Offensively, this season for Tatum (3rd, age 21) is very similar to Wiggins 3rd season, age 21. Both of which are a bit better than Paul George's 3rd season, age 22. Their per-36 stats are below and all 3 of them have a TS% between 53-54%. Durant was in another world at that age offensively and isn't even worth comparing.
Rk Player Season Age G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
1 Paul George 2012-13 22 79 79 2972 6.0 14.2 .419 2.1 5.7 .362 3.9 8.6 .457 2.7 3.3 .807 1.1 6.2 7.3 4.0 1.7 0.6 2.8 2.7 16.7
2 Jayson Tatum 2019-20 21 37 37 1261 8.2 19.1 .430 2.5 6.9 .364 5.7 12.2 .467 3.6 4.1 .862 1.1 6.2 7.3 3.0 1.5 0.9 2.3 2.2 22.5
3 Andrew Wiggins 2016-17 21 82 82 3048 8.4 18.5 .452 1.2 3.4 .356 7.2 15.1 .473 4.9 6.4 .760 1.2 2.7 3.9 2.2 1.0 0.4 2.2 2.2 22.8
Defensively, Tatum is better than Wiggins at that age, but not as good as Paul George at that age.
So overall, Paul George is a fair comparison as Tatum is about as better offensively as he is worse defensively at this age. However, PG made a big leap in year 4. Tatum will have to improve a little bit offensively and defensively next season in order to keep up with PG.
According to these stats, Tatum is considerably better offensively than George in their respective 3rd years. Tatum should up his efficiency, but I don't think he needs to make a huge jump. I also think Tatum has been awesome on defense this year. I realize that has always been one of George's things, but Tatum is sneakily one of the better wing/swing defenders in the league - he is so smart on that end of the floor.
And I say all of this as somebody who 'likes' Brown more.
I think you’re conveniently ignoring that Wiggins was right about where Tatum is at the same age. That’s still a possibility. And tatums efficiency has been going down, not up. How do you assume it will go up?
I think others have made some solid points above me, but stats don't tell the whole story and guys like Wiggins, Booker, and Lavine (up to the 3rd years of their respective careers) just weren't anywhere near the same level as Tatum. None of them contributed to winning basketball and all 3 were (are) very sub-par defenders.
It's great that those guys can get points, but Tatum's size, versatility, and almost elite level defensive skills put him in a higher class than those guys. It's just not a contest.
I agree to a degree. Tatum definitely showing a knack for team defense and getting into passing lanes. We'll see over time how repeatble, consistent, and impactful it will be.
I tend to disagree on the contribution to winning basketball, at least at this point. Tatum clearly has a better team (which opens up other discussions I know). If he were in the same situation as those other guys I'm not convinced that his team would do much better.
Tatum still not completely polished but he has warts. Sure, he looks good when all his shots go in but who doesn't? His efficiency is still not very good and one can begin to reasonably ask themselves what his path forward is toward improvement. The best way would be to start getting to the line more often, but we'll see how that goes.