Nick Wright Predictably Rips Celtics, Questions Jayson Tatum’s Ceiling

https://nesn.com/2020/02/nick-wright-predictably-rips-celtics-questions-jason-tatums-ceiling/



Nick Wright Predictably Rips Celtics, Questions Jayson Tatum’s Ceiling


by Dakota Randall

on Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 11:55AM



We’re not sure how anybody who watched Sunday’s Celtics-Lakers game could have any takeaway other than Boston is a legitimate threat to make the NBA Finals and that Jayson Tatum already is a star.

Alas, Nick Wright on Monday found a way to throw subtle shade at both Boston and its All-Star forward.

Boston suffered a 114-112 loss to Los Angeles in a game that might have been an NBA Finals preview. (Obviously, the Milwaukee Bucks are the Eastern Conference’s best team until someone proves otherwise.)

Despite huge games from Anthony Davis and LeBron James, it was Tatum who had the basketball world talking, as the 21-year-old racked up 41 points to go along with five rebounds and two assists. It was the kind of performance that should make Celtics fans confident that Boston has found its new franchise player.

Still, Wright spewed this nonsense during Monday’s episode of “First Things First” on FS1: “Jayson Tatum was sensational, and good for him,” Wright said. ” … He continues to be a guy that looks like one day could be one of the 15 best players in basketball. Maybe one day be one of the 10 best players in basketball. He’s not yet a star, but he’s trending that way.

” … The Celtics are a really good team, an overachieving team. That is exactly where they are most comfortable the last 30 years if they don’t have Kevin Garnett: overachieving with a defined ceiling.”

First Things First @FTFonFS1 "The Lakers have the best player in the conference by a mile, the DPOY, probably, the best record in the conference by a mile, the best closer in all of basketball by a mile. LeBron & AD had 61 combined points. I don't know what there is not to be impressed with." —@getnickwright
https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/1231912395045511169


If you’re familiar with Wright’s Celtics-hating ways, you know what he was doing there. He repeated what he’s been saying for two years: the Celtics are meh and Tatum doesn’t project as an elite NBA player. More clearly, he downplayed all the Celtics have accomplished over the last three decades.

If you want to say Tatum never will be in, say, Paul George’s category, go right ahead. If you want to say the Celtics, like most NBA franchises who struggle to lure superstars away from Miami, Los Angeles and Golden State, basically have been useless since the 1990s, go off. We would disagree on both points, but whatever.

However, it’s Wright’s assertion the current Celtics are nothing more than overachievers that truly is next-level stupid.

The Celtics have an All-NBA point guard (Kemba Walker), a former All-Star forward who is only 29 years old and remains an excellent player (Gordon Hayward) and a pair of top-three draft picks (Tatum and Jaylen Brown) who suddenly look like All-Star caliber wings. In the case of Tatum, he already is an All-Star and has emerged as Boston’s undisputed No. 1 scoring option.

Moreover, the Celtics have one of the best defensive guards in the game (Marcus Smart), a legitimately good, not great, floor-spacing big man (Daniel Theis) and an excellent rebounder (Enes Kanter). They also have one of the best coaches in basketball (Brad Stevens), though the true influence of an NBA coach remains up for debate.

Sure, Boston’s bench is pretty bad, and the Celtics certainly could use a player capable of defending Joel Embiid or Giannis Antetokounmpo in the playoffs, if such a player even exists. Maybe Robert Williams is capable of doing some of that, but he’s yet to prove it.

Still, given all the positives, how could anyone seriously suggest the Celtics are “overachieving?”

The reality is the Celtics are the second-best team in the East (sorry, Toronto) and have a real shot at making the NBA Finals.



bob
MY NOTE: I'm glad I was able to find and post this article at the same time as the Cowherd article to show just how manic-depressive basketball pundits are about our Celtics.


.

Overachievers is not a word I would use to describe the Celtics.

If you are a team with so so talent and you manage to play above your station than you could be classified as overachievers.

AKA Nicht Korrekt

He’s a fool

The joy of social media, where you can always find someone claiming to know everything about nothing.

In other words...

Nick who?

Tatum's ceiling ?

some are already saying MVP type player in the future.

yes, I know I'm the one saying it...but still!

