Jayson Tatum Needs His Own Thread

lovegtm

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"Junior" is kind of an unfair category for Tatum, too, since he's only 21 (a ripe old 22 tomorrow), where some other guys on that list are as old as 26-27 (Damion Lee and Alfonzo McKinnie, e.g.)

Meanwhile: Dillon Brooks, woof!
21? Slander! As everyone knows, Tatum will forever be 19.
 

NomarsFool

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Some labels would be nice on that chart. I don't recognize the faces of every single player in the NBA.
 

Auger34

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i'm mostly wondering who the guy is in between Simmons and Tatum. I recognize Mitchell at lower-right, but that other guy who's positioned as a standout, whozat?
The guy right next to Mitchell is John Collins. Guy right next to Ben Simmons is Bam Adebayo
 

benhogan

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The guy right next to Mitchell is John Collins. Guy right next to Ben Simmons is Bam Adebayo
Collins is also stuck playing with a bunch of defensive gimps, he usually ranks in top 20 for rebs & block %.

If Atlanta ever pined hard for local favorite, Jaylen Brown, John Collins would get it done for me
 

lovegtm

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Stop saying that.
Yeah, Collins' standing reach is only 8'10.5". Jaylen's is 8'9. It's unclear whether Collins would even be a better option at center than Jaylen, never mind the other parts of the game. (Note that Atlanta threw in the towel wrt playing Collins at center when they traded assets for Capela.)

I'm all for trading Jaylen if the right move arises, but it's really really hard to find a match, especially given contract now that Tatum is going to get paid.
 
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DJnVa

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Yes, yes, yes. It's awesome when things mentioned in threads here are then talked about in articles.

The key ingredient for most great scorers is success near the rim, whether it’s from finishing a layup or drawing a foul. Tatum didn’t have it—until now. “We noticed that when guys like James Harden or Bradley Beal drive, they pick the ball up early, then swing it through to draw contact,” Hanlen said. “Jayson was trying to draw contact, then pick up the ball, which is why he lost the ball a lot.”
 

benhogan

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Stop saying that.
ha, I know heresy...They're both solid and improving. I wonder where Jaylen would show up on that graph?

Folks were tossing out names a few days back for players that match up with JB and I liked Collins (Atlanta has the cap).

BUT it's a deal that would never happen. Celts are keeping JB and Atlanta is in no rush to deal Collins.
Young talented wings are insanely valuable.
 
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lovegtm

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I want to skip to the part where the team has optimized around Tatum. There aren't many guys who demand consistent doubles behind the arc. Think of the level-up Milwaukee took when they just went all-in on tooling their scheme and personnel around Giannis' skillset.
 
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Cesar Crespo

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Not that huge a deal at all, but now Jayson Tatum is averaging 3.0 apg.

Wonder if he'll finish the year above 3. I'm guessing yes. He may also finish the year over .400 from 3 which is remarkable.
 

lovegtm

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Not that huge a deal at all, but now Jayson Tatum is averaging 3.0 apg.

Wonder if he'll finish the year above 3. I'm guessing yes. He may also finish the year over .400 from 3 which is remarkable.
He's basically the best shooter in the league on off-the-dribble 3s, on very high volume that could probably stand to go even higher.

There are only a couple guys in the league who have hit the cheat-code status of needing to be doubled 30 feet from the rim: off the top of my head, just Harden and Steph depending on the defender/scheme.

That kind of attention simplifies reads and opens up passes so much.
 

NomarsFool

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It's amazing how much more he is doing the off-the-dribble 3s now. I don't know how many of those specific ones he had last night, but it must have been at least 6. I can't recall him doing it really at all a few months ago. A few months ago he was driving to the basket all the time.
 

lovegtm

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It's amazing how much more he is doing the off-the-dribble 3s now. I don't know how many of those specific ones he had last night, but it must have been at least 6. I can't recall him doing it really at all a few months ago. A few months ago he was driving to the basket all the time.
He's actually at about 4.5/game for the season, one of the highest in the league (and at one of the best success rates). I agree that it feels like he's doing it more (and to be fair, I think that rate was closer to 3.5 before his recent tear).
 

