Tatum knows The Truth
Young star follows similar path as Pierce
Paul Pierce remains one of the most dependable stretch scorers in Celtics history — clutch is another word, though analytics types claim the ability is not quantifiable — and by his third Celtics season, at the age of 23, he already had a 25.1 scoring average.
Beyond Antoine Walker, the 2000-01 Celtics didn’t have a lot of other scoring, leaving plenty of space for Pierce to shine.
Jayson Tatum, by comparison, has come out of his first All-Star appearance and into the stretch run of his third season averaging a teamhigh 22.4 points per game. Unlike Pierce, he’s scoring at this clip amidst balance, with Kemba Walker (21.8), Jaylen Brown (20.2) and Gordon Hayward (17.3) all taking turns at the head of a scoring attack that ranks fifth in the NBA in offensive rating and third in net rating.
If, as becomes more obvious every month or week, Tatum has established himself as the greatest young Celtic since Pierce, he’s also having greater early success in terms of team status.
His 39-point performance in the Celtics’ double-overtime win over the Clippers on Feb. 13 was the greatest example yet of Tatum’s ability to take control in primetime situations.
“He’s maturing, he’s earning the respect of the veteran players,” said Danny Ainge.
“All of the players on the team from Kemba and Gordon to Jaylen, who is only two years older than him, consider him an equal. He has stepped up with his maturity, his consistency and his leadership abilities.”
His ability to take charge late in games, though, may be where Tatum’s progress has shown itself the most lately.
“That’s all part of it. He’s had more opportunities this year,” Ainge said of Tatum’s performances down the stretch.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries. We haven’t had everyone healthy more than 10 or 12 games this whole year,” Ainge said. “Each guy has shown us what they’re capable of doing. Gordon in that first stretch a couple of weeks ago, and Jayson’s carried us lately, and Kemba’s carried us in a lot of games this year, and Jaylen’s had his moments, and even Marcus
(Smart) has had a handful of games where he carried us down the stretch, but Jayson has been doing it the most lately.
“But again, I saw this in his rookie year and at times last year.”
The 2018 injury-related absences of Hayward and
Kyrie Irving cleared center stage for Tatum, with Brown’s promising No. 2 support, to carry the team to the Eastern Conference Finals as a rookie.
And then came last season, complications from sharing the floor with Irving, Hayward’s re-introduction to the lineup, and the regression of the Celtics’ two youngest stars.
“Not as many opportunities,” Ainge said of last season. “But he’s also getting better as a player all the time — that’s the whole key for Jayson, because he’s developing the reputation of being a terrific player and people are going to come after him.”
The result is a young star far more intent on attacking the rim, and for the most part leaving his in-between game behind.
“He wasn’t (challenging the paint last year) as much, but now it’s a matter of making adjustments to the adjustments teams are making against you,” said Ainge.
“As a young player that’s a sign of a great player when you can adjust and score against even the best of defenses. Even early this year he wasn’t finishing nearly as well as he wanted to. He was frustrated by that. He worked on it, looked at film, and he’s got that determination now to finish through contact and finish at the rim.”
And with this success comes comparisons to players
of the past, or younger versions of current players. In recent weeks Tatum’s numbers have been compared to the likes of Kevin
Durant, and even LeBron James.
Or Paul Pierce. But this is where Ainge pumps the brakes.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and compare historic numbers, because I don’t think that really matters,” said Ainge. “What matters is does he continue to improve, does he have the same approach, humility and work ethic that the great players have to be great?
“I think there’s been a steady progress from the beginning. Jayson was a really good player as a 19-yearold, and as a 20-year-old,” he said. “Some of the numbers were down last year, and everyone’s numbers were down last year, on our entire team. But I saw a lot of really
good games from Jayson last year, and then this year early he had some ups and downs in the middle there, and he’s been playing amazing this last month. I think we’ve always hoped that he was going to be a really good player.”