I never heard of this guy until now. I hope the team takes the O'Brien Trophy to him and leaves it on his front door step. "What a maroon!!" (Anyone? Anyone?!!) That's a two-fer!

db

My feelings exactly NYCelt. There are so many Boston haters out there who are praying that they fall flat on their faces that it is sickening.

Who the hell is this guy??? Put a microphone in front of someone and they are bound to spit all over themselves

https://sports.yahoo.com/nick-wright-has-managed-to-be-wrong-about-jayson-tatum-every-step-of-the-way-204553847.html



Nick Wright has managed to be wrong about Jayson Tatum every step of the way


Ben Rohrbach
Yahoo Sports

Feb 27, 2020, 12:45 PM




If you are unfamiliar with Nick Wright, he is a talking head on Fox Sports 1 television. Most everything I have ever seen from him has been shared in jest on Twitter, retroactively trashing the takes he is paid handsomely to spew for hours every day. He is as unabashed in his love for LeBron James as he in his hatred of the Boston Celtics, so much so that I am pretty sure I saw him walking around TD Garden in a James jersey at a playoff game during the 2018 Eastern Conference finals.

He did think Boston might not be so bad in a 2018 segment he spent trading James to the Celtics.

In the span of a few days over the summer, Wright flip-flopped from preferring Kemba Walker over Kyrie Irving when he thought the former might join LeBron’s Los Angeles Lakers in free agency to liking Irving over Walker when the latter chose the Celtics instead. Mental gymnastics at its finest.

One of Wright’s running schticks has been bashing Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge about his unwillingness to trade top draft assets for players like DeMarcus Cousins, Jimmy Butler and Paul George, all of whom have played for multiple teams since said bashing.

Over the years, he has flip-flopped on this, too, suggesting Ainge “doesn’t really know what he’s doing” in 2017, admitting he was “spectacularly wrong about him” when the Celtics cashed in a Brooklyn Nets pick for Kyrie Irving in 2018 and then blaming both Ainge and Celtics coach Brad Stevens for the “structural issues” that led Irving and Al Horford to leave in 2019 free agency.

This, of course, after referring to Stevens as a magician in years past.

Where Wright has been most wrong, though, has been his evaluation of Jayson Tatum, the ascendant Celtics superstar who has only gotten better since making his first All-Star team at age 21 earlier this month and will almost surely be named Eastern Conference Player of the Month.


Celtics star Jayson Tatum has taken his game up a level this season. (Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)


Let us review, shall we?


May 16, 2017: Wright does not even have Tatum among his top five prospects in the 2017 NBA draft. His top five: Markelle Fultz, Lonzo Ball, De’Aaron Fox, Josh Jackson and Lauri Markkanen.


nick wright

@getnickwright
NBA Draft Predictions:
1- Fultz (BOS)
2- Lonzo (LAL)
3- Fox (PHI)
4- Jackson (PHX)
5- The big white kid who can't rebound or guard (SAC)

2,043
5:02 PM - May 16, 2017



June 22, 2017: Wright mocks Ainge while suggesting the Celtics will draft Jackson, who was selected fourth by the Phoenix Suns and salary dumped with two second-round picks in 2019.


nick wright

@getnickwright
The Celtics traded the #1 pick because they loved Josh Jackson. Then Josh Jackson refused to even work out for them. But Ainge is a genius.

911
1:46 PM - Jun 22, 2017



June 22, 2017: Amid reports that the Celtics were trading down from the No. 1 spot to No. 3 while adding Sacramento’s 2019 lottery pick via Philadelphia in the process, Wright to his credit upgrades Tatum to fifth on his draft board, ahead of Markkanen but still behind Ball, Fox, Fultz and Jackson.


nick wright

@getnickwright
If the Celtics draft Jayson Tatum they will have turned the #1 pick into the 5th best player in the draft + 2019 Kings 1st rounder.

806
3:54 PM - Jun 22, 2017



Nov. 15, 2017: Fifteen games into Tatum’s NBA career, Wright concedes he was wrong, even suggesting that Tatum “looks like he was the best player in the draft,” along with Dennis Smith Jr.


