The league has changed a lot. Remember back in the day when it wasn’t uncommon for players to average 43 minutes per night. Iverson was able to pad his stats for most of his career getting crazy minutes like that. The whole “playoff rondo” thing was influenced in large part by Rajon averaging 43 minutes in the playoffs. More minutes = more stats. I was comparing Tatum to other elite prospects through history and saw LeBron James averaged 42 during his second season.
I know big picture it’s nice to keep our minutes down, but the fan part of me gets a little annoyed. Like, Tatum averaging 31mpg... I kinda want to see him get 35 (and more touches) so he can average 20+ Points and make an allstar team. I know if he was playing on a lesser team he’d probably be averaging close to 26 points right now.
Eh... Being an All-Star is slightly overrated award/accolade to receive, but I get your point.
Paul Pierce during his second season (a couple years older than Tatum), averaged 35.4 mpg and 15 shot attempts. He ended up averaging 19.5 points. Next couple seasons he was up to 38-40mpg with 18.5-19.5 shot attempts per game ... hence why he was able to get 25-26ppg.
I'm just saying, from a pure fan standpoint, it's a bit annoying to see Tatum only getting 31mpg and only 13 shot attempts. The kid is elite, but people still aren't giving him credit because he's "only" averaging 16ppg. I mean... look at his stats this season:
16.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1 steal with .469/.419/844 shooting in 31mpg.
If you inflate his shot attempts from 13 to 19.5, he's averaging 25 points.
If you inflate Tatum's minutes to 40mpg (as Pierce did his 4th season), he's easily dropping 20+.
You're right that the accolades don't matter, but I just think it results in people underselling how great this kid actually, because they look at someone like Donovan Mitchell averaging more minutes and taking 18 shots per game compared to Tatum's 13 and they act like the bigger bulk numbers mean he's a better player. Also just thinking 15-20 years from now when we look at Tatum's career, he's going to get a little robbed in the all-time books, because he didn't get the same type of freedom other young stars got in their early years. I have every reason to believe Tatum is going to surpass Pierce in terms of skill and talent, but Pierce probably ends up having the more impressive numbers simply because he had more minutes and attempts. FWIW, Tatum technically has a head start. He's still a year younger than Paul was when Pierce entered the league after 3 seasons at Kansas. So maybe Tatum's 3rd year stats will dwarf Paul's rookie stats.