Tatum hikes guru’s cred
C’s rookie latest to be honed by Hanlen
If the list sounds like someone’s fantasy basketball lineup, that’s because somewhere, it probably is.
Zach Lavine, Andrew Wiggins, Bradley Beal, Kelly Oubre, David Lee, Anthony Bennett, Jameer Nelson and Jordan Clarkson can all trace their workout roots to a onetime St. Louis High School basketball star named Drew Hanlen, who now just might be the foremost workout guru for players hoping to reach the NBA.
Indeed, if you’re on the list, you’re likely on your way. Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum is proof positive as the latest success story for Hanlen’s program Pure Sweat Basketball.
“Drew taught me so much. I’ve been working with him since I was a freshman in high school,” Tatum said. “He really helped transform my game and help me become the player I am today.”
That would be the NBA’s reigning Eastern Conference rookie of the month, and a player who, shortly before the NBA draft, had been identified by the Celtics as the best player on the board.
Not everyone agreed, which explains the Celtics’ ability to trade down to the third spot, knowing Tatum would still be available. The big question concerned his 3-point shooting.
But when Tatum stepped into his pre-draft workout with the Celtics, with Hanlen assisting him on the floor, and hit 81-of-100 corner 3’s, Danny Ainge’s belief in the long, thin forward took another step.
And going back to his freshman year at Chaminade High, Tatum had been working on his NBA readiness.
“I feel I still would have been an NBA player, but it would have been tough to tell what my game would have been like if it wasn’t for Drew,” Tatum said. “He just taught me so much that I have today. He had seen me play before and he knew what I needed to work on. Shooting 3’s was a big part of that.”
As of Friday, Tatum was third in the league in 3-point efficiency at .468. He led the league in that category for all of November and most of December.
Beal, who describes himself as “the guinea pig” for the programs Hanlen would develop, believes that his fellow St. Louis native Tatum, in particular, benefitted from the early attention.
“I think it helped Jay out,” the Wizards guard said of his longtime friend. “I think Jay was far more advanced than I was for sure because I started late in high school. We were starting with Jay at the beginning of high school. So I think it helps us out a lot because I was kind of a guinea pig. And Drew was just learning the game — learning the league’s game because he was in college before, but he was learning the league’s game, helping me out as best as he could.
“And even to this day he still helps me shaping me into who I am today. But Jayson, he’s going to be really special for years to come. I think that definitely gives you a little bit of a jump-start, especially when you have a few years under your belt to know what the league’s like, knowing how guys are playing, knowing what your role will potentially be. It’s picture-perfect for sure.”
Tatum admittedly benefitted from Hanlen’s early work with Beal and Lee.
“He had David Lee and Bradley Beal before me, did trial and error with those guys and found out what worked,” Tatum said. “By the time he was ready for me, he really understood what he was doing. We would work out every day, just work on things that would help my game — shooting the 3, a bunch of isolation moves in the midpost, different finishes.”
Beal, perhaps predictably, knew Tatum was NBA-bound well before he finished high school.
“Middle of high school, man. Maybe even before high school because he was 6-foot-7 (or) 6-foot-9 in high school,” he said. “And he was No.1 in his class so like that was kind of a nobrainer. I seen the potential early. We all seen it. I’m just happy that he was able to stay level-headed and finally let his dream come true.”
Ainge didn’t get to know Tatum until the latter was a high school senior, and well into his program with the now-25-year-old Hanlen.
“It still comes down to how much you want to learn and work,” Ainge said. “As they say, everyone wants to go to Tiger Woods’ golf coach.
“But I think it’s more common now where the game is going more to these one-on-none workouts — that kind of skills development. Even Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and the players from that generation, were playing a lot more one-on-one and five-on-five as a part of their workouts.”
Pierce and Garnett were clearly ready for the league upon arrival. But a new generation of players, coming from very different modes of preparation, may be no less prepared for the same transition.
Kyrie Irving was impressed by his two youngest
teammates, Tatum and Jaylen Brown, for what they didn’t have to be told after Gordon Hayward’s catastrophic injury.
“It’s just in their DNA, in terms of the opportunity that was presented through Gordon being hurt, unfortunately,” Irving said. “They knew it was coming and inevitable for them to step up to that challenge. If they did not, then I’m pretty sure that’s when I would have stepped in, but they did it on their own. You have to commend guys for taking it upon themselves to do things like that and put themselves in position to be successful.
“I’ve been watching these guys for awhile, since they were in high school and developing into the players that they are now,” he said. “It’s just an everyday progression that I’m appreciative that I get to see because I was a fan of theirs then and I still get to be a fan of their’s now. As a teammate, it’s just a different perspective because I now see the strides they are making every single day.”