Jayson Tatum's Rise to the Top

radsoxfan

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Generally speaking, the larger role one takes on offensively you are going to lose some defensively from conserving energy. I can’t think of a big scorer who hasn’t picked spots throughout the course of the game. These breaks will increase with age too so to expect 30 ppg on one end and lock down on every regular season possession on the other isn’t a realistic expectation.

It doesn’t help that Tatum doesn’t yet have his defensive role player to best allow those breaks to be hidden.
I think the concern is not the fact he has slipped on D (understandable for the reasons you mention), but the degree to which he has slipped on D.

Advanced stats are not gospel, but we are beyond small sample size now with Tatum and his bad D. The slippage has been extremely dramatic, far more than you would expect for a young healthy player before his prime.

I think he has the tools to get closer to where he was, but Tatum's D is still a big concern until he shows otherwise.
 

Deathofthebambino

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It's too fucking soon to use advanced stats to rate a player. Four games is useless. Four games in October tell you nothing, good or bad.
What about the 64 games last year when Tatum had the same DRtg (yes, I know that stat has flaws too) as he has in the first 4 games this year?
 

Fishy1

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What about the 64 games last year when Tatum had the same DRtg (yes, I know that stat has flaws too) as he has in the first 4 games this year?
I don't think it's hard to answer that either. Besides the enormous load he had to carry on offense last year, the guy was sucking wind and taking an inhaler on the sideline. It shouldn't be a surprise that his defense slipped: DRTG is extremely hard to take out of the larger context of the team, and he had a groundbound TT behind him and Kemba floating on defense like he was in deep space.

This year, he's hopefully got a healthier roster, a better rim protector behind him, and better team defense with the additions of Horford, Richardson, Schroeder, and a slimmed down Grant Williams.
 

nighthob

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This is kinda my point on the expectations. You named LeBron, Kobe, Michael (who had Scottie) etc as examples. Those aren’t examples…..those are freakish generational one-offs. Are we really being critical of 23-yr old Jayson Tatum for not being a Top-10 two-way player of all time?

Edit: Re-read your post. I originally missed the part about you not expecting Tatum to be these guys. I’m confused as to the point of naming them in reference to him though. Anyway, I’m in Vegas I need to stay off this site this week lol.
Also, Kobe wasn’t a terribly good defensive player post-Shaq. He was living off rep at that point. The increased offensive responsibilities made him an above average defender at best to outright bad by the time of his last All-Defensive Team selection.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Took me 5 seconds. I was like, who does Miami have that we'd move Brown for? Brown+TL for Herro+Bam I guess.

But you were just making a Duncan Robinson joke.

edit: I did not see the start Herro was off too.
Yeah I got jokes…..fair warning: they aren’t always good.

There are a bunch of players who came out of the gate flat out ballin. Herro, Harrison Barnes, Morant, Bane, Reddish, Kuzma, my man Steven Adam’s, Melton, and Lonzo Ball is taking another leap. Chris Duarte out of the rookie gate quick too. Fun to watch!
 

Rustjive

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Tatum's D is.... BAD. What is going on? Last year was a weird year, COVID etc.

I thought he get beat a lot 1 on 1 during the Olympics too.

This year it's even worse. Too bulked up? Effort? Coaching?

D was supposed to be a strength and instead it's way below average. A lot of the excitement for defensive lineups this year had to do with building around an expected strength with Tatum and Brown on the wings. Unfortunately, they both are regressing as they shoulder more of the offensive load.

Tatum in particular has fallen off a cliff on D. Looks like the slope of a 36 year old with arthritic knees.
Slope is a little misleading here - certainly the slope at the end of last season's disaster accurately reflects the actual results, but you can see the opening 4 dots for this season's games. What we see there is that his D has settled in at around the same range as it was - -0.5, which doesn't put him way below average, but simply below average - 29th percentile if sorting uses significant digits that aren't displayed, or tied-35th percentile otherwise. And without context, this tracks - DARKO doesn't know that Tatum spent the Toronto game complaining about foul calls instead of getting back, of course his defense sucks.

Also, keep in mind here that if Tatum is bad, Jaylen is even worse.