Jed Zeppelin

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I want to skip to the part where the team has optimized around Tatum. There aren't many guys who demand consistent doubles behind the arc. Think of the level-up Milwaukee took when they just went all-in on tooling their scheme and personnel around Giannis' skillset.
If everyone is healthy it's not a major concern, but I wonder if Ainge would have put a higher premium on bringing in another shooter at the deadline if he knew teams were going to start trying to double Tatum constantly, creating optimal catch and shoot scenarios for everyone on the floor.

It's amazing seeing the difference in having the guy who is double be someone as tall/long as Tatum. When someone like Kemba can't split a double team, for example, it takes some extra effort to get that pass out and move the ball round, whereas Tatum can diagnose the floor immediately because of his size and make the right pass.
 

lovegtm

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If everyone is healthy it's not a major concern, but I wonder if Ainge would have put a higher premium on bringing in another shooter at the deadline if he knew teams were going to start trying to double Tatum constantly, creating optimal catch and shoot scenarios for everyone on the floor.

It's amazing seeing the difference in having the guy who is double be someone as tall/long as Tatum. When someone like Kemba can't split a double team, for example, it takes some extra effort to get that pass out and move the ball round, whereas Tatum can diagnose the floor immediately because of his size and make the right pass.
I give Ainge a pass for this year because a) the price for the only real upgrade (Bertans) was high and b) no one expected Tatum to do THIS during the season.

I’ll be pissed this summer if they don’t find a way to turn Hayward’s slot into more shooting and less playmaking (just because the latter is a premium skill that has less value to the Celtics imo—not because Hayward is bad.)
 

Cesar Crespo

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If everyone is healthy it's not a major concern, but I wonder if Ainge would have put a higher premium on bringing in another shooter at the deadline if he knew teams were going to start trying to double Tatum constantly, creating optimal catch and shoot scenarios for everyone on the floor.

It's amazing seeing the difference in having the guy who is double be someone as tall/long as Tatum. When someone like Kemba can't split a double team, for example, it takes some extra effort to get that pass out and move the ball round, whereas Tatum can diagnose the floor immediately because of his size and make the right pass.
Maybe but I don't think the other shooter would play much unless he could also play alongside Kemba. That's why I think going into the year hoping Edwards would fill the role was a bad idea. That and I didn't think Edwards was close to ready, but assuming he was, some of his value would have been limited. What good is having a 40% shooter come off the bench when you have to put Kemba on the bench in the process? For the most part, I think the Celtics are pretty much build with Tatum in mind. At least the top 5. I don't think the offense this year was build with Tatum being this far along tho.

In an ideal world, Jaylen would bet a better shot creator/playmaker and Smart would hit closer to 38-40% of his 3s but they're still really good fits. They'd also find the shooter you mentioned, one that can play alongside Kemba instead of replace Kemba.
 

Cesar Crespo

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I’ll be pissed this summer if they don’t find a way to turn Hayward’s slot into more shooting and less playmaking (just because the latter is a premium skill that has less value to the Celtics imo—not because Hayward is bad.)
Anyone in particular? What if they just extend Hayward?
 

lovegtm

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Anyone in particular? What if they just extend Hayward?
I'd have to look at who's out there (including via trade).

As for extending Hayward: depends on price. Obviously at a low enough price, he's an asset. At a higher one, he's really going to hamstring team-building, and so I'd rather let him go in an S&T at that point. Tatum's next deal is very likely to be about 5/200M (since he probably is All-NBA in 2020-21), so you really can't afford to give Hayward any deal that's not an asset, or you are quickly in luxury-tax hell.
 

TripleOT

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The Celtics, 11th in the league in 3pt% have five rotation players besides JT shooting 37.5% and up from three. The Bucks, 16 in the league in 3pt%, have three, although their three, Hill, Middleton, and Korver, shoot at insanely high percentage. They also have Illy and Wes Matthews over 37%.

The Cs already have enough three point shooting to make teams pay for high doubles on Tatum.
 

Cesar Crespo

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I'd have to look at who's out there (including via trade).

As for extending Hayward: depends on price. Obviously at a low enough price, he's an asset. At a higher one, he's really going to hamstring team-building, and so I'd rather let him go in an S&T at that point. Tatum's next deal is very likely to be about 5/200M (since he probably is All-NBA in 2020-21), so you really can't afford to give Hayward any deal that's not an asset, or you are quickly in luxury-tax hell.
I gave it a quick look and there really isn't anyone. You could get creative and go for like Otto Porter with Coby White attached. Eww. Kemba Walker really limits what the team can do because a lot of those "better shooter than Hayward" types are small PG/SG. At least the ones near Hayward's level.

