Jayson Tatum continues to impress Kyrie Irving and Boston Celtics vets

http://celticswire.com/2017/09/29/jayson-tatum-continues-to-impress-kyrie-irving-and-boston-celtics-vets/









Jayson Tatum continues to impress Kyrie Irving and Boston Celtics vets



By: Jared Weiss | 7 minutes ago


He’s only 19-years-old, yet Jayson Tatum is embedding a strong first impression on his Boston Celtics vets. At training camp in Newport, Al Horford called the third overall pick the most NBA-ready he has seen in his 10-year career. At practice on Friday, Kyrie Irving filled up a dump truck full of praise and heaped it all over Tatum. But he threw in an important insight into the uniqueness of Tatum’s journey.

“He’s good. I could give you a whole bunch of adjectives to describe Jayson, but the most important thing is he’s going through what most guys go through as a rookie as a top pick in the league, except that it differs because some guys have gone to some of the worst teams in the league that were there last year in the positions they were in, which was kind of ideal for me when I came into the league.”

Like Jaylen Brown a year before him, Tatum was drafted third overall to a Celtics team with a clear goal of at least the Eastern Conference Finals. It’s extremely rare to see that happen in the league, and makes earning minutes a real challenge compared to his draft peers. But Brown did it a year ago and Tatum is positioned to do the same according to Irving.

“I went to the Cavs who weren’t that good the year before and then Jayson comes into a situation where guys have been traded, where the framework of the team is different from the summer time when he played summer league, so he has a little bit of a bigger transition than most guys because he has to learn a lot more here just because of how much depth we have as a team. He’s definitely gonna be out there but he’s definitely got to earn his time which is what makes or breaks rookies in this league or makes and breaks young guys.”

Irving is only 25, but he sees himself as a mentor of sorts for Tatum as he goes through the turbulence of playing his first year in the league.

“They grow a lot from that standpoint and then when you throw in older guys like myself and Al and Gordon that he can lean on, because we just want the best for him and we understand how important it is for him to be out here for us, especially at the young age that he’s at. He has to learn a lot, but he already has a lot in his game and he’s already matured enough to understand our lingo out here and just being an NBA basketball player. He wouldn’t have been a top pick without being ahead of his years. So, he has that part. Now, it’s just understanding the game and just slowing it down for him. That’s all.”

But it appears Irving may be a bit biased, since he is talking about a fellow Dukie after all.

“I would say that I’ve seen a few rookies come into this league that made tremendous impact, but my belief has always been that any time you got a few Duke guys coming out in the draft, I believe it always goes to them.”

It’s a well-informed bias for Irving, because he knows who mentored said Dukies before they made the leap to the league.

“Cause Coach K does a great job of developing talent and then when you have them make that transition to the league, it’s a lot easier because of the knowledge that he gives you, even if you’re there for a year or two years or four years. So, it helps having the knowledge of Jayson before. The understanding he has for the game, it’s good to see it and experience it first-hand.”

Going from Coach K to Brad Stevens, Tatum won’t have a drop off in tutelage now that he’s in the league. But he’s in the NBA now on a stacked roster where he’ll have to fight his way into the lineup. Based on the early returns from his teammates, Tatum is polling well for a rotation campaign coming this fall.



bob



.

At first, I was disappointed in the pick. Not because of Jayson himself because he'll definitely be a star. But because we had too many SFs and we needed another PG.

But some chance of fortune was bestowed upon us.

Kj