Jayson Tatum's improved play

[Fafnir]

If Tatum is truly a Harden level 3 point shooter on the step back, his ceiling is even higher than I thought as he gets more respect from officials and even stronger than he is now with the ball.

[footey]

Jaylen Rose and Jay Williams said among the 21 and under group he will be the 2nd best NBA player, only Luka better.

Some Clown ESPN guy had Tatum 4th. Behind Luka, Tre, Ja and Zion.

I wouldn’t trade Tatum for any of those guys. We are witnessing the emergence of greatness. Man are we lucky.

[dannyboy35]

Jaylen Rose and Jay Williams said among the 21 and under group he will be the 2nd best NBA player, only Luka better.

Some Clown ESPN guy had Tatum 4th. Behind Luka, Tre, Ja and Zion.

I wouldn’t trade Tatum for any of those guys. We are witnessing the emergence of greatness. Man are we lucky.

   Not even Luka. No kidding. Ok

[Rosco917]

Let's play what if...what if we didn't move down in the draft and we chose Fultz and Philly drafted Tatum? Imagine teaming Tatum with Embiid and Simmons. That team would be as good as any in the NBA.

[KGs Knee]

Tatum getting that 30% max. Just accept it. He's earning every dime of it.

[Fafnir]

Tatum getting that 30% max. Just accept it. He's earning every dime of it.

He might not, other great younger players have missed all-nba team on the wrong year and thus didn't qualify for it.

But the C's definitely need to plan for him making that much.

[footey]

Jaylen Rose and Jay Williams said among the 21 and under group he will be the 2nd best NBA player, only Luka better.

Some Clown ESPN guy had Tatum 4th. Behind Luka, Tre, Ja and Zion.

I wouldn’t trade Tatum for any of those guys. We are witnessing the emergence of greatness. Man are we lucky.

   Not even Luka. No kidding. Ok

I’m biased. But when you factor in defense, athleticism and length, I will take Tatum over Luka.

[RockinRyA]

Luka is the only guy I'd consider, despite his subpar defense. He has the ability to really lift his teammates.

The rest have huge flaws in them.

[Fafnir]

Luka is the only guy I'd consider, despite his subpar defense. He has the ability to really lift his teammates.

The rest have huge flaws in them.

Yeah Luka's a negative on defense but he's LBJ/Steph level on offense. And you know what's really scary?

If Luka gets better at the step back, which he takes a lot at a crappy percentage, he's only going to become a bigger problem on offense. This pops to my head just because Tatum's step back is such a weapon now....

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Depending on your medical staff's view of Zion long-term, you might take him over Tatum. You have to take Doncic over Tatum. He's a better scorer than Tatum and an elite passer already.

I wouldn't take small point guards over him like Young or Ja. I still think its a wing's league in the playoffs, with the exception of Steph Curry, who is one of the best players ever.

Two things still both me about Tatum's game. He needs to grow in these areas:

1) He gets beat off the dribble a lot. He can make up for it with his length, but that's not a good habit if you are going to be a high-level two-way wing.
2) He is still inconsistent getting to the rim and drawing fouls. The only consistent way he does that right now is with the Theis seal.

As he gets better, I'm sure he will grow in both.

[nickagneta]

I would just like to say that I think a ton of credit needs to go to Brad Stevens on Tatum's and Brown's leaps this year.

Brad has preached and coached that these guys needed to be shooting three's or shooting at the rim. Brown got that last year and all but removed the mid range game from his arsenal. That has allowed Brown to open up a more effective mid-range game this year as team's thought he wasn't going to be taking them.

Tatum had a problem stepping up and taking long two's and lots of mid-range shots. Tatum this year has done what Brown did last year and has seriously toned down that mid-range game. And as he has done this more and more during the year, he has become more effective. And you can see it's opening up space for a better mid-range game for him in the future.

Then Brad has given them each tons of touches and leeway to explore their iso games. This has been huge as both appeared to have made their handles better last off-season and could now have the space and time to master some iso moves. And both have.

Then there is how each has been used defensively this year. Brown often getting the tougher man on man assignment while Tatum gets a more team defender role. It's made both better more versatile defenders and Brad's coaching of defense is incredible, IMO.

I don't want to give Stevens all the credit. Both kids work their asses off and are intelligent people that appear very coachable. They both also seem to have internal drives to be great. But, I am not sure both Jay's would be as good as they currently are without Stevens coaching and developing them.

[MichiganAdam]

Depending on your medical staff's view of Zion long-term, you might take him over Tatum. You have to take Doncic over Tatum. He's a better scorer than Tatum and an elite passer already.