Evan Fournier and Mo Bamba? Eww. Those are the trades I see.
 

Cesar Crespo

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The Celtics, 11th in the league in 3pt% have five rotation players besides JT shooting 37.5% and up from three. The Bucks, 16 in the league in 3pt%, have three, although their three, Hill, Middleton, and Korver, shoot at insanely high percentage. They also have Illy and Wes Matthews over 37%.

The Cs already have enough three point shooting to make teams pay for high doubles on Tatum.
They do but if they wanted to surround Tatum with 4 shooters, they couldn't. Unless you consider Smart, Semi or Wanamaker as legitimate threats, Even if you did, the lineup would be small. Of course, Tatum himself is a legitimate threat from 3 whereas Giannis is not.

They have enough but they could still use more.
 

lovegtm

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I gave it a quick look and there really isn't anyone. You could get creative and go for like Otto Porter with Coby White attached. Eww. Kemba Walker really limits what the team can do because a lot of those "better shooter than Hayward" types are small PG/SG. At least the ones near Hayward's level.

Evan Fournier and Mo Bamba? Eww. Those are the trades I see.
Yeah, so this is a whole other topic: it gets really hard to fit Kemba in properly to a team where Tatum is a superstar (he's not there yet, but the team has to plan for it at this point imo, both on-court and financially).

Leaving aside Kemba for the moment, guys like Porter (not sure about his health) and Fournier are the exact kinds of downgrades I'd look to make from Hayward, where you either save salary or get on a shorter contract and pick up assets, while maintaining your shooting. I'll have to look more, but there are more of these guys than you'd think. I'm not sure exactly where the "ewww" factor comes in--they're talent downgrades, but they're also very good shooters who can make other basic plays as well.

The problem, of course, is that you can't leave Kemba out of it, and I also think he has real value against teams like the Bucks who they're going to have to put a ton of offensive pressure on. Still not sure what to do there.

Honestly, I'm thinking outloud here: Tatum's rise has been sudden, and is putting a lot of team-building things into flux. The path before his leap was "have 4 good perimeter players and try to catch 2011 Mavs/2004 Pistons lightning in a bottle." Now there's a more proven path they can follow: surround your stud with a roster built specifically for him.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Yeah, so this is a whole other topic: it gets really hard to fit Kemba in properly to a team where Tatum is a superstar (he's not there yet, but the team has to plan for it at this point imo, both on-court and financially).

Leaving aside Kemba for the moment, guys like Porter (not sure about his health) and Fournier are the exact kinds of downgrades I'd look to make from Hayward, where you either save salary or get on a shorter contract and pick up assets, while maintaining your shooting. I'll have to look more, but there are more of these guys than you'd think. I'm not sure exactly where the "ewww" factor comes in--they're talent downgrades, but they're also very good shooters who can make other basic plays as well.

The problem, of course, is that you can't leave Kemba out of it, and I also think he has real value against teams like the Bucks who they're going to have to put a ton of offensive pressure on. Still not sure what to do there.

Honestly, I'm thinking outloud here: Tatum's rise has been sudden, and is putting a lot of team-building things into flux. The path before his leap was "have 4 good perimeter players and try to catch 2011 Mavs/2004 Pistons lightning in a bottle." Now there's a more proven path they can follow: surround your stud with a roster built specifically for him.
Porter is just so overpaid it's ridiculous. Evan Fournier is ok I guess. He just has that Orlando stink. I was worried Jaylen Brown would end up like Otto Porter. I guess it doesn't really matter what he's paid though. You're retaining the slot and arguably getting talent elsewhere. I'd wonder if the Bulls would have interest in moving LaVine. There would have to be other moving pieces in that deal to make it work though. I could see something centered around Myles Turner too, who I think would work VERY well with Jayson Tatum. That would also have to involve other moving pieces but Hayward seems like the perfect Pacer for so many reasons and Turner is not a good fit there.

Problem with a Turner deal is there's a $15 mil gap between his contract and Hayward's. Lamb would cover some of that or a combo of McDermott and some other stuff. I'm sure they could make it work if they wanted to. Of course Turner isn't a shooting upgrade over Hayward but he is a shooting upgrade over our current centers.

