The shine is off of Tatum

[Fierce1]

It's one game.

Let's see what Tatum does after 1 game.

Even the great Paul Pierce only shot 44% from the field in his first 2 years in the NBA.

Tatum shot 47.5% his rookie year and 45% his 2nd year.

All the greats wanted to be the man.
Tatum is no different.

Worst case scenario is Tatum just ends up an All-Star player.

Best case scenario is Tatum ends up becoming a star like Paul Pierce.

Pierce was a force right from the start - and his stats were impacted by playing for a crappy team.  Far better player a couple of years in than Tatum is currently.

When Pierce played his first regular season game as a Celtic, he was 21 years old.

Right now Jayson Tatum is in his 3rd year in the NBA and he's still 21 years old.

The difference is Tatum still doesn't have that NBA body.

One thing regarding Pierce.  He had room for error because of his ability to get to the line.  It was also a different time and a different game at that point. 

For Tatum it still way too much iso ball for my liking.  Unlike Kemba and Hayward (and even Brown) who come off curls and make simple moves into the heart of the defense to create for themselves and others, Tatum seems to need to stop the ball and face his man far too often.  His game disrupts the flow of the offense.

Paul Pierce was also Mr. Iso until KG and Ray came aboard.

I think it's just a matter of time for Tatum.
Sooner or later he'll figure it out.
He's just too good.

[keevsnick]

I think the worst case scenario is Middleton. Best case is KD-lite. Theres a huge difference between those two.

Its just a reminder for people that progression isnt linear, guys get better a little guys get better a lot. Some years a guy doesn't improve a lot if at all. We'll se what Tatum does this year.

[Fierce1]

I think the worst case scenario is Middleton. Best case is KD-lite. Theres a huge difference between those two.

Its just a reminder for people that progression isnt linear, guys get better a little guys get better a lot. Some years a guy doesn't improve a lot if at all. We'll se what Tatum does this year.

I think Tatum will lead the Celts in scoring this season.

[gpap]

I think the worst case scenario is Middleton. Best case is KD-lite. Theres a huge difference between those two.

Its just a reminder for people that progression isnt linear, guys get better a little guys get better a lot. Some years a guy doesn't improve a lot if at all. We'll se what Tatum does this year.

I think Tatum will lead the Celts in scoring this season.

I say Kemba. I know he had a rough night, but I still have high hopes for him. As for Tatum, we'll see.

[Jamilmac99]

Is this year three and he still hasn't learned how to dribble through traffic!!? I'm still hopeful he can regain the confidence he displayed the one playoff run as a rookie but he certainly has not progressed as fast as expected.

[keevsnick]

I think the worst case scenario is Middleton. Best case is KD-lite. Theres a huge difference between those two.

Its just a reminder for people that progression isnt linear, guys get better a little guys get better a lot. Some years a guy doesn't improve a lot if at all. We'll se what Tatum does this year.

I think Tatum will lead the Celts in scoring this season.

Wouldn't surprise me. I mean if he averages 22 shots a game I'd be surprised if he didn't.

[Tr1boy]

I kind of agree with the OP

While Simmons even without a shot has improved on aggression to the basket and understood when to exploit things when Celts had little to no inside presence

Tatum still looked tentative. At times with no plan but playing on the "go".   Has not improved his passing in terms of drawing defenders to him and finding the open man. 

He has bulked up but I wonder if it has hurt his quickness

He couldn't get by his defender on many occassion yesterday

In his first two seasons he was more mobile, running around screens easier etc

[Tr1boy]

Is this year three and he still hasn't learned how to dribble through traffic!!? I'm still hopeful he can regain the confidence he displayed the one playoff run as a rookie but he certainly has not progressed as fast as expected.

Agreed

Tatum needs to study Paul George game (not freaking Kobe Bryant or Kyrie Irving)

George depending on the situation of the game, just sticks to spot up shooting.  Once he starts catching fire/paid more attention, will mix up driving to the basket

Tatum on the other hand is freestyling out on the floor, but isn't that type of talent to "escape" consistently

[libermaniac]

I'm not sure about all the doom and gloom.  I saw a concerted effort by Tatum to drive and to take 3's.  Less of the mid-range shots.  He was good on 3's but finished poorly on his drives.  That will come.  He will be fine.

[Big333223]

It's a lot of doom and gloom for a guy who had 21-10.

The free throw rate (3 attempts last night) is a concern. He's gotta go hard to the rim and get to the line. He should be shooting at least 7 FT's a game. Hopefully he was paying attention to what Hayward was doing last night.

I'm not going to worry yet, though.

[keevsnick]

I'm not sure about all the doom and gloom.  I saw a concerted effort by Tatum to drive and to take 3's.  Less of the mid-range shots.  He was good on 3's but finished poorly on his drives.  That will come.  He will be fine.

I think the concern is more with the playmaking than scoring. I have no doubt he will score.

[CF033]

I think a lot of people are romanticizing Paul Pierce's earlier years. He used to take a LOT of dumb ISO shots. In his first 6 years he cracked a 45% shooting percentage one time and bottomed out at 40% in '03/'04. He was very painful to watch at times.

Just to say it wasn't all roses with Paul Pierce (in fact I'm pretty sure lots of people were probably criticising the crap out of him back then) BUT he worked out in the long run.

[obnoxiousmime]

We'll see how this season goes, but I've already recalibrated my expectations regarding Tatum based on last year. He says he wants to be great, but I don't get it from his demeanor or his play. I'm sure he put in some work, but I wonder if he's really at the top level of fanatical workers. For example, why isn't he stronger? His body looks exactly the same.

Furthermore, what are teammates saying about him? I haven't heard anybody say recently, "Jayson's going to be really good, a perennial all-star, just you wait" type quotes. Nobody says, "J took last year's finish to heart, he's going to turn some heads this season." Do they even like playing with him? Like, I'm sure they like him as a person but do they really enjoy watching him try to tunnel vision his way to 20 pts?

Does he have a killer mentality? Has he ever gotten mad and decided to just take over a game? Has he ever, when frustrated on offense just decided to focus on playing lockdown D on his man instead? He seems so passive. If he's going to be this great scorer, shouldn't we be seeing occasional 30+ scoring bursts? He's only scored over 30 pts once in his career.

[Tr1boy]

I'm not sure about all the doom and gloom.  I saw a concerted effort by Tatum to drive and to take 3's.  Less of the mid-range shots.  He was good on 3's but finished poorly on his drives.  That will come.  He will be fine.

The thing why does he need to focus on either 3s or drive and finish around the net?

Tatum is decent but not amazing finisher around the net.  His mid range game is better

[PhoSita]

It's one game.

Let's see what Tatum does after 1 game.

Even the great Paul Pierce only shot 44% from the field in his first 2 years in the NBA.

Tatum shot 47.5% his rookie year and 45% his 2nd year.

All the greats wanted to be the man.
Tatum is no different.

Worst case scenario is Tatum just ends up an All-Star player.

Best case scenario is Tatum ends up becoming a star like Paul Pierce.

This is the crux of the discussion for me.  I'd say worst case scenario is not an all star at all.  At least not multiple-time all star.  I'm not sure what worst case really is but Tatum is trending more and more into Harrison Barnes, Rudy Gay, and Andrew Wiggins territory as a likely outcome.

None of those guys were shooting from deep with the volume or efficiency that Tatum has been at to this point in their careers.  That's a key difference.