First Things First

@FTFonFS1
"I was way wrong on Jayson Tatum...Tatum has been outstanding. If not for Ben Simmons, he's your leading candidate for ROY.”— @getnickwright

https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/930775185074028544
358
4:31 AM - Nov 15, 2017



April 15, 2018: After Tatum posted 19 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals in his playoff debut opposite Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, Wright is fully on the bandwagon.


nick wright

@getnickwright
3 totally different, and wildly difficult, basket by Jayson Tatum in a row. He's so damn good for a 20 year old.

533
10:59 AM - Apr 15, 2018



May 17, 2018: In one tweet, Wright retroactively upgrades Tatum to the fourth-best player on his draft board, admits he was wrong about that, too, and then lauds Ainge for the Irving trade again.


nick wright

@getnickwright
I thought Tatum was 4th best guy in his class & I thought Ainge was never going to pull the trigger on a big trade. Both whiffs! It happens.

271
7:24 AM - May 17, 2018



Oct. 17, 2018: At the beginning of Tatum’s second season, just prior to struggling in a sophomore slump campaign, Wright declares Tatum an “elite-level NBA star” and “a superstar.”


First Things First

@FTFonFS1
Jayson Tatum is a star


128
11:45 AM - Oct 17, 2018



Feb. 6, 2019: Wright believes a Lakers package of Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma should trump a Celtics package of Tatum and Jaylen Brown in a trade for Anthony Davis. He also thinks Tatum is the best asset of the bunch, insinuating that Kuzma is a significantly better trade chip than Brown. Wright goes on to call Brown “an athletic defender who is going to be offensively challenged” and not “one of the 75 most valuable trade chips in the NBA” — “a homeless man’s Kawhi Leonard.”


First Things First

@FTFonFS1
.@getnickwright: "If Kyrie leaves, do you think the Celtics have legitimate assets to trump what the Lakers are offering [for AD] now? Absent of Jayson Tatum in the deal?"@SIChrisMannix: "Yes."

Nick Wright does a 4-player blind reveal to compare

https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/1093223373692375045
326
11:02 AM - Feb 6, 2019


The Celtics, of course, never got too far down the road on a deal with New Orleans, since Irving was leaving and Anthony Davis made it pretty clear he was not going to re-sign in Boston. For the record, though, Brown is averaging a career-high 20 points on 49/38/74 shooting splits this season.


March 1, 2019: In the midst of Ingram’s 31-point game in a meaningless loss to Milwaukee last season, Wright dubs the performance better than any in Tatum’s career — presumably including Tatum’s 28 points in a Game 1 second-round playoff victory against the 76ers as a rookie in 2018.


nick wright

@getnickwright
Brandon Ingram is currently having a better game than Jayson Tatum ever has.

5,712
8:54 PM - Mar 1, 2019



June 17, 2019: As news of Irving’s impending departure becomes more concrete prior to the draft, Wright tells us, “Boston is now in no-man’s land,” neither a contender or a free-agent destination.


First Things First

@FTFonFS1
"If the Celtics are not clearly, without question winning the trade, they're not gonna make the trade. They've cashed in with their assets 1 time since they got them from the Nets in 2013: The Kyrie trade. Boston is now in no man's land." — @getnickwright

https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/1140576038168211459
587
3:04 AM - Jun 17, 2019



June 18, 2019: Wright declares Ainge’s master stroke — trading the aging Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce for the equivalent of four unprotected lottery picks — an abject failure. He anoints the Nets in a “FAR better position” than the Celtics with two max-salary cap slots to spend in free agency.


nick wright

@getnickwright
The Celtics took advantage of a desperate Russian oligarch & got the biggest draft bounty in NBA history for 2 players who were a combined 73 years old... and six years later the team on the other end of that trade is in FAR better position moving forward. Amazing.

8,324
3:52 PM - Jun 18, 2019



June 18, 2019: Wright points to Boston’s past free-agency failures, after they signed All-Stars Al Horford and Gordon Hayward in the previous two summers and before they signed Kemba Walker.


nick wright

@getnickwright
Have no fear, Celtics fans. You now have enough cap space for a max free agent, for that historic free agent destination known as Boston, MA. https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1141127028218966016 …

Keith Smith

@KeithSmithNBA
Celtics could now pivot to being a cap space team, with reports that Kyrie Irving and Al Horford will leave Boston.