Also, I personally don't pay attention to TPA at all.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Also, Kobe wasn’t a terribly good defensive player post-Shaq. He was living off rep at that point. The increased offensive responsibilities made him an above average defender at best to outright bad by the time of his last All-Defensive Team selection.
7 consecutive all-NBA defense (the first 6 as 1st team), after Shaq left, is one hell of a rep. I would grant you that his 11/12 2nd team was probably based on rep at that point (although, if Tatum was playing with a bunch of old guys, and a young Bynum, I fear what his defense would look like at 33 years old), but Kobe was an elite defender for years after Shaq was gone, IMO. And FTR, I fucking hated Kobe.
 

nighthob

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He had been mediocre to bad for years at that point. He could give you good possessions, but he wasn’t close to a good defender.
 

slamminsammya

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7 consecutive all-NBA defense (the first 6 as 1st team), after Shaq left, is one hell of a rep. I would grant you that his 11/12 2nd team was probably based on rep at that point (although, if Tatum was playing with a bunch of old guys, and a young Bynum, I fear what his defense would look like at 33 years old), but Kobe was an elite defender for years after Shaq was gone, IMO. And FTR, I fucking hated Kobe.
I am with Nighthob on this one. Kobe turned into a lazy defender who gambled way too often but as a result got lots of flashy steals leading to transition that looked good on SportsCenter.
 

Deathofthebambino

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He had been mediocre to bad for years at that point. He could give you good possessions, but he wasn’t close to a good defender.
Kobe was a mediocre to bad defender starting at age 26?

If you and SlamminSammya say so, I guess. Somehow, the team went 5th, 6th, 4th and 6th in defensive team rating over 4 straight years from 07/08-10/11, with Kobe typically guarding the best players on the opposing teams. God, I really hope we aren't at Peak Tatum defensively already. He's only got a couple good defensive years left if he plays like Kobe.
 

nighthob

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He actually was. LA put the entire offensive load on him after they broke up the ‘04 squad. And from that point forward he began conserving energy on the defensive end. His D revived a little after the Pau Gasol trade as he no longer had to carry the entire load, but due to age curve and his knees it didn’t really get far past above average. And it didn’t stay there. That last All-D selection rates right up there with Cap’n Jete’s Gold Gloves for sports comedy.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Where are people even getting Tatums DRtg? Basketball reference?

NBA.com has Tatums DRtg this year thru 4 games at 104.6. Last year, 111.8. The 3 years before that, 103.5, 105.1 and 100.8.

Thru 4 games, he has shown a bounce back!

BBRef has him at 112, 112, 106, 107, 103, from this year to rookie season, descending order.

Also, bbrefs DRtg sucks. It overrates Cs. Or it used to, anyway. Maybe they've changed the formula. It looks closer to NBA.com's now.
 

RorschachsMask

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What about the 64 games last year when Tatum had the same DRtg (yes, I know that stat has flaws too) as he has in the first 4 games this year?
I think the concern is not the fact he has slipped on D (understandable for the reasons you mention), but the degree to which he has slipped on D.

Advanced stats are not gospel, but we are beyond small sample size now with Tatum and his bad D. The slippage has been extremely dramatic, far more than you would expect for a young healthy player before his prime.
Advanced defensive stats were split on him last season. Some had him still very good on that end, some middle of the road, and some poor. Jaylen also graded out poorly almost across the board with advanced defensive, but they just aren’t very reliable.

So for now, the 4 game sample means pretty much nothing, IMO.E06BA925-9F6A-4760-B6A6-D26444555C18.png
 
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radsoxfan

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It's too fucking soon to use advanced stats to rate a player. Four games is useless. Four games in October tell you nothing, good or bad.
The 2021 TPA is sort of interesting but I agree way too small. The DARKO stuff is career. The last 4 games have very little to do with it.

I agree with others the slope on these can be a bit misleading as a sort of "smoothed best-fit" model. But the facts are that Tatum's D has not been very good for awhile.

Offensive load, COVID, coaching, effort, who knows. Maybe combo of it all. But we can call a spade a spade. It would be nice if his D became an asset again.
 

slamminsammya

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The 2021 TPA is sort of interesting but I agree way too small. The DARKO stuff is career. The last 4 games have very little to do with it.

I agree with others the slope on these can be a bit misleading as a sort of "smoothed best-fit" model. But the facts are that Tatum's D has not been very good for awhile.

Offensive load, COVID, coaching, effort, who knows. Maybe combo of it all. But we can call a spade a spade. It would be nice if his D became an asset again.
These models all kind of assume that player talent is additive. I think that is probably close enough to true on offense. I don't think it is true at all on defense. The upshot of that is even the advanced models are going to have a hard time spotting guys who are good but playing in a poor team defense.
 

