The Consistency of Jayson Tatum

[ThePaintedArea]

Tatum has scored at least 11 points for 8 games in a row. He's scored 11 points or more in 18 of his 21 games in the NBA. He's currently averaging 13.9 per game. For anyone, this is terrific consistency. For a 19 year old rookie, I think this is remarkable.

More remarkable still is his team defense - astonishing would be my word. Of all the mountains that rookies have to climb, this is the steepest. But Jayson plays defense like a vet.

Tatum is amazing.
Danny is a genius.

You mean... he's a genius at... the Draft?!

More like, BRAD is a drafting genius. 

Danny made a genius coaching hire, and is a good enough leader to take his advise. 

We’ve been noticably better drafting since Stevens joined the brain-trust, no doubt about it.

No, we’ve largely just had better and more draft picks since Stevens has been here.  In 4 drafts in the Stevens era, we’ve had two 1st round busts (Young and Hunter), an early 2nd that also failed (Mickey), and another 1st for whom the verdict is still out (Yabusele).  We’ve done well with all the top 10 picks, which is important, but we didn’t have those for the prior 8 or so years to compare to.

Hunter was not a first round bust. He basically did what you’d expect from the 25th pick in a shallow draft. Though he was bad, he only really parted the Celtics early because of our abundance of picks.

When you’re out of the league one year after being a 1st round pick, you’re a bust.  Period.  If he got cut and latched on somewhere, even on the back of the roster, that could be an excuse of a roster crunch.  But that he hasn’t says that he was simply a bad pick.  Especially now that two-way players exist.

That’s very simplistic thinking. Bad pick yes, bust no. The Celtics had 2 first rounders in 2014, three top 35 picks in Hunters year in 2015 and the #3 pick in 2016. That’s 6 essential first round picks in 3 years and none of them started when Hunter was cut. Context matters and late first round picks are lucky to get a second deal. He did later play for the Bulls and I doubt you’d bet your life he’ll never play another NBA game. 

If you think Hunter was a bust and someone like JR Giddens wasn’t just because we didn’t have many picks then and he just sat on the bench for 2-3 years more power to you. Plenty of late first rounders are international guys who never play even one year, one was picked a few spots ahead of Hunter.

No NBA decision maker is calling a failed 28th pick a bust. For a brilliant poster who adds value to this board by handling nuance with precision, this is a disappointing take from you.

While I thank you for the compliment, sometimes nuance is not needed.  Hunter was a failed pick.  No NBA team even had enough interest in him to bring him to training camp.  I don’t expect all my late 1sts to become All-Stars, and really nothing more than fringe rotation players for a couple of seasons.  But NBA rosters are larger than ever, and that he can’t find someone who even has interest in developing him as a two-way player in the D-League for a season or two says a lot about the league’s opinion of his talent, and how quickly they made such a decision.

Here’s the list of two-way players: http://gleague.nba.com/players-two-way-contracts-2017-18-season/

Guys like John Holland, Vander Blue, and Malcolm Miller all have deals, and Hunter isn’t even an affiliate player, much less 2-way.  There’s no way to pretend that Hunter met any expectation of being a 1st round pick, unless you have zero expectations at all.  He barely met the expectations of a late 2nd.

Is it the end of the world? Obviously not.  Will we forget about Hunter the same way we forget about Jajuan Johnson?  Sure.  Did he significantly fail to meet the modest expectations of being a 1st round pick?  Most certainly.  And for that, he is a bust.

As often happens, the story is not over yet for RJ’s pro career. This season he’s been a two-way player for the Rockets and the Rio Grande Vipers, leading his G-League team in minutes and even logging a little court time in the Big Show.

The Vipers average almost 36 threes per game, with Hunter launching almost ten of them (shooting a respectable .371 in the process).

I think he’s got excellent feel for the game, good instincts, good hands, is decisive, and can run a pick and roll. His main drawbacks, imo, were his body and his shooting - those two things being possibly why Ainge preferred James Young.

[trickybilly]

P.S James Young still sniffing around the NBA nicely

[Big333223]

Weird game for Tatum last night. He still finished with 13 and 6, so close to his averages, but I think he scored 10 of that 13 in the 4th quarter, which is sort of good and bad. It's not good that, with the team relying on him, it took him so long to get it together. It's great that he has the resilience to go into a 4th quarter and throw the other 3 quarters out the window and put on the clutch show he did.

He didn't look real comfortable on that last play. It looked like he was thinking a little bit too much about the clock and got in his own head. He probably could've turned and gotten a dunk to make it a 5 point lead, if he fully had his wits about him but instead tried to kill a few extra seconds and then take that off-balance jumper. All in all, there's still a lot to be encouraged about with last night's game.

[nickagneta]

Weird game for Tatum last night. He still finished with 13 and 6, so close to his averages, but I think he scored 10 of that 13 in the 4th quarter, which is sort of good and bad. It's not good that, with the team relying on him, it took him so long to get it together. It's great that he has the resilience to go into a 4th quarter and throw the other 3 quarters out the window and put on the clutch show he did.

He didn't look real comfortable on that last play. It looked like he was thinking a little bit too much about the clock and got in his own head. He probably could've turned and gotten a dunk to make it a 5 point lead, if he fully had his wits about him but instead tried to kill a few extra seconds and then take that off-balance jumper. All in all, there's still a lot to be encouraged about with last night's game.