If Boston clears the decks of all free agents, they’ll have nearly $28M in cap space. That number could rise if they trade or stash a draft pick.

1,394
3:54 PM - Jun 18, 2019



June 29, 2019: After suggesting the Celtics were not free-agency players, Wright still figures it a good time to mock Ainge for salvaging his summer with another All-NBA point guard on the market.


nick wright

@getnickwright
Very happy Kemba is getting a deserved payday.

And anytime you can switch out Al Horford & Kyrie Irving for a smaller, slightly less effective Kyrie Irving, you obviously gotta do it. The genius Danny Ainge strikes again! https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1145068763345248258 …

Shams Charania

@ShamsCharania
Kemba Walker plans to commit to a four-year, $141M maximum contract with the Boston Celtics after free agency opens on Sunday, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

4,316
2:15 PM - Jun 29, 2019



July 4, 2019: Admittedly, I too was down on Boston’s title prospects after news broke that Davis was headed to Los Angeles and Horford was leaving along with Irving in free agency. Walker’s signing readjusted that thinking a bit, but not for Wright, who called Ainge’s summer “a disaster.”

“You still have the same problem of Tatum, Brown, Hayward,” says Wright. “Those are three guys who play two positions. How are we going to make that work? Those things did not go away, and the identity of this team has been defense. With Kemba Walker at point guard and Enes Kanter as your center ... you have no defensive answer [against Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Toronto]. Those are facts. This team last year had the second-highest projected win total in all of basketball behind only Golden State, and next year they are going to be projected as about the 11th or 12th best team, which is about where they will be, so of course they are worse than they were last season.”


First Things First

@FTFonFS1
"The Boston Celtics plan was Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Al Horford. That has turned into Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Enes Kanter. That’s a disaster." — @getnickwright

https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/1146803353835335682
4,185
7:30 AM - Jul 4, 2019


As it turns out, the versatile triumvirate of Tatum, Brown and Hayward is Boston’s greatest weapon, as many expected, and a big part of why they are projected to win nine more games than last season. The Celtics currently own the NBA’s fourth-best record and third-best defensive rating.



Feb. 15, 2020: Wright upgrades Tatum to the second-best player in the 2017 draft, presumably behind Donovan Mitchell, all while seemingly suggesting that the Celtics still should have selected Fultz No. 1 overall rather than trading down, drafting Tatum and adding Romeo Langford in 2019.


nick wright

@getnickwright
This tweet is going around due to Tatum’s awesome night Thursday. I was wrong.

Danny Ainge turned the #1 pick into the *2nd best player in the draft* + the 14th overall pick last year, Romeo Langford. Congrats? https://twitter.com/getnickwright/status/878038575647932416 …

nick wright

@getnickwright
If the Celtics draft Jayson Tatum they will have turned the #1 pick into the 5th best player in the draft + 2019 Kings 1st rounder.

1,775
8:46 AM - Feb 15, 2020



Feb. 24, 2020: Sixteen months after declaring Tatum a superstar, Wright says the recently named All-Star is now “a leap and a half away from being a superstar and a half leap away from star.”


Ben Rohrbach

@brohrbach
Pretty sure whatever Nick Wright puts in his hair has eaten his brain

https://twitter.com/brohrbach/status/1231975139199377414
2,015
8:12 AM - Feb 24, 2020


This is where we inform you that Tatum is in the midst of a three-week stretch in which he is averaging a 31-8-3 on 53/50/78 shooting splits while rating as one of the league’s best defenders. (To say nothing of his jersey being the NBA’s fourth-highest selling.) Presumably a leap and a half from that would be something like 40-12-6 on 65/60/90 splits — or the greatest player to ever live.



Feb. 26, 2020: When Tatum responds by scoring 36 points on 8-of-12 shooting from distance in a victory over Portland the night after the non-star declaration, Wright has only his Ainge crutch left.


nick wright

@getnickwright
Shoutout to Jayson Tatum for another monster game.

I said on @FTFonFS1 today he’s going to win ECF Player of the Month for Feb, and it’ll be well deserved.