Jimbodandy

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What about the 64 games last year when Tatum had the same DRtg (yes, I know that stat has flaws too) as he has in the first 4 games this year?
Basically the whole team had shit defensive ratings last year. If you can unpack how much of that was regression on Tatum's part, you're a better man than I. It is possible that a bunch of guys lost the interest in defense, and I wouldn't argue with you after tonight's game especially.

Yes, last year is fair game, but I personally have a hard time separating which guys are being dragged down by teammates and which aren't. Open mind here though. Point remains that 5 games of advanced stats are functionally useless, whatever they say.
 

bakahump

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I know very little about Basketball except I (usually) enjoy watching Celtic Games.

But.....Tatum gets no respect from the Refs. Now I am not saying this is necessarily the refs fault. What I am saying is that this becomes a vicious cycle of Tatum Driving (which we all like) him getting "as fouled as other star players" and not getting the call. This leads to throwing up his hands which seemingly piss off the refs more. (and not getting back on defense by tatum).

So either Tatum ISNT getting fouled as much as other (star) players. Which is possible but seems wrong to me.
Or the Refs dont "respect" Tatum and thus dont "give him" those calls.....which causes Tatum to sulk and take bad shots (which shows his immaturity and has me VERY worried he is still this immature).

Not sure what to do about this or if this is even a reasonable take.
Please discuss.
 

Deathofthebambino

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I know very little about Basketball except I (usually) enjoy watching Celtic Games.

But.....Tatum gets no respect from the Refs. Now I am not saying this is necessarily the refs fault. What I am saying is that this becomes a vicious cycle of Tatum Driving (which we all like) him getting "as fouled as other star players" and not getting the call. This leads to throwing up his hands which seemingly piss off the refs more. (and not getting back on defense by tatum).

So either Tatum ISNT getting fouled as much as other (star) players. Which is possible but seems wrong to me.
Or the Refs dont "respect" Tatum and thus dont "give him" those calls.....which causes Tatum to sulk and take bad shots (which shows his immaturity and has me VERY worried he is still this immature).

Not sure what to do about this or if this is even a reasonable take.
Please discuss.
I think it's more than reasonable, and I was pointing this out 2 years ago in game threads. We all want Tatum and Brown to go to the hoop more, but they don't and never got the calls that other stars get. Particularly in Tatum's case, when he's not getting calls, besides the sulking, he alters his shots to avoid contact, resulting in misses. I have no idea how to correct this.

In the last 4 years, the C's have gone 20th, 29th, 18th, 25th in FTA/game. They simply don't go to the line, even when they are taking the ball to the hoop aggressively, like a ton of other teams with stars like Tatum.
 

RorschachsMask

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Tatum shot 74% at the rim last season, was one of the best finishers in the league. Through 5 games, he’s at 44% at the rim. It always takes awhile for him to get into a rhythm finishing in the paint, and then usually the drawing fouls come soon after. It seems like once he starts finishing, he gets more confident in being able to go through defenders and draw fouls.

Need that to be the case soon, because damn he’s really struggling both at the rim and from three.
 

Eddie Jurak

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I know very little about Basketball except I (usually) enjoy watching Celtic Games.

But.....Tatum gets no respect from the Refs. Now I am not saying this is necessarily the refs fault. What I am saying is that this becomes a vicious cycle of Tatum Driving (which we all like) him getting "as fouled as other star players" and not getting the call. This leads to throwing up his hands which seemingly piss off the refs more. (and not getting back on defense by tatum).
20 years ago we were having this conversation about Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce.
 

Euclis20

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Honestly, I think Tatum mostly gets the calls he earns. He's got the same issue as Kyrie - more often than not he's looked to avoid contact when getting to the rim. That's not necessarily a problem, it may end up with him getting a higher percentage shot, but it cuts down on the free throw rate. He certainly complains as much as anyone.
 

Kliq

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Tatum is just a little soft. I don't want that to sound like a big criticism because I think he still needs to grow into the mentality necessary to be an alpha in the NBA that wins championships; but he has some hesitancy that causes him to underachieve. At the rim I think that comes into play when he suddenly struggles to get to the line; too much avoidance instead of seeking out the contact.

