About ten games into the season, ESPN had a segment detailing the "disappointment" of both Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum and their early 2nd season struggles. I remember agreeing with the majority of the points, particularly about Tatum's inconsistency and reliance on contested mid range jumpers, but recently I have noticed that Tatum's been quietly playing terrific basketball.
I use the word "quietly" with acknowledgment that some of you may have been saying this all along, and that maybe this realization is only new to me...but have you seen his stat line lately?
27 games in and he's shooting a 47/41/84 split (eFG% 53.4), averaging 16.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg, and 1.8 apg. These numbers include his "disappointing" 7 game month of October where he barely shot above 40% from the field and was connecting on only 28.6% of his 3s. He upped his shooting percentages to 46% (FG%) and 45% (3FG%) in November (15 games) and is currently shooting a fantastic split of 55/40/100 through 5 games in December (disclaimer: he's only taken 2 free throws this month, but still). All the talks from ESPN and the like regarding the hype "getting to his head" in the early season have disappeared, however, I haven't heard them give him the praise due for turning things around.
And yeah, I suppose that it's still early and that his numbers don't exactly jump off of the page, and there's certainly areas of his game that he can improve on; however, he's a not-even-21-year-old 6'8" small forward with a natural gift for scoring from all areas of the court. Additionally, his outside shooting, which was a pretty significant question mark coming out of Duke, has continued to be excellent on an even larger sample size, shooting 43% all of last year and now continuing to shoot above 40% on 4.5 attempts per game this season. For someone who was being pegged as a dated mid-range scorer, he's certainly adapted his game in a promising, and lethal, way.
I don't think many of us were expecting to sit as a 5th seed in the East 27 games in this season, but injuries to key players and the process of acclimation for key players has been difficult and perhaps unexpected as well (to some). With that said, seeing Tatum step into this big of a role with the presence of an alpha dog in Kyrie Irving has been a good ride. Here's hoping for continued progress and improvement for the young star.
(One thing I can't determine, and maybe someone can add, is how well or poorly his defensive metrics stack up. From the eye test, he's appears like an offense-first kind of player with the potential to be a two-wing player at some point.)