If only Danny Ainge had been willing to trade any of his beloved picks for a big, maybe he’d be on a contender this year.

1,685
8:47 PM - Feb 26, 2020



Feb. 27, 2020: And when Tatum follows that with 33 points and 11 rebounds in a Walker-less win over Mitchell and the playoff-bound Jazz, Wright tries to redefine what he means by being a star.

“Jayson Tatum is really, really good, and Jayson Tatum is on his way to maybe, maybe, making an All-NBA team this year, which would elevate him to the star category, which he is not currently in,” he says. “He’s in the category of really, really good player. ... If you think Tatum’s a star, then you think there are more than 20 stars in the league. There’s not more than 20 stars in the league.”


nick wright

@getnickwright
Celtics fans: Take a deep breath. This is why I said “Tatum isn’t a star”. There’s 15 guys in the league clearly better than him, another dozen right there with him. There aren’t 20 “stars” in the league. https://twitter.com/ftfonfs1/status/1233019614709329920 …

First Things First

@FTFonFS1
.@getnickwright's NBA Tiers:

・ LeBron Tier: LeBron, Giannis, Harden, Kawhi, AD, KD, Steph
・ Russ Tier: Embiid, PG13, Dame, Klay, Jokić, Russ, Luka, Zion
・ Tatum Tier: Tatum, Siakam, Butler, Beal, Kyrie, Middleton, Mitchell, McCollum, Trae, CP3, KAT, Simmons

https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/1233019614709329920
1,729
5:27 AM - Feb 27, 2020


There are actually 24 players in the All-Star Game. We should also note that Wright includes several players who are not even playing this season and others who are not in Tatum’s league on his list.



Feb. 27, 2020: Mere minutes after saying “Tatum is on his way to maybe, maybe, making an All-NBA team this year,” Wright clarifies how he defines a star as someone on his tier of “the All-NBA, maybe will be superstars as soon as next season or once were superstars now on the tick-down.”


First Things First

@FTFonFS1
.@getnickwright is still not sold that Jayson Tatum is a superstar.

"We have to define what star is. Jayson Tatum is averaging 30 this month, he's doing it on 51% from the field, 50% from 3-pt, the Celtics have won 9-of-11. But there are tiers in this league." — @getnickwright

https://twitter.com/FTFonFS1/status/1233025950377545729
81
5:47 AM - Feb 27, 2020


Imagine talking about someone this much and literally never saying a single correct thing about him. Given how often Wright has been wrong, at this rate Tatum might catch his beloved LeBron.



bob
MY NOTE: As someone who tries to do my due diligence in research when I write posts I really appreciate Ben Rohrbach's piece that put a lot of time into accumulating this "tick tock" of Nick Wright's tweets. Doesn't leave much to conjecture.



.

Bob

I had no idea this guy has a long history of bashing Jayson Tatum.

What a moron. Goodness gracious

The guy is dumber than he looks.....

cowens/oldschool wrote:The guy is dumber than he looks.....

Cow,

A metaphysical impossibility. Have you seen this guy?


bob


.

I just have one question...WHO THE HELL IS NICK WRIGHT, AND WHY ARE WE WASTING TIME ON THIS IDIOT?

Can we please stop giving this moron attention??

How does a complete moron like this guy even get a job in talking sports, he’s all wrong and has the most negative demeanor, he knows nothing and his calls on the game easily prove that....???

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:The guy is dumber than he looks.....

Cow,

A metaphysical impossibility.  Have you seen this guy?


bob


.

You right bob, how about he’s much much dumber than he looks.....

He's more than just a maroon, he's an Ultramaroon!!

lets introduce him to Kyle Draper, they would make a great pair, two ignorant fools who know nothing about basketball......bang, bang, bang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very good, gyso!

I can't remember in which thread I posted, "Someone better tell Bill to grab a Coke and a smile and shut the eff up!" Care to take a stab at that one?!

db

So many Boston haters out there. Just amazes me every time I watch a game in another town and see all the green shirts out there. It has to tick off the home towns. I just laugh and say ‘ITS A GREAT TIME TO BE A FAN IN BOSTON”. We have so much to be happy about.