Even something like the end of regulation in the Charlotte game was an issue. Smart threw a careless pass, but part of the problem was that Tatum just couldn't get into a position to catch the in-bound pass. He has LaMelo on him and Tatum just needed to use his wide shoulders to establish position and catch the ball, but instead he ran around away from the ball and tried to cut back towards Smart as the 5 second clock was ticking. If you look at like, LeBron, Giannis, Durant or Kawhi, those guys are just getting that basketball without any drama or hesitancy.
 

bakahump

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@Cesar Crespo @RorschachsMask

Seems like the closer we get to the Playoffs (and into the playoffs) the Refs feel less "entitled" to revoke his star treatment. They dont want to be on ESPN replays where Tatum gets fouled but doesnt get the call and throws up his hands.
Early in the season they treat him like the whiney baby he can often act like.

My perhaps outlandish statement above seems to match Both your observations.

Many stars are whiney babies. And again I am not saying that the refs are completely the reason for Tatums current issues.

I guess what i am suggesting is that Tatums immaturity leads to less preferential treatment from the refs which leads to more immaturity which leads to less preferential treatment which leads to......

And so in the end this is on Tatum for still seemingly being so immature. I know he is still 23 and maybe this is par for the course.
 

RorschachsMask

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He needs to stop whining so much, refs know his deal and dislike it. He has been getting a crappy whistle, but so has almost everyone. You have Nash and harden crying to the media about it, but it is what it is.

He’s 23 almost this entire season, he’s years away from even hitting his prime. Being patient sucks, but we have to be, as there will be growing pains. It’s been the same for almost every superstar, outside of the absolute best of the best.
 

benhogan

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Still leaping.

With eight assists to go along with his 41 points, Tatum created 62 total points, the fourth-highest total in his career. Incredibly, all of those instances have happened in his past 30 games, dating to the 53 points he dropped on Minnesota in April.

He'll easily be a top 10 NBA player by the playoffs...

and a top 3 NBA player by next seasons playoffs
while early, THIS ISN'T AGING WELL AT ALL o_O

Feel free to let me have it

BUT just note it's 18mths before he gets to Top 3 stardom IMO. Not this season, not the All-Star break, not this summer or the start of next season. 2023 Playoffs

He obviously needs the time because right now he is slumping badly
 

HomeRunBaker

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while early, THIS ISN'T AGING WELL AT ALL o_O

Feel free to let me have it

BUT just note it's 18mths before he gets to Top 3 stardom IMO. Not this season, not the All-Star break, not this summer or the start of next season. 2023 Playoffs

He obviously needs the time because right now he is slumping badly
Potential combination of causes:

* Fatigue from not having an offseason
* Not having a PG which is forcing him into many iso’s
* Frustration with not having a PG affecting his approach
* On different page, along with team, on Ime’s offense
* Easing into season like he eases into many games (lack of urgency)

What else?

Edit: Lillard is also struggling badly while Doncic’s shooting has also been way off. I haven’t paid attention to how others in the Olympics have fared early but this appears to be one of the primary factors.

Edit2: Booker and Middleton also shooting very poorly to start the year. Ok there is no doubt a correlation here.
 
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benhogan

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Potential combination of causes:

* Fatigue from not having an offseason
* Not having a PG which is forcing him into many iso’s
* Frustration with not having a PG affecting his approach
* On different page, along with team, on Ime’s offense
* Easing into season like he eases into many games (lack of urgency)

What else?

Edit: Lillard is also struggling badly while Doncic’s shooting has also been way off. I haven’t paid attention to how others in the Olympics have fared early but this appears to be one of the primary factors.

Edit2: Booker and Middleton also shooting very poorly to start the year. Ok there is no doubt a correlation here.
That's a good start to the list of excuses

Team Hanlen better be working on fixing this quick.

I figured the crowd would be salty and ready to vent.
 

Cesar Crespo

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I see Kobe mentioned a lot but during most of his career he was around a 25% assist rate. A better passer than given credit for.
 

Jimbodandy

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That's a good start to the list of excuses

Team Hanlen better be working on fixing this quick.

I figured the crowd would be salty and ready to vent.
He's too good not to right the ship. I'd take it as a sign of the forum's intelligence that nobody is trying to jam a bad start down your throat.

There's likely a similar 8-10 game stretch in his history somewhere.
 

shoelace

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He's too good not to right the ship. I'd take it as a sign of the forum's intelligence that nobody is trying to jam a bad start down your throat.

There's likely a similar 8-10 game stretch in his history somewhere.
Going back pre-COVID, it looks like in 2019-2020 he averaged 19.5 PPG on .403/.269/.836 from 11/5/19 to 11/27/19 (a 12 game stretch). In the remaining 49 games that season, he shot .419 from three and obviously he was an All-Star. Hopefully he drops 40 tonight and breaks out of this slump a bit sooner.
 

