George has done his part. Tatum still hasn't.

Paul George showed up to his introductory press conference, absorbed the backlash, called it fair, and said he has a chip on his shoulder. He has done everything asked of a new arrival. The problem is that the player he was brought here to play beside has been day-to-day since mid-July, and it is now late September, and nothing has changed.

That timeline matters. The Celtics traded Jaylen Brown — 27.9 points a game last season, the engine of this offense for years — and rebuilt the roster around a partnership that has not yet existed on a practice floor. George has been talking about playing off a superstar wing. He has not yet had the chance to actually do it.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, has LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Brown running together. The Eastern Conference did not wait for Boston to sort itself out. Every day Tatum's status stays unresolved is a day the Celtics fall further behind on the only thing that actually matters right now: building something that works before the season begins.