Am I the only one who thinks Jaylen has been playing better than Tatum lately? Maybe my expectations for jayson are higher but idk
I do think expectations for JT are so sky high that they're skewing his play this year. In particular, even with how well he played last year I think people expected yet another leap this year, without considering how his numbers would be impacted by the additions of both KP and Jrue.
I mean, JT is averaging 27.5 pts, 8.8 rebs, 4.2 asts, and 1.0 stls per game on 48.7% fg% on the best team in the league. Those are MVP-level stats yet again this year - particularly when considering team record and the amount of firepower we have offensively - yet the prevailing opinion is that he's not played quite as well as he can so far this year.
So I do think really lofty expectations are definitely impacting how Tatum is playing, despite him playing very, very well so far, as highlighted by his Eastern Conference Player of the Month Award.
(But all that said - that's not to take away from JB either. He's been playing some of his best basketball during this homestand, and it goes way beyond his individual scoring and more into his much better team play.)