I wouldn't take small point guards over him like Young or Ja. I still think its a wing's league in the playoffs, with the exception of Steph Curry, who is one of the best players ever.

Two things still both me about Tatum's game. He needs to grow in these areas:

1) He gets beat off the dribble a lot. He can make up for it with his length, but that's not a good habit if you are going to be a high-level two-way wing.
2) He is still inconsistent getting to the rim and drawing fouls. The only consistent way he does that right now is with the Theis seal.

As he gets better, I'm sure he will grow in both.

I don't think #1 is a problem so much as he is a PF now, and guards dribble by him on switches.  Not many if any wings and swings dribble by him.  That is his primary role. He has gotten bigger to handle the bigger PF types, but still needs more strength.  He has begun to attack the rim, but needs to do it more consistently.  He also needs to improve his court vision/passing to give his team mates the open shots on the double teams of him.  As he improves, he will get alot more doubles and must be ready to make them pay and rack up the assists.  Then he will have arrived.

[seancally]

Depending on your medical staff's view of Zion long-term, you might take him over Tatum. You have to take Doncic over Tatum. He's a better scorer than Tatum and an elite passer already.

I wouldn't take small point guards over him like Young or Ja. I still think its a wing's league in the playoffs, with the exception of Steph Curry, who is one of the best players ever.

Two things still both me about Tatum's game. He needs to grow in these areas:

1) He gets beat off the dribble a lot. He can make up for it with his length, but that's not a good habit if you are going to be a high-level two-way wing.
2) He is still inconsistent getting to the rim and drawing fouls. The only consistent way he does that right now is with the Theis seal.

As he gets better, I'm sure he will grow in both.

I don't think #1 is a problem so much as he is a PF now, and guards dribble by him on switches.  Not many if any wings and swings dribble by him.  That is his primary role. He has gotten bigger to handle the bigger PF types, but still needs more strength.  He has begun to attack the rim, but needs to do it more consistently.  He also needs to improve his court vision/passing to give his team mates the open shots on the double teams of him.  As he improves, he will get alot more doubles and must be ready to make them pay and rack up the assists.  Then he will have arrived.

Impossible to project, but if Zion can stay healthy (and I DEFINITELY hope he does), he's the No. 1. That guy is insane. But Tatum is the better defender than possibly all of Luka/Trae/Ja/Zion (maybe Zion has a higher defensive ceiling) and he has another level to get to as a playmaker.

[smokeablount]

Tatum’s last 20 games has fueled his rise up the leader boards for many advanced metrics. 

He’s currently #18 in the NBA in VORP, #20 in BPM, and #21 in Win Shares with a chance to pass Booker tonight and get into the top 20 for all 3.

Right now there are coincidentally the same # of players who rank top 21 in all 3 categories as there are spots on the All-NBA Teams (15 guys).  So JT is definitely in the mix for an All-NBA Team at this rate. 

Player (WS, BPM, VORP)

Giannis (#2, #1, #2)
Harden (#1, #2, #1)

AD (#4, #5, #6)
Jokic (#6, #6, #3)
Lebron (#7, #7, #4)
Lillard (#3, #9, #5)

Luka (#11, #3, #7)
Kawhi (#17, #4, #8)
Butler (#8, #10, #9)

Gobert (#5, #19, #15)
Bam (#9, #17, #12)
CP3 (#10, #16, #13)

Middleton (#12, #13, #17)
Simmons (#13, #18, #14)
Tatum (#21, #20, #18)

And if you make being a top 20 scorer a requirement for this list as well (Tatum is #18), so looking at players that are top 20 in the NBA in PPG, WS, BPM & VORP, the list includes only 8 guys:

Harden
Giannis
AD
Lebron

Kawhi
Lillard
Doncic
Tatum

Those 8 guys are comprised of Tatum, plus 7 MVP guys.  That’s 3 actual MVPs (Harden, Giannis, Lebron) and 4 MVP-caliber guys (consistently like Kawhi & AD, or for at least this year like Dame & Doncic).

When it comes to offering a mix of scoring and impact metrics, Tatum is playing at an elite level overall, and a historically elite level for a 21 year old.  Every Celtics game right now feels like a treat, and another chance to see a Tatum explosion.  To me, he's easily the most exciting Celtic since we acquired KG.

[PhoSita]

I don't know if Jayson will ever be the kind of player who can do for a whole season what he's been doing the last month and a half or so.

It probably doesn't matter.


Can he play like this over the course of a deep playoff run? 

If he can, it's the kind of play that could make him Finals MVP one day.