Tatum's Pace

Just a quick off-the-cuff comparison between Jayson Tatum, at his career-to-date, and other Celtic front court greats.



Player......................................................Total Minutes.........Total Points.....................Total Rebounds
Jayson Tatum (through 2 1/3 years)............5953.....................3016.............................1095
Paul Pierce (through 3 full years)................7335......................4289............................1227
Larry Bird (through 3 full years).................9117......................5247.............................2584
Reggie Lewis (through 3 full years).............5584......................3055.............................506
Antoine Walker (through 3 full years)..........7787......................4059.............................1936

If we take Tatum's year-to-date numbers and extrapolate them out to 80 games they look like this through 3 full years:

..............................................................7629......................4059.............................1439

More minutes than anybody except Bird and Walker, tied with Walker for 3rd in points scored behind Pierce and Bird (Reggie didn't play much his rookie year), and 3rd in rebounding.

Just imagine if he wasn't shooting a horrible 42.4% this year and 36.6% from 3.  His career numbers, including this inefficient year-to-date, are 45% and 39%.  Imagine if he was shooting those percentages with the greater fgas he's taking this year.

Caveats and Disclaimers:  It's not really fair to compare anybody to Bird, but he is the gold standard so I couldn't see excluding him, but we shouldn't look down at Tatum for being behind him because, well, he's Larry Legend.  I included 'Toine because he was prolific and put up big numbers, not because I would necessarily consider him a "Celtic great".  Reggie matured later in his career, he didn't become an All-Star until he was 27 years old and had been in the league for 6 years.  Tatum is going on 22 and will be an All-Star this year or next at the latest if they only can see 2 Celtics on the team this year and they give it to Jaylen.


bob



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Yes Larry Bird should not be included unless he is to be included in every Celtic comparison.  
Pierce and Walker were both one man shows not successful until later when Pierce was top dog.    Reggie got the luxury of playing with a team of players that could have been as good as any on sharing the ball which made it a little easier for him.  He would have been a big time player though.
  
Earlier in the year I said Tatum would improve his shots at the rim and his shooting precentages  would go up.  Well its happening and will only get better. He has just started using his left hand.  JT's stats has risen each month with the exception of a torrid 4 games in october from the 3 pt line.  Everything else is up to the numbers you posted on the "just Imagine quote"   he was shooting 45 and 39. (roughly)   That was Decembers numbers.   Get ready he has a couple more huge jumps before he starts refining other aspects of his games. 

One other note is he generally flourishes with Walker and Brown off the court.

Another Caveat - Tatum's 1st few years have been on good teams with high expectations where veteran stars were supposed to be the main men. Not so for all the others except for Lewis. If JT were on a team where he was "the man", he would have gaudier numbers. While the Celtics were good Bird's first year, he was still the man, and they sucked the year before.