I love the fact a 20 year old can become a force in the 4th quarter of a close game against a high quality opponent. His ability to just move forward and forget the bad play or shot or quarter is huge. Sometimes its only the best of players that can do that. I find that more encouraging going forward than his great shooting and scoring 1st half but next to nothing second half from the previous game.

[trickybilly]

Not sure one can extrapolate much from this.. but there are only two guys in the NBA who have both a better 3pt% and average more points per game than newly-minted 20 year old Jayson Tatum:

Klay Thompson
Kevin Durant

[vjcsmoke]

Another 23 point night for Tatum.  If this is his new norm on a Kyrie-less club, I am pretty sure we are going to win 5 or 6 of our remaining games with 8 left to play and finish comfortably at #2 in the conference.  Celtics have won 7 of their last 10 including a 4 game win streak and just keep on keeping on.

[trickybilly]

Just about any other year, Tatum wins ROY. Simmons is just scaring his way to the title. I guess if Tatum comes home with a VERY wet sail he could sneak it, especially if we gain top seed.

[Moranis]

Just about any other year, Tatum wins ROY. Simmons is just scaring his way to the title. I guess if Tatum comes home with a VERY wet sail he could sneak it, especially if we gain top seed.

I love Tatum and think he could be a great player, but 14 and 5 is not winning ROY in virtually any season outside of last year.  And Tatum will finish 3rd this year behind Simmons and Mitchell, and Tatum will not be close to either of those guys.

[nickagneta]

Just about any other year, Tatum wins ROY. Simmons is just scaring his way to the title. I guess if Tatum comes home with a VERY wet sail he could sneak it, especially if we gain top seed.

Yeah, Simmons will win it but he might be the only winning ROY PG who wins the award, from this point on, without hitting a three point shot all year. Just a weird stat for a team's PG in today's game.

[Moranis]

Just about any other year, Tatum wins ROY. Simmons is just scaring his way to the title. I guess if Tatum comes home with a VERY wet sail he could sneak it, especially if we gain top seed.

Yeah, Simmons will win it but he might be the only winning ROY PG who wins the award, from this point on, without hitting a three point shot all year. Just a weird stat for a team's PG in today's game.

I don't think you need PG in there.  I don't think any rookie will win ROY without hitting a 3 point shot going forward (I mean I suppose a Shaq like player may enter the league again, but that would probably be the only scenario and even a modern day Shaq might be taking 3's).  I mean the only other 2 rookies that have played at least 40 games without hitting a 3 pointer are Bam Adebayo (0-7) and Jordan Bell (0-3).  Ivan Rabb has played in 29 games and hasn't even taken a 3 pointer and has the next most games of the rookies without hitting a 3 pointer.   

[nickagneta]

Just about any other year, Tatum wins ROY. Simmons is just scaring his way to the title. I guess if Tatum comes home with a VERY wet sail he could sneak it, especially if we gain top seed.

Yeah, Simmons will win it but he might be the only winning ROY PG who wins the award, from this point on, without hitting a three point shot all year. Just a weird stat for a team's PG in today's game.

I don't think you need PG in there.  I don't think any rookie will win ROY without hitting a 3 point shot going forward (I mean I suppose a Shaq like player may enter the league again, but that would probably be the only scenario and even a modern day Shaq might be taking 3's).  I mean the only other 2 rookies that have played at least 40 games without hitting a 3 pointer are Bam Adebayo (0-7) and Jordan Bell (0-3).  Ivan Rabb has played in 29 games and hasn't even taken a 3 pointer and has the next most games of the rookies without hitting a 3 pointer.   

You're probably right and I thought the same thing, but figured, like you mentioned, that probably only a Shaq like center or forward would be the type of player to not hit one. So I said PG.

[rollie mass]

if marcus morris has a high ankle sprain like Crowder and Smart we are going to have to make up for his missing points-just when his shot seemed automatic.
What is Jaysons wingspan, it gets misjudged on defense.

[nickagneta]

if marcus morris has a high ankle sprain like Crowder and Smart we are going to have to make up for his missing points-just when his shot seemed automatic.
What is Jaysons wingspan, it gets misjudged on defense.

Thought I read recently that his wingspan is 7'2"

[A Future of Stevens]

The ESPN ticker headlines flashed an interesting fact about Tatum.

He is only the second rookie in NBA history to be on pace for at least 1000 points, while shooting over 40% from 3pt. The other was Steph Curry.

While I'm not sure exactly how accurate that is, or how arbitrary the 1000+ point line is, it's interesting to see he is basically alone with the greatest 3pt shooter of all time at that point in their careers. Couple that with the fact he is at least a year younger than Curry was, and it speaks volumes to just how good Tatum could one day be.

[nickagneta]

The ESPN ticker headlines flashed an interesting fact about Tatum.

He is only the second rookie in NBA history to be on pace for at least 1000 points, while shooting over 40% from 3pt. The other was Steph Curry.

While I'm not sure exactly how accurate that is, or how arbitrary the 1000+ point line is, it's interesting to see he is basically alone with the greatest 3pt shooter of all time at that point in their careers. Couple that with the fact he is at least a year younger than Curry was, and it speaks volumes to just how good Tatum could one day be.

Curry played 3 years at Davidson so he had to be at least 2 years older than Tatum when both were rookies.