Tatum Hero Ball Needs to Stop

[Moranis]

Having the ball in Tatum’s hands is the best option in these types of games. No Kemba? No Smart? There’s no other playmaker other than Brown. Teague is trash, Pritchard can’t make clean entry passes, and there’s no other ball handler on the team.

After Kemba/Smart/Tatum/Brown, the next best passer/playmaker on the team miiiiiight be Timelord. Or maybe Grant Williams. Isn’t that just sad?

Tatum having the ball in his hand is always the best option.  ALWAYS.  He is Boston's best player and BY FAR its most important and valuable player.  The team goes as Tatum goes and as such he needs to have the ball.

If you listened to this board and the people in this thread in particular, Boston would be running its offense through Payton Pritchard and thus would be the worst team in the league.  That is reality.  Tatum and Brown are the only two players on this team that can consistently score right now and they can do it in multiple ways.  They have to have the ball and the offense has to run through them.  They are both complete offensive players.  No one else on the team can score consistently (Walker is clearly hampered still, but Boston needs him to get back into form).  No one else is worth running the offense through.  That is quite simply reality.  The team just isn't put together very well and quite simply lacks the talent necessary to be much more than it is i.e. a good but not great team (and that good is almost entirely because of Tatum and Brown). 

[td450]

Having the ball in Tatum’s hands is the best option in these types of games. No Kemba? No Smart? There’s no other playmaker other than Brown. Teague is trash, Pritchard can’t make clean entry passes, and there’s no other ball handler on the team.

After Kemba/Smart/Tatum/Brown, the next best passer/playmaker on the team miiiiiight be Timelord. Or maybe Grant Williams. Isn’t that just sad?

Tatum having the ball in his hand is always the best option.  ALWAYS.  He is Boston's best player and BY FAR its most important and valuable player.  The team goes as Tatum goes and as such he needs to have the ball.

If you listened to this board and the people in this thread in particular, Boston would be running its offense through Payton Pritchard and thus would be the worst team in the league.  That is reality.  Tatum and Brown are the only two players on this team that can consistently score right now and they can do it in multiple ways.  They have to have the ball and the offense has to run through them.  They are both complete offensive players.  No one else on the team can score consistently (Walker is clearly hampered still, but Boston needs him to get back into form).  No one else is worth running the offense through.  That is quite simply reality.  The team just isn't put together very well and quite simply lacks the talent necessary to be much more than it is i.e. a good but not great team (and that good is almost entirely because of Tatum and Brown).

That is a false choice.

We can still have Tatum and Brown taking the lion's share of the responsibility, but do it within a framework of more ball and player movement.

[todd_days_41]

He had two bad turnovers, but I think he’s trying to make something happen.  At least he’s going to the basket.

He's definitely trying. 

I just wish he'd be a little less careless with his handle.

Boy would it help if the Cs had a legit catch-and-shoot 3 point threat. A guy feared enough to effect the defensive rotations.

ATL just trapped the heck out of Tatum all night. No fear of the alternatives.

[td450]

He had two bad turnovers, but I think he’s trying to make something happen.  At least he’s going to the basket.

He's definitely trying. 

I just wish he'd be a little less careless with his handle.

Boy would it help if the Cs had a legit catch-and-shoot 3 point threat. A guy feared enough to effect the defensive rotations.

ATL just trapped the heck out of Tatum all night. No fear of the alternatives.

Brown, Walker, Pritchard and hopefully Nesmith all fit that description

[Donoghus]

He had two bad turnovers, but I think he’s trying to make something happen.  At least he’s going to the basket.

He's definitely trying. 

I just wish he'd be a little less careless with his handle.

Boy would it help if the Cs had a legit catch-and-shoot 3 point threat. A guy feared enough to effect the defensive rotations.

ATL just trapped the heck out of Tatum all night. No fear of the alternatives.

I felt a lot of stuff last night was self-inflicted and not necessarily the result of ATL's defense.

[Tr1boy]

He had two bad turnovers, but I think he’s trying to make something happen.  At least he’s going to the basket.

He's definitely trying. 

I just wish he'd be a little less careless with his handle.

Boy would it help if the Cs had a legit catch-and-shoot 3 point threat. A guy feared enough to effect the defensive rotations.

ATL just trapped the heck out of Tatum all night. No fear of the alternatives.

When one player is trapped if the ball moved 3 or 4 times. The open man will be found.  It makes the D go haywire

This didnt happen

Because once Tatum passed the ball out of the double trap. The ball just cameback to him.

Its just not good basketball.

Tatum should be mad and tell his guys to pass it around to the open man. Make the Hawks expand energy

[Moranis]

Having the ball in Tatum’s hands is the best option in these types of games. No Kemba? No Smart? There’s no other playmaker other than Brown. Teague is trash, Pritchard can’t make clean entry passes, and there’s no other ball handler on the team.

