East Coach Rips Celtics’ Tatum: ‘I Don’t Think He Cares About Winning’

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East Coach Rips Celtics’ Tatum: ‘I Don’t Think He Cares About Winning’



By Adam Taylor
Updated Nov 24, 2021 at 5:13pm




Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.



The season has begun to turn around for Jayson Tatum following weeks of struggles. Yet, the Boston Celtics All-Star wing has come in for scrutiny from an anonymous Eastern Conference assistant coach.


In his latest piece for ESPN, Tim Bontemps dives into the Celtics’ recent struggles, their hemorrhaging of star talent over the last few seasons, and where the team can go next. When reading through Bontemps’s piece, it’s clear he’s consulted with sources from around the league, but shockingly, their opinions on both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are damming.


As two young All-Stars in the NBA, you would think that Tatum and Brown’s stock was on an ever-rising trajectory. However, it would see there are particular members of rival organizations that haven’t been impressed with either of the Celtics star players’ current growth.


One Eastern Conference assistant coach told Bontemps, “Jayson Tatum is about Jayson Tatum, I don’t think he cares about winning now, and if he does, it is on his terms,” a sentiment that has a striking resemblance to comments we’ve heard about another elite scorer in the past: Carmelo Anthony. “He doesn’t want to score 15 and win. He wants to score 39 and win,” the anonymous coach continued.


As a counter to what the anonymous coach told Bontemps, Tatum has only scored less than 20 points twice this season, with the Celtics winning both games, per Basketball-Reference.


Western Conference Scout Questions Brown & Tatum’s Development

There are quotes from numerous sources littered throughout Bontemp’s latest piece, most of which revolve around Brown and Tatum’s growth and required improvements.

A common theme for both of the Celtics’ wings is that they need to continue developing their playmaking ability. Many see that as a potential key to future success as a duo, rather than as part of a big three.

However, one Western Conference scout doesn’t believe that Tatum and Brown have shown enough development to bank on them becoming high-level playmakers any time soon. “If they can’t get that third guy, they have to make other players better, and they haven’t shown the ability to do that yet,” Bontemps wrote.

We’re now a quarter of the NBA season deep, and according to Cleaning The Glass, Tatum’s assist-to-usage ratio has taken quite the tumble. Last season, Tatum assisted on 19.6% of the Celtics made shots while he was on the floor. This year he’s assisting on 16.8%, which may not sound like a significant drop, but it’s seen the two-time All-Star slide from the 54th percentile to the 37th percentile.

Brown hasn’t faired much better, sitting in the 15th percentile for assist-to-usage ratio, 24 spots lower than last year. In fairness, Brown has missed considerable time to start the season, but with both he and Tatum posting lower assist numbers than last season, there is a slight cause for concern.


Boston Needs a Third Star

It’s a common consensus that to win an NBA championship, and you need a big three. Three stars, all residing around the NBA’s top 25-30 players, whose games mesh well with each other. Many thought the Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford era of the Celtics would be their new trio to compete for a championship, but lady luck had different ideas.

Now, the Celtics are relying on a young, skilled duo of wings to lead them to the promised land, maybe not right now, but in the not too distant future. It wasn’t long ago that the league began trending towards duos, either.

We had the Los Angeles Lakers with LeBron James, the LA Clippers with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Brooklyn Nets with Irving and Kevin Durant – the list goes on.

Yet, some of those teams got impatient; James Harden found himself heading to Brooklyn, Jrue Holiday headed to Milwaukee. But the Celtics found themselves losing talent rather than adding to it, and with an ever-dwindling asset pile, now find themselves stuck in purgatory.

As such, Tatum and Brown will need to elevate their games to another level, while the role players around them will also need to improve, if only to increase their potential trade value in the future.

One thing’s for sure, though; the Celtics route back to contender status isn’t as clear cut as it was just three or four years ago, but they’re still in pretty good shape, with plenty of high-potential assets that could still help bring that elusive third star into the TD Garden.


Bob


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Yawn

The same old develop #3 internally or trade for #3 argument. We'll figure it out ourselves, thank you!!

db

This article is basically a rehash of the Bontemps article I posted the other day. While it's tempting to be persuaded by the comments of an assistant coach or a scout, I am going to trust my own eyes on this issue. I seriously doubt any assistant coach or scout has spent as much time watching the Celtics and devouring Celtics info as some of the folks here. If they did focus that much on two players from a franchise that's doesn't employ them, it would be a dereliction of duty. While there is undoubtedly a little truth to this analysis, I suspect it is way over blown and comes from people repeating previously published erroneous reports. It is not at all unusual for players who are 24 or 25 , and who have largely been scorers, to need to learn how to make plays and make their teammates better. In fact, I'd say it's totally normal. That being said, this article won't be the last to rehash Bontemps claims, and as with all information on the internet, accuracy is not measured in truth but rather in how often something gets said. Brace yourselves...