JCizzle

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If I'm reading the splits correctly, Tatum has his lowest TS% against the Wizards out of any opponent over his career. Only a 13 game sample, but maybe there's something to the rumors that T&R mentioned yesterday about Tatum spending too much time partying with Beal before their games.
 

Cesar Crespo

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If I'm reading the splits correctly, Tatum has his lowest TS% against the Wizards out of any opponent over his career. Only a 13 game sample, but maybe there's something to the rumors that T&R mentioned yesterday about Tatum spending too much time partying with Beal before their games.
So what is Beal's TS% against Boston? One would think he'd suffer the same ill effects. Or maybe he's just super resilient.

edit: Beal's at .559 vs Boston. Some of that was without Tatum around though. His career TS% is .562.

Tatum has also been dreadful vs Dallas, with a TS% of .488. He kills the lakers, .652. NO .668, and Portland, .679.

I always thought Tatum had a rivalry going with Ingram, so that explains NO. The Lakers are explained by Boston. I wonder about Portland. All of it is probably just noise.
 
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Jimbodandy

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So what is Beal's TS% against Boston? One would think he'd suffer the same ill effects. Or maybe he's just super resilient.

edit: Beal's at .559 vs Boston. Some of that was without Tatum around though. His career TS% is .562.

Tatum has also been dreadful vs Dallas, with a TS% of .488. He kills the lakers, .652. NO .668, and Portland, .679.

I always thought Tatum had a rivalry going with Ingram, so that explains NO. The Lakers are explained by Boston. I wonder about Portland. All of it is probably just noise.
It is noise. The sample sizes are absurdly small.

I've seen two different talk radio shows cited on SoSH today, and I've only been in a half dozen threads. Depressing.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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It is noise. The sample sizes are absurdly small.

I've seen two different talk radio shows cited on SoSH today, and I've only been in a half dozen threads. Depressing.
Seven games is an absurdly small sample to draw conclusions about anything. Yet here we are. There are people firing a head coach and blowing up the roster. This isn't to say that those notions are incorrect but as painful as its been, we simply haven't seen enough to draw conclusions.

Back to Jayson Tatum, he is not yet 24 years old but his skills are undeniable. But he is also not yet 24 and he has flaws to both his game as well as his character. Unfortunately we are likely in for a lot more noise as he further develops and matures. Even guys like James and Curry weren't close to finished products, playing-wise or in terms of maturity in their 23-24 year old seasons.
 

HomeRunBaker

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So what is Beal's TS% against Boston? One would think he'd suffer the same ill effects. Or maybe he's just super resilient.

edit: Beal's at .559 vs Boston. Some of that was without Tatum around though. His career TS% is .562.

Tatum has also been dreadful vs Dallas, with a TS% of .488. He kills the lakers, .652. NO .668, and Portland, .679.

I always thought Tatum had a rivalry going with Ingram, so that explains NO. The Lakers are explained by Boston. I wonder about Portland. All of it is probably just noise.
Dude has to stop hanging out with Porzingis.
 

lovegtm

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I think the concern is not the fact he has slipped on D (understandable for the reasons you mention), but the degree to which he has slipped on D.

Advanced stats are not gospel, but we are beyond small sample size now with Tatum and his bad D. The slippage has been extremely dramatic, far more than you would expect for a young healthy player before his prime.

I think he has the tools to get closer to where he was, but Tatum's D is still a big concern until he shows otherwise.
It shows up on the eye test too, and has for awhile. I remember making defensive clips of him in 2019-2020: he was almost perfect most of the time in both positioning and effort. That's become way more inconsistent now.
 
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benhogan

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It shows up on the eye test too, and has for awhile. I remember making defensive clips of him in 2019-2020: he was almost perfect most of the time in both positioning and effort. That's become way more inconsistent now.
Tatum rarely jumps passing lanes as he did back then and almost never goes over screens to defend the 3. His rebounding/shot blocking, due to the increased strength, has improved. His half-court off-ball defensive effort has been weak and his transition defense is just plain bad (esp when he waves his arms at the ref).

IME's new voice should correct these flaws, or why is he here?

Jaylen is just a below-average help-side/off-ball defender, but JBs effort seems pretty consistant
 
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Fishy1

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Tatum rarely jumps passing lanes as he did back then and almost never goes over screens to defend the 3. His rebounding/shot blocking, due to the increased strength, has improved

BUT his half-court off-ball defensive effort has been weak and his transition defense is just plain bad (esp when he waves his arms at the ref).

