Wings

The two biggest revelations of this season have been the emergence of Walsh as a true starting-caliber wing, as well as rookie Hugo Gonzalez immediately bursting on the scene as an impact guy at 19 years old.

I’ve written multiple times on Roundtable about how wrong I was about Walsh, as I was calling for the team to cut-or-trade him before opening night. I felt like we had seen enough, and that keeping him aboard was a wasted roster spot.

Instead, he has become Boston’s best perimeter defender, an incredibly efficient scorer, and someone head coach Joe Mazzulla needs to trust during crunch time moving forward.

Hugo Gonzalez played a career-high 37 minutes during Monday night’s comeback win versus Indiana, where his unmatched hustle was on full display.

He’s leading all rookies in the NBA in net rating, and seemingly gets better every single game we see him on the floor.

“Again, it’s just - that’s part of the depth that we have,” Mazzulla said at the podium on Monday night. “I mean, 82 games is a long time - the season’s long. The standard that we have to play at, the effort that we have to play at, is hard, it’s difficult. We need everybody to be able to do it.

“So, there’s been stretches of the season, you know, where guys have done that for us, and right now it’s Luka [Garza] and Hugo doing a little bit of that. But, I think [Anfernee Simons] has been really good for us in the last couple games as well, and he gets kind of put under the radar a little bit. But I thought some of his scoring stretch tonight, and where he’s grown defensively helped that unit as well. So any night it could be anyone on the bench, and we just have to keep taking advantage of that and that’s a credit to those guys.”

If both of these young players can continue performing at a high level, they’ll go into the postseason as one of the deeper teams in the NBA…

…especially if Tatum comes back.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

Remember to join our CELTICS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Celtics fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.