It’s time to back off of Jayson Tatum

[Big333223]

It's amazing that Tatum has accomplished all that he was at barely 23 years old with just 4 seasons under his belt.

My guess is a lot of the criticism has to do with the team's disappointing record. Fans start looking for reasons to explain the losses and, unfortunately, they thing a lot of them go to is to just blame the most visible player on the team even if he's busting his butt and having a great season.

[tenn_smoothie]

Even though the 50pts was great yesterday...and Celts needed it. 
Even Brad wanted to see more ball movement (post game presser)

Hey Brad - if you want more ball movement, then demand it and hold players accountable instead of talking about what you would like your players to do in the post-game.

You are the head coach, so you get to do that !!!!!

How do you know he's not doing that already? Oh right, you don't. You have 0 evidence in your extremely biased claim

You talk as if having a bias is wrong. I have a bias based on what I observe and the conclusions I come to. Accusing me of being biased is saying that I have observed, thought an issue through and have drawn some conclusions. Kind of a good approach, no ?

Again, my view of Stevens is based on the fact that, over at least 3 seasons, his players continue to make the same dumb plays over and over. Of course you don't sit a player over one bad play, or even two, but many of our players are way beyond that and Stevens just stands there on the sideline looking helpless. That would be the strongest evidence in my extremely biased claim.

[Somebody]

Yeah, he's our best player in the last couple of decades. I'm pretty happy with him.

Since April (23 games) he's averaged 29.6PPG, 8.3RPG, 4.2APG, and has rough shooting splits of 48/40/87 shooting while getting to the free throw line about 7 times a game. Those numbers are almost identical to Kevin Durant's averages in his All-Star seasons of 28/7/5 on 50/39/89 shooting.

Our best player in the past 20 years ??

Too many fans judge players strictly by numbers,

Tatum isn't close to Kevin Garnett and has not surpassed Paul Pierce's later years all-around impact on winning. Don't really expect him to this early. I hope he gets there, wins some titles and we hang #0 in the rafters one day, maybe with #7 next to it. Love to have two homegrown guys carry us thru another championship era.

Sorry, meant home-grown. Will concede that KG was a level above, chiefly because of his defence being levels above anything Tatum will ever do on that end.

Yeah, but Boston had that KG for just one playoff run.  After he got hurt in year 2 in Boston, he was no where near the same player (which is also why Boston didn't win any more).

While true, '08 KG is likely better than anything Tatum will be unless he hits 50/40/90 type efficiency over the course of a season or gets better defensively. Those things are possible given his youth and development so far, but I wouldn't bet on him becoming a top-3 player in the league

To be fair, it's only unlikely because one season is in the past and Tatum's potential is in the future. KG at Tatum's age was full of potential, but wasn't guaranteed to become an MVP or top 5 player either. It's mathematically unlikely for any player, but there isn't anything about Tatum in particular that prevents an MVP future for him.

To further that point, in KG's 4th year (he turned 23 in May just after that season ended) he made the first of his All NBA Teams as a 3rd Team Member.  He got a few MVP votes and finished 10th.  However, the very next year (year 5 when he was 23 turning 24 in May) he finished 2nd in MVP voting and was 1st Team All NBA and 1st Team All Defense. 

That is actually pretty close to historical trends, especially with the guys that started younger, i.e. around year 5 or 6 is when the true greats really start to put it together.  So next year or the year after, really should be the time when we really start to know what Tatum will end up looking like.

Only in terms of accolades for KG. He was a very similar player in both years both in box and non-box metrics and only jumped up a level in '03 and '04. But he was putting together monster seasons worthy of MVP awards from 2000 onwards if not for some insane peaks during that timespan that only his very own peak could've matched (eg. 2000-2002 Shaq, 2002-2003 Duncan).

Meanwhile Tatum really isn't close to that level and I'm not sure if he ever will be even as he continues to refine his game - KG was a transcendent talent.

Similar?  His shooting efficiency sky rocketed, his PPG, RPG, and APG were all better in 2000 and in some cases by a decent amount.  His WS/48 went from .146 to .172.  His VORP went from 3.3 to 6.8.  KG took a pretty big jump from the conclusion of the 99 season to the conclusion of the 00 season, which is why he went from 3rd Team All NBA to 1st Team All NBA, 1st Team Defense and 2nd in MVP voting.  He peaked in 04, but he made great strides from year 4 to year 5.