After Kemba/Smart/Tatum/Brown, the next best passer/playmaker on the team miiiiiight be Timelord. Or maybe Grant Williams. Isn’t that just sad?

Tatum having the ball in his hand is always the best option.  ALWAYS.  He is Boston's best player and BY FAR its most important and valuable player.  The team goes as Tatum goes and as such he needs to have the ball.

If you listened to this board and the people in this thread in particular, Boston would be running its offense through Payton Pritchard and thus would be the worst team in the league.  That is reality.  Tatum and Brown are the only two players on this team that can consistently score right now and they can do it in multiple ways.  They have to have the ball and the offense has to run through them.  They are both complete offensive players.  No one else on the team can score consistently (Walker is clearly hampered still, but Boston needs him to get back into form).  No one else is worth running the offense through.  That is quite simply reality.  The team just isn't put together very well and quite simply lacks the talent necessary to be much more than it is i.e. a good but not great team (and that good is almost entirely because of Tatum and Brown).

That is a false choice.

We can still have Tatum and Brown taking the lion's share of the responsibility, but do it within a framework of more ball and player movement.

and then you end up with significantly worse offensive players taking shots, making decisions, etc.  Taking the ball out of your best players hands is not how you play winning basketball.  That is just the reality.  Tatum and Brown (and Walker if he gets back to form) are the players that the offense needs to run through because they are the only players good enough and consistent enough to have the offense run through them.  They are the ones that can create shots for themselves and others.  No one else should be making those decisions.

[LilRip]

He had two bad turnovers, but I think he’s trying to make something happen.  At least he’s going to the basket.

He's definitely trying. 

I just wish he'd be a little less careless with his handle.

Boy would it help if the Cs had a legit catch-and-shoot 3 point threat. A guy feared enough to effect the defensive rotations.

ATL just trapped the heck out of Tatum all night. No fear of the alternatives.

So true. When Teague was in, it was like 4 on 5 in half court. One particular play stood out where Teague’s man just backed off him to double Tatum off ball. Teague stepped to the 3 point line, no one around him, and shot a clunker (unsurprisingly).

The C’s have one reliable shooter (Pritchard) who defenses will eventually learn to respect, but other than that, the team is full of streaky shooters who can sometimes make teams pay when they’re in a rhythm (Theis, Semi, Grant, Smart). CBS just has to guess which one is hot on any given night. With that though, I can see why opposing teams would rather load up on a Tatum or Brown (if only one of them is on the floor) and just play the odds (aka let these streaky shooters try and beat them).

[PAOBoston]

This is where the loss of Hayward has been most felt imo. With Kemba not playing B2Bs and working his way back to form and Smart injured, there are simply not enough ball handlers on this team.

In a way, this is good for JB/JTs development but they are not there yet with ball handling and being creators. They have had good and bad games doing this. This is really the last part of their development offensively and it will be a process.

In last nights game, JT was literally the best option. I’d rather JT throw errant passes than have Teague touch the ball.

[nickagneta]

I want the ball in Tatum's and Brown's hands. Do they get "ball stoppish" at times? Yes, very. But they also have games like last night and the Denver game, where they do make a concerted effort to make the pass for the better shot.

We all know the last part of both Tatum's and Brown's games to develop would be the playmaking part where they make other players better and also raise the ceiling of the team as a whole. We see it sometimes and others not.

But they are ridiculously young and learning and we are going to have bumps along that road. Ups and downs should be expected, even if not wanted by the rabid "I want the Celtics to win every game and expect a title now" crowd.

Neither LeBron nor MJ won their first title until they were 27. We need patience with Brown and Tatum. They will figure things out.

As for this year, some may look at the following as excuses, but they are reasons for, not only the Celtics, but also a ton of other top notch playoff teams from last year to be struggling right now.

- There was a tiny off-season.
- There was no Summer League
- The was a massively shortened training camp and preseason.
- Some players were still feeling the effects of finishing playing just two months before the start of the season.
- Other players hadn't played in a year.
- Due to Covid, many players have had to sit out a lot and been adversely affect Ed when they returned.
- The schedule has been condensed and for some teams, road heavy to begin with.
- Due to Covid shut downs of practice facilities and the condensed schedule there are next to no practices happening.
-There is no G League for some franchises.
- And teams are having injury and Covid protocol missed player games leading to lack of cohesion

And........The Celtics starting five from the bubble have played together for an entire 20 minutes thus far this season.

We need to be more patient with this team. While I don't think they have a switch they can flip to instantly to become a Finals and title contending team after being mediocre for most of the season, like the 2010 Celtics, I do think they can get much better continually until the end of the season and can make some playoff noise.

Patience. We need patience.