The shine is off of Tatum

[libermaniac]

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.

He would've missed them all like the rest of them anyway. 

[tonydelk]

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.

He would've missed them all like the rest of them anyway. 

Tatum was found on at least 2-3 drives to the hoop which should have resulted in foul shots.  One was an and one that he was hit on the arm with no foul called.  Until Tatum gets the start treatment he's not going to shoot 9 FT a game because of the horrible ref biases.  Simmons is getting that treatment but Tatum is not yet.

[Rondo9]

Don't worry.... he has time to be like Winslow....  He dropped 27/7/7  so he should be an All-Star this year right?   

Don't disrupt the narrative, Jayson is an awful player remember?

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I'm just happy he shot 22 times. I know that sounds weird, but I get tired of Ingram and Wiggins being able to get up 20 shots any given night, but Tatum getting 12.

[Neurotic Guy]

You guys are good. Saw a lot more than I did in Game 1.  Everyone rusty.    21 and 10 on an off night sounds good to me.   

[droopdog7]

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 criticizing the crap out of him back then) BUT he worked out in the long run.

No doubt there is some romanticizing but it was also a different time and a different game then.  Iso ball was more in at the time and like I said, the he was great at getting to the line.  I don't think that's overblown.  Also, PP was a 10 time all star and I think should get into the hall of fame.

That's sort of the bar that was set for Tatum (even if it may be been premature).  I think it's fair to question whether Tatum will actually achieve that kind of level, which was the basic premise for starting this thread.

[droopdog7]

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.

Fair point.

[GRADYCOLNON]

It's just realizing that these holes in his game haven't been sealed up.  The bobbling of the ball on drives, the unnecessary finger rolls on layups that miss off the backboard.  The slowing down offensive sets, not looking to make plays for others, forcing up shots is hard to understand especially when he is expecting to get paid a boatload of money and be the future of this team.

One game! One game! All this nonsense over one game. This is going to be a long season. 

Hiding behind one game isn't exactly a good excuse when he had all of last season and a summer to address them.  So if it can't be addressed now, when is it appropriate to discuss an inconvenient truth? Because every time people make this excuse somehow the line keeps getting kicked down the road until an entire season has passed.  It's in this constant denial that makes things intolerably long. Where the only solace is accepting we were wrong.  And if that is wrong in it of itself, then we will be full of renewed appreciation of success while avoiding being trampled by those unfulfilled hopes held firm by the denial.

[PhoSita]

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.

Tatum's free throw rate is my biggest concern.

I dont' mind him taking a lot of shots, but he has to get to the line more than 3 times if he's going to lead the team in shot attempts.

[tenn_smoothie]

After One Game:

Hayward is All NBA
Tatum is Trash

Sixers are Champs and Celtics are trash!

man I hate the sixers.  cant wait til they come to boston

Always amazes me how quickly the hate returns for Philly or LA when they return to a competitive level. It will be the same one day for the Knicks, one day far into the future. Though I can give a reason or specific game related to the Celtics for hating pretty much every team in the league.

[ThaPreacher]

Sigh If a thread like this is going to be the norm, then I think I'm going to take a hiatus from Celticsblog. I want to preserve my mental health.

It is only one game- however,  it is a valid question.
Tatum's skillset and gameplay are not progressing.
He remains an extremely talented player.
However, the mistakes that he makes are similar to the ones he has made in the past.
He did not shoot the ball particularly well, and that happens. 
But I was more concerned with these things:

• lack of court awareness when he was driving
  his overdribbling
  His stopping the ball from moving in the Celtics offense.
  His decisionmaking.
  his settling for the fall-away jumper
  He's trying to beat players off the dribble rather than off the catch.
  His lack of defensive toughness.
  
  I liked the fact that it was more aggressive with driving to the hoop.
  I liked the fact that he kept shooting open shots from the trey ball.
  
  I remain a huge Tatum fan. However, I am concerned that as talented as he is,  Tatum may stay as a top tier role player who never progresses to the level of All-Star.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

[dannyboy35]

  I’m just gonna throw in a quick random thank you to people here. I have an awesome group of friends and we keep touch daily but nobody close to me in caring so obsessively about the Celts. Fandom is just so much more enjoyable when you get to talk about it.
  Anyways, I would like to think of myself as a realist but I’m sure I lean to the pessimistic side of personalities. It’s just so [dang] hard to win a title. Tatum clearly has skills but I honestly don’t understand why he’s such a high commodity. I think he’s been presented as something he’s not and has himself bought in. He’s just not THAT good YET. I feel like right now Tatum should be more of a specialist. Somebody mentioned Shawn Marion. I know it’s not exactly the same player but he didn’t try to break guys down from the top. It wasn’t his thing. This type of stuff ( IMO) is just not valuing possessions.
   Right now, Kemba and Hayward are very skilled at this. Tatum can make buckets this way but he often gets himself in trouble and loses the ball or just takes a less than ideal shot. Nobody’s perfect but ( IMO) this is on Brad. Tatum should not be the guy right now. I don’t think it’s good for his development to be allowed these bad habits or at least stuff he just doesn’t do great right now. There’s other ways Tatum can get just as many points on this team in my opinion and he’d be much more efficient.
   As far as Tatum's ceiling I have no idea. It’s really hard to improve your handle and with that court awareness. I see him as Carmelo-lite. I hope he keeps developing but I do see him as a hopeful trade piece in a package for the next star player. I do t see Tatum topping out as a #1 or #2 but definitely a great # 3 on a contender.

[LilRip]

I don’t see the gloom and doom. Tatum seems to be on a good trajectory, I think. He still can improve in finishing through contact (regardless if he gets a call) but I’m glad he’s not shying away from it anymore.

I do wish he’d operate in the post more. One dribble and he’s in the paint, as opposed to always having to work his way in from the outside.

[Phantom255x]

I'm not going to say the shine is off him after one game. And he did put up 21/10 last night.

BUT... that doesn't mean this isn't a big year for Jaylen and Tatum. I mean, the supposed egos are gone (Kyrie, Rozier, etc.), and now you have bigger roles. Jaylen in his 4th year, Tatum in his 3rd and both coming off somewhat disappointing seasons. If they can't make a leap this season (at least show some solid improvement), then that's really not a good sign.

I think what was disappointing with Tatum last night was seeing that he was mostly doing what he did last year, which was playing iso-ball and taking dumb shots. It killed some of our possessions, and most notably cost us the lead right before halftime (a 6 point lead became a 1 point deficit in just 2 minutes).

[Rondo9]

It's just realizing that these holes in his game haven't been sealed up.  The bobbling of the ball on drives, the unnecessary finger rolls on layups that miss off the backboard.  The slowing down offensive sets, not looking to make plays for others, forcing up shots is hard to understand especially when he is expecting to get paid a boatload of money and be the future of this team.

One game! One game! All this nonsense over one game. This is going to be a long season. 

Hiding behind one game isn't exactly a good excuse when he had all of last season and a summer to address them.  So if it can't be addressed now, when is it appropriate to discuss an inconvenient truth? Because every time people make this excuse somehow the line keeps getting kicked down the road until an entire season has passed.  It's in this constant denial that makes things intolerably long. Where the only solace is accepting we were wrong.  And if that is wrong in it of itself, then we will be full of renewed appreciation of success while avoiding being trampled by those unfulfilled hopes held firm by the denial.

It's not denial, it's patience but it seems some too eager to cut loose a young player if they're not performing to their expectations. Last season was rather rocky for the whole team. It's another new team and this time Tatum is likely to shoulder more of the scoring burden. I do wonder when people will learn patience because it seems that sooner or later people will demand to trade him.