Oh I was talking about 2000 KG compared to 2001 KG lol.

[liam]

Even though the 50pts was great yesterday...and Celts needed it. 
Even Brad wanted to see more ball movement (post game presser)

Hey Brad - if you want more ball movement, then demand it and hold players accountable instead of talking about what you would like your players to do in the post-game.

You are the head coach, so you get to do that !!!!!

How do you know he's not doing that already? Oh right, you don't. You have 0 evidence in your extremely biased claim

You talk as if having a bias is wrong. I have a bias based on what I observe and the conclusions I come to. Accusing me of being biased is saying that I have observed, thought an issue through and have drawn some conclusions. Kind of a good approach, no ?

Again, my view of Stevens is based on the fact that, over at least 3 seasons, his players continue to make the same dumb plays over and over. Of course you don't sit a player over one bad play, or even two, but many of our players are way beyond that and Stevens just stands there on the sideline looking helpless. That would be the strongest evidence in my extremely biased claim.

"Bias - prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair."

[tenn_smoothie]

that is PC crap, give it a rest.

I am hardly being unfair to have an opinion based on facts all of us can see with our own eyes.

[Silas]

Go Cs!

[Silas]

Payback foul. 

[Kiorrik]

Wrong thread buddy!

[Roy H.]

Awesome night by JT.  He completely changed the narrative.  Instead of “Boston is racist”, at least temporarily its “Tatum is the NBA’s next great scorer”.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/jayson-tatum-is-the-nb-as-next-great-scoring-legend-070424125.html

[Tr1boy]

Awesome night by JT.  He completely changed the narrative.  Instead of “Boston is racist”, at least temporarily its “Tatum is the NBA’s next great scorer”.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/jayson-tatum-is-the-nb-as-next-great-scoring-legend-070424125.html

Great game

Greedy me wants to see him do that at Brooklyn. 

He is going to have to be near perfect for the Celts to have a chance

[jambr380]

Awesome night by JT.  He completely changed the narrative.  Instead of “Boston is racist”, at least temporarily its “Tatum is the NBA’s next great scorer”.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/jayson-tatum-is-the-nb-as-next-great-scoring-legend-070424125.html

Yep, that was the biggest game of the year by far. Obviously because of Tatum's great performance, but also because we were reminded what true Celtics basketball is all about. When Tatum puts up games like this, it really shows the unlimited potential of our franchise. We couldn't have asked for a better response from our superstar.

[Tr1boy]

Tatum should take Deuce with him to Brooklyn 

[td450]

Even though the 50pts was great yesterday...and Celts needed it. 
Even Brad wanted to see more ball movement (post game presser)

Hey Brad - if you want more ball movement, then demand it and hold players accountable instead of talking about what you would like your players to do in the post-game.

You are the head coach, so you get to do that !!!!!

How do you know he's not doing that already? Oh right, you don't. You have 0 evidence in your extremely biased claim

The evidence is that we see the team have long stretches of poor ball movement, and we see Tatum, Walker and Smart doing the ball pounding. We do not see him calling timeouts, demanding movement and pulling guys out, even stars, if they don't comply. That is what holding guys accountable means.

[nickagneta]

Tatum should take Deuce with him to Brooklyn 

Tatum should say that he was thinking of taking Deuce to Brooklyn but it's obvious NY is a violent and racist place, and so, he is going to leave him home in Boston for his own safety.

Of course I jest, but would it be so far from the truth? Obviously it would mean stooping down to Kyrie's scum level, but Tatum is a class guy and human meaning he would never do it. But he would be justified in saying it given incidences at the recent Knicks game and the myriad of hate crimes that plagued the city over the last half year.

[Ogaju]

Tatum should take Deuce with him to Brooklyn 

Tatum should say that he was thinking of taking Deuce to Brooklyn but it's obvious NY is a violent and racist place, and so, he is going to leave him home in Boston for his own safety.

Of course I jest, but would it be so far from the truth? Obviously it would mean stooping down to Kyrie's scum level, but Tatum is a class guy and human meaning he would never do it. But he would be justified in saying it given incidences at the recent Knicks game and the myriad of hate crimes that plagued the city over the last half year.

lol..he should leave it at dangerous and not family friendly...lol

But what JT should do is use that chamber they have at the training facility to recover from the game and restore his energy. What a heck of a ball player.