IME's new voice should correct these flaws, or why is he here?

Jaylen is just a below-average help-side/off-ball defender, but JBs effort seems pretty consistant
Jaylen's effort has seemed inconsistent, at least to me. A lot of times when he doesn't even bother to get into a stance and just seems to let guards who are less athletic than him blow by him.

I don't think that was the case last night when they were playing well, though. Both Jaylen and Jayson were active with their hands and doing a good job of denying passing lanes and getting up on their defenders. Tatum ended up with two blocks and a steal, and Brown added a steal as well. In fact everyone in the starting lineup had a steal.

If they play defense like they did last night and Tatum recovers his shot, they'll be in very good shape.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Tatum rarely jumps passing lanes as he did back then and almost never goes over screens to defend the 3. His rebounding/shot blocking, due to the increased strength, has improved

BUT his half-court off-ball defensive effort has been weak and his transition defense is just plain bad (esp when he waves his arms at the ref).

IME's new voice should correct these flaws, or why is he here?

Jaylen is just a below-average help-side/off-ball defender, but JBs effort seems pretty consistant
Makes one wonder if the added muscle mass had some negative impacts on his game. Maybe he lost some flexibility in his arms or a 1/8 step side stepping.
 

benhogan

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Makes one wonder if the added muscle mass had some negative impacts on his game. Maybe he lost some flexibility in his arms or a 1/8 step side stepping.
Maybe? but I definitely think his bad offense/missed shots this season has carried over to his defensive effort + antics with the refs.

Tatum's added bulk/offseason work on drawing fouls by playing through contact isn't paying dividends since the NBA game is being called/ref'd differently now (see Harden/Trea FTA)

I think the unintended consequence of letting defenders put hands-on drivers and drivers not being able to draw fouls as much will lead to MORE 3PT SHOOTING. If people thought the NBA was a 3pt contest before they haven't seen anything yet. The 3pt shot will be much more valuable with FTs down and driving the basketball through traffic being a less efficient strategy
 
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RorschachsMask

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It’s a ton of guys struggling with their shot so far. Here are the splits for the following players

Dame 34/23
Booker 41/28
Middleton 42/26
Trae 41/28
Luka 42/25
Tatum 38/26
Embiid 41/30

Obviously super SSS and will
correct for all these guys, but that’s crazy so far.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Apr 12, 2005
41,946
It’s a ton of guys struggling with their shot so far. Here are the splits for the following players

Dame 34/23
Booker 41/28
Middleton 42/26
Trae 41/28
Luka 42/25
Tatum 38/26
Embiid 41/30

Obviously super SSS and will
correct for all these guys, but that’s crazy so far.
Definitely not worried about Middleton. He'll go 50/50 from the field in the games against the Celtics, which will get him back to normal.
 

reggiecleveland

sublime
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Mar 5, 2004
27,957
Saskatoon Canada
Tatum is just a little soft. I don't want that to sound like a big criticism because I think he still needs to grow into the mentality necessary to be an alpha in the NBA that wins championships; but he has some hesitancy that causes him to underachieve. At the rim I think that comes into play when he suddenly struggles to get to the line; too much avoidance instead of seeking out the contact.

Even something like the end of regulation in the Charlotte game was an issue. Smart threw a careless pass, but part of the problem was that Tatum just couldn't get into a position to catch the in-bound pass. He has LaMelo on him and Tatum just needed to use his wide shoulders to establish position and catch the ball, but instead he ran around away from the ball and tried to cut back towards Smart as the 5 second clock was ticking. If you look at like, LeBron, Giannis, Durant or Kawhi, those guys are just getting that basketball without any drama or hesitancy.
Two thumbs up on this analysis.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,375
Of all the concerns I have with Tatum, it's his offense that's most problematic for me.

2020-21: 20.6 fga, .459 fg, .386 3ptfg, .530 efg
2021-22: 23.5 fga, .383 fg, .262 3ptfg, .428 efg

So he's shooting WAY worse - even from the line (from .868 in 2020-21 down to .750 in 2021-22). But he's taking a lot more shots. Generally, that's a bad trend. The worse you shoot, the less you should be shooting. He's taken the most shots in the league so far, but is making them at a horrifically bad rate.

That tends to (a) lead to bad offense, and (b) piss the rest of your teammates off. They'll be happy to see him shoot as much as he wants if he's making them and they're winning. But not this crap.