Jayson Tatum: Prince in the Fourth?

http://celticswire.usatoday.com/2017/12/03/jayson-tatum-prince-in-the-fourth-boston-celtics/



Jayson Tatum: Prince in the Fourth?












By: Jared Weiss | 12 hours ago 




Mature beyond his years. Has a great way about him. These are the descriptors thrown at Jayson Tatum early in his career from his coach Brad Stevens.


A few weeks ago, Stevens said that it’s probably time to stop saying he’s good for his age and just call him good period. Tatum put another exclamation point at the end of that sentence Saturday, with some crucial finishes at the rim to help the Celtics survive a hurricane of deep shots from Devin Booker en route to a 116-111 win.

Nobody in the Celtics locker room is shocked by any of this success. Not the league-best 20 wins. Not Tatum thriving early. It’s all been just the system and the program working to its utmost potential.


“He certainly has always been a guy that’s been capable of scoring. That was something that you knew coming in,” Stevens said. “Everybody you talked to, and watching him, it was pretty clear that he was always going to be able to score the ball. Doing so at that moment, you never know exactly how guys will react to that, but he has. He’s got a good fearlessness, he’s got a great demeanor, and he’s obviously extremely skilled.”


Tatum has had his opportunities to thrive throughout games all year, but he has been trending toward scoring later and later in the game as he continues to break in his game at the NBA level.
He’s tied for ninth in the league with 33 points in the clutch on 63.2% true, per ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. Tatum leads the league in true shooting percentage in crunch time and is now shooting 49.3% from deep, a tenth behind the league leader Darius Miller. In the 24 games so far this season, he’s only missed more than 2 three-pointers three times. He is consistent, precise and effective from deep. The sample size is getting big enough that these contextual numbers are starting to hold weight.


While he’s shooting surprisingly well for a rookie, he is now establishing himself at the rim. He draws a foul on 16.3% of his shots, ranking 95th percentile in the league per Cleaning the Glass and takes 43% of his shots at the rim (75th percentile). He’s played with confidence and a relaxed demeanor that has made Brad Stevens and Kyrie Irving comfortable calling his number with the game on the line, which they did in Saturday’s win.

18h
Jared Weiss

@JaredWeissNBA






[ltr]Chandler makes it pretty clear at the 2 minute mark how he's going to defend these two-man actions with Kyrie and Horford, which is to say not at all. He was garbage on D all night. But Cs want to move him out of the way and need Horford to get in there and make it happen. pic.twitter.com/hMvhzplsnh[/ltr]

Jared Weiss

@JaredWeissNBA

[ltr]So Cs respond by getting the ball to Horford at the top of the key and work a DHO with Tatum in the weak corner off a flex action. Chandler has his blinders on and misses Tatum turning the corner cause he's too focused on Horford flaring on the slip screen. Open lane for Tatum. pic.twitter.com/3WtkwKlB4g[/ltr]




https://twitter.com/JaredWeissNBA/status/937085479379447808



2:26 PM - Dec 2, 2017

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Boston is figuring out different ways to get the ball into Tatum’s hand coming around a corner where he can explode down the middle. He’s becoming capable handling whatever he finds in front of him to make his way to the rim, which is great when there’s nothing at all.

“Just feeling the game out, just getting opportunities,” Tatum said after the win. “We found some mismatches in the fourth quarter, and I was just trying to take advantage.”

The man who set Tatum up on that play was Al Horford, who has established a remarkable track record in Boston of maximizing the potential of everyone around him. Horford gets guys the ball in the best position to attack or shoot and Tatum is getting some of the easiest looks of his life now.

“He’s very comfortable. He’s not making a bigger deal than it is,” Horford said. “He’s just going out there and playing basketball. He has a lot of confidence. He’ll continue to get better, and he’s been getting better since the first game of the season. I’m looking forward to what’s ahead with him.”

What’s ahead of him is another matchup against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks Monday. It’s the third matchup of the young season and Tatum has been able to hold his own against one of the league’s great unicorn players. If Boston finds themselves in another crunch time scenario, this will be one of Tatum’s greatest challenges yet to continue to come through.



bob




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Tatum has seen his minutes drop. In October he was playing 33 MPG, in November, 29.3 MPG and his first game in December he logged 27 MPG.

From what I have seen this year Tatum should be the 2nd or 3rd option on offense behind Kyrie and Al Horford. He is exceptional. Brad needs to play him big minutes because he is at the very least the 3rd best offensive player on the team.

dboss