“accuracy is not measured in truth but rather in how often something gets said”

Shamrock,

I plan on quoting you often.

This statement should be a required label on all media sources the same way the Surgeon General’s statement is mandatory on cigarette packages.

Regards

NYCelt wrote:“accuracy is not measured in truth but rather in how often something gets said”

Shamrock,

I plan on quoting you often.

This statement should be a required label on all media sources the same way the Surgeon General’s statement is mandatory on cigarette packages.

Regards

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - often attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda .  What blows my mind is that was his official title, "Reich Minister of Propaganda", for 12 years and nobody caught on.


Bob



.

bobheckler wrote:

NYCelt wrote:“accuracy is not measured in truth but rather in how often something gets said”

Shamrock,

I plan on quoting you often.

This statement should be a required label on all media sources the same way the Surgeon General’s statement is mandatory on cigarette packages.

Regards

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - often attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda .  What blows my mind is that was his official title, "Reich Minister of Propaganda", for 12 years and nobody caught on.


Bob



.

Berlin was part of the last excursion? It was frightening to immerse oneself into what happened there and how.

Rehash or no. I’m beginning to really zero in on both those J’s.
This formula has not worked up until now. Maybe tomorrow this will change but I’m beginning to have doubt.
End of Spurs game. Where’s our stars? I know one was standing in the corner wide open-again. Guess who.
This team does not appear good enough to overcome mediocrity.
Prudence dictates Big moves needs to be made in prep for future forward.

Tatum has a game like his idol Kobe, who was a monster iso player that lived to carry his team by himself. Kobe could miss 4 3’s in a row, then get hot and hit a few big ones. What made Kobe was he out worked everyone and had Shaq and later Gasol/Bynum in the post as high efficiency scorers to cover for his cold stretches; we don’t have that or lockdown 3 point shooters to compliment Tatum thru his cold stretches. Al’s 3 point shooting has been off all year, Schroder is inconsistent and Smart is usually terrible from 3.

All this talk of whether he cares is BS, some nights he has it going and looks great, some nights he’s off and very off, if the other guys are also off, then we got a problem. Would be great if PP could earn some minutes and become some version of Patty Mills, but right now Tatum is what he is and best player always gets blamed if the team is not winning.

I am sure he "cares". There is no doubt there. I just do not know if he will ever be the "leader" the press is expecting. There is a ton of pressure on this kid, he needs to find a way of putting the chatter in a tunnel and block it away. He is a talented kid, I do believe that. I wish he would just learn to trust his teammates every game, not just now and then.

Last night was disappointing. They had the lead, all they needed to do was play smart basketball, drive to the basket more, and lay off the three pointers. They set San Antonio up for the win. It was one and done all night.

I will follow my own advice, put this loss in a tunnel and lock it away. They play like this against Toronto and they will get killed. So here is hoping for a better game from everyone, not just Jason, last I remembered this is a TEAM game.

Hopefully on their way to Toronto they can pick up Josh and he will be ready to play.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:I am sure he "cares". There is no doubt there. I just do not know if he will ever be the "leader" the press is expecting.  There is a ton of pressure on this kid, he needs to find a way of putting the chatter in a tunnel and block it away. He is a talented kid, I do believe that.  I wish he would just learn to trust his teammates every game, not just now and then.  

Last night was disappointing.  They had the lead, all they needed to do was play smart basketball, drive to the basket more, and lay off the three pointers.  They set San Antonio up for the win. It was one and done all night.  

I will follow my own advice, put this loss in a tunnel and lock it away.  They play like this against Toronto and they will get killed.  So here is hoping for a better game from everyone, not just Jason, last I remembered this is a TEAM game.

Hopefully on their way to Toronto they can pick up Josh and he will be ready to play.  

We need RWill a lot more than Josh

I totally agree with you there, it is kind of scary what effect he has on this team. One major injury and we are totally out of it. I only mentioned Richardson because it seems interesting the effect he sometimes has when he is in there. Just a "pieece" that I conserder necessary in the development of this team

Really, it was just a quip to go along with Gyso's report on the missing Richardson that BobC elaborated on!

Again it falls on the medical and training staff, they can’t keep this team healthy, the guys have the work ethic. Something is being done wrong.