I agree that if they miss the Finals healthy, that reflects very poorly on Tatum.
On the other hand, he's made the Finals un-healthy and barely missed the Finals un-healthy in the last 2 years. And instead of giving him credit for that, people are acting like one-dimensional players like Luka, who have achieved far, far, far less in their careers are obviously better because of Pointz.
It's the same thing with SGA: it's like even though he is the same age as Tatum, because he's had massively less success in his career, he's somehow younger or more promising. Also Pointz.
People are mostly reacting against that. I'm pretty clear that I think Jokic is a much better player, and I think healthy Kawhi and Steph are probably better as well. This is more about younger guys who (imo) are worse players getting credit for Pointz and less prior success.
I’m not arguing about Luka. I’ve made my feelings clear about Luka. I was the first on the corner of Luka making his teammates worse on this board.
The 2-3 players above Tatum are SGA-Giannis and Jokic. The SGA thing isn’t that complicated and, as a very smart poster, I am surprised it’s not clear to you. He’s the undisputed leader of a young team that’s over performing. He’s having a fantastic season as well. It’s not mouth breathers looking at the points column. There are many reasons to think that SGA is better than Tatum this year
I don’t like Giannis personally. I think watching him is like watching a bull in a china shop who gets all of the calls. But, he’s a fucking great player. He’s a better bet to get a bucket than Tatum. He’s a better defender than Tatum. He’s a much worse shooter but overall, I think he’s better than Tatum by a little bit.
Jokic isn’t even a discussion.
This is just agree to disagree territory. You and
@RorschachsMask are smart posters but none of what you say or one game stats you cite are going to change my mind. I watched that Knicks game and there’s literally 0% chance either of you are going to tell me that Tatum was actually the best player on the floor and enabled everyone else by going 7-15, 2-8 from 3, with the most turnovers on the team by a mile (4 to 1).
And to get on my own soapbox here, Tatum has always been the infallible son of the Celtics since he was drafted. (I have no interest in arguing this either). I am a Duke fan and I’ve thought it’s been over the top since Day 1.
After the Warrior finals, The National media turned on Tatu, and to be clear this turning was no worse or different than what they do to anyone else. But Celtics fans took it personal and that increased the Tatum worship. I mean dig up the posts during that finals and after. The amount of excuses for Tatum was fucking wild. If you just read certain posters on here you would think Tatum had to get limbs amputated after that series. Or that he was Willis Reed during the games, so hurt he should clearly not be playing. People aren’t reacting to POINTZ or anything that you can pin down like that. They’re reacting to their teams favorite player getting less respect than he should and conflating it with something easy to cite to not just admit that .
And, to be fair, the fact that the refs don’t give #0 the respect he deserves adds to it
EDIT: this isn’t scientific at all but it’s a good litmus test for me on my opinions. If I listen to Zach Lowe, et al and text with my friends and my reaction is “I don’t think they’re giving Tatum enough credit” while simultaneously reading this board and going “man…I think the Tatum love is pretty overboard” I feel pretty comfortable with my position
EDIT 2: the fact that he’s made it that far unhealthy speaks to the quality ofy the team not Tatum being incredibly good while injured