Tatum shooting 79.3 FT for the season

[Chef Parish]

Small area of concern with the team's record but worth noting

[Neurotic Guy]

Yeah - he’s missing a ton of FTs. Usually the first of two.  Still 80% but clearly worse than years past.

[Goldstar88]

I’m not concerned that he’s essentially shooting 80% from the line.

[liam]

I’m not concerned that he’s essentially shooting 80% from the line.

He should be able to get that up into the high 80s.

[Goldstar88]

I’m not concerned that he’s essentially shooting 80% from the line.

He should be able to get that up into the high 80s.

Maybe, but I’d be more concerned with JB shooting in the low 70’s from the line. I’d like him to get that up to where Tatum currently is.

[tonydelk]

Small area of concern with the team's record but worth noting

I'm more concerned with his crunch time/4th Qtr FT numbers.  Anyone know what that is?

[keevsnick]

He's now 133/168 from the line for the season. The difference between what he's shooting right now and his career average of 84.3% is about 9 total makes/misses.

I wouldn't worry too much about a total of 9 extra misses over s25 games, very easily could just be a slightly cold stretch that bounces right back, and even if it isn't 80% from the line is fine.

[Chef Parish]

Small area of concern with the team's record but worth noting

I'm more concerned with his crunch time/4th Qtr FT numbers.  Anyone know what that is?

75.4% in the first 21 games

[MattyIce]

I'm more concerned about his pull up from 3 terrible percentage

[Roy H.]

I'm more concerned about his pull up from 3 terrible percentage

Yeah, I was just going to say that the 3pt% bothers me more than the FT%.  For Tatum and Brown.

[Moranis]

I'm more concerned about his pull up from 3 terrible percentage

Yeah, I was just going to say that the 3pt% bothers me more than the FT%.  For Tatum and Brown.

And yet entering tonight, his TS% is the best of his career. 

[Big333223]

I'm more concerned about his pull up from 3 terrible percentage

Yeah, I was just going to say that the 3pt% bothers me more than the FT%.  For Tatum and Brown.

And yet entering tonight, his TS% is the best of his career.

Tatum with a career low in FT% and 3P% but a career high in both eFG% and TS% (narrowly). I think that speaks to a positive change in his game overall.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

His FT% and 3PT% should be higher.

[scaryjerry]

I don’t think tatums been great since the first couple weeks of the season. That’s probably because my expectations for him are MVP level, and he’s just not there and maybe he never will be, maybe he’s just a really good player not an all timer

[Vermont Green]

I had put this in another discussion.  The point is that Tatum is clearly making all these other players better.  They are all quite a bit better when on the court with Tatum than without (Horford notwithstanding who is about the same). 

I think as others have pointed out, Tatum is trying to change his game so that (1) he is not so reliant on the 3 and (2) he is in a better position to make others better.  It seems to be working.

As to free throws, it is nothing new.  It is something he should work on.  I suspect that it isn't a top priority for him and it probably shouldn't be.  Same with the 3s.  He always seems to go through stretches.  Not sure what you can do about that.  Maybe focus on taking more "good" 3s and fewer contested 3s.  He has been at 35% 3P% since 2021.  Some of those are always end of the shot clock, low percentage shots.

Wasn't sure where to put this but I wanted to see how various players performed in terms of +/- with and without Tatum.  Tatum is clearly the best player.  How much is he making other players better, who makes Tatum the best (note, this excludes the last game vs. ORL)?

Brown + Tatum         +92/550 min
Brown - Tatum          +15/200 min

White + Tatum         +165/515 min
White - Tatum           +22/140 min

Prozing + Tatum      +107/440 min
Porzing - Tatum          +5/105 min

Holiday + Tatum      +136/629 min
Holiday - Tatum         +10/102 min

Horford + Tatum        +78/420 min
Horford - Tatum         +25/130 min

My overall take away from this is that Tatum is clearly making everybody better, but not all the same.  Everyone has more minutes with Tatum than without so you could normalize these per36 or per100 poss., and if you did that, only Horford would come out about the same with and without Tatum.  It is also of note that Brown plays the most without Tatum, which makes sense.  You want the other primary scorer on the floor when Tatum is out.

If you look at this the other way, what player makes Tatum the best, that is White.  Tatum is +175 overall and +165 with White.  Tatum achieves most of his positive +/- when he is on the court with White.  Holiday is the next best Tatum facilitator (+136 Tatum with Holiday).  Neither is surprising, that the better ballhandlers are the ones that allow Tatum to be at his best.  There is some overlap as Tatum, White, and Holiday are all on the court fairly often.  Maybe I will try to filter that out some other time.