Turner/Tatum/Brown on defense would be a terror. Put Smart and Langford in the back court and good luck other teams. Of course that lineup would require Tatum to improve as a play maker a lot. Either that or Langford surprises us all.

Brown for Turner has definitely passed but I think Hayward for Turner makes a lot of sense for both teams if they could get it to work financially. McDermott would even have a roll on the team.
 

lovegtm

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Porter is just so overpaid it's ridiculous. Evan Fournier is ok I guess. He just has that Orlando stink. I was worried Jaylen Brown would end up like Otto Porter. I guess it doesn't really matter what he's paid though. You're retaining the slot and arguably getting talent elsewhere. I'd wonder if the Bulls would have interest in moving LaVine. There would have to be other moving pieces in that deal to make it work though. I could see something centered around Myles Turner too, who I think would work VERY well with Jayson Tatum. That would also have to involve other moving pieces but Hayward seems like the perfect Pacer for so many reasons and Turner is not a good fit there.

Problem with a Turner deal is there's a $15 mil gap between his contract and Hayward's. Lamb would cover some of that or a combo of McDermott and some other stuff. I'm sure they could make it work if they wanted to. Of course Turner isn't a shooting upgrade over Hayward but he is a shooting upgrade over our current centers.

Turner/Tatum/Brown on defense would be a terror. Put Smart and Langford in the back court and good luck other teams. Of course that lineup would require Tatum to improve as a play maker a lot. Either that or Langford surprises us all.

Brown for Turner has definitely passed but I think Hayward for Turner makes a lot of sense for both teams if they could get it to work financially. McDermott would even have a roll on the team.
1. wrt Porter, I'd only be interested in that if it came with some other assets. As you said, the idea would be to preserve the slot.
2. LaVine seems like the kind of guy that a team like Chicago never moves on from, although I'd be interested.
3. The McDermott part of a Pacers deal is almost more interesting to me than the Turner part. Those are exactly the kinds of guys I'd like the Celtics to target in trade: good shooters with major playmaking limitations and some defensive issues that can be mitigated with the other talent.

It's tricky to find the exact deal, but I feel like there's something out there that's an improvement on just running it back with Hayward.
 

RetractableRoof

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The Celtics, 11th in the league in 3pt% have five rotation players besides JT shooting 37.5% and up from three. The Bucks, 16 in the league in 3pt%, have three, although their three, Hill, Middleton, and Korver, shoot at insanely high percentage. They also have Illy and Wes Matthews over 37%.

The Cs already have enough three point shooting to make teams pay for high doubles on Tatum.
I agree in theory, but the issue is that there are nights the Cs go ice cold from 3, and that is a big difference between them and the Bucks group that are shooting insanely high. When they go cold, and are facing length, they are extremely vulnerable. That's the value to me of the Gortat screen & seal, it reduces the dependence on the 3, and the percentage is high enough that it isn't a problem to rely on it.
 

RetractableRoof

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Yeah, so this is a whole other topic: it gets really hard to fit Kemba in properly to a team where Tatum is a superstar (he's not there yet, but the team has to plan for it at this point imo, both on-court and financially).

Leaving aside Kemba for the moment, guys like Porter (not sure about his health) and Fournier are the exact kinds of downgrades I'd look to make from Hayward, where you either save salary or get on a shorter contract and pick up assets, while maintaining your shooting. I'll have to look more, but there are more of these guys than you'd think. I'm not sure exactly where the "ewww" factor comes in--they're talent downgrades, but they're also very good shooters who can make other basic plays as well.

The problem, of course, is that you can't leave Kemba out of it, and I also think he has real value against teams like the Bucks who they're going to have to put a ton of offensive pressure on. Still not sure what to do there.

Honestly, I'm thinking outloud here: Tatum's rise has been sudden, and is putting a lot of team-building things into flux. The path before his leap was "have 4 good perimeter players and try to catch 2011 Mavs/2004 Pistons lightning in a bottle." Now there's a more proven path they can follow: surround your stud with a roster built specifically for him.
This is where I think some are underselling Haywire. Assuming health(!), or him remaining roughly where he is health-wise, isn't he the second unit steady hand who plays a bit of point forward, and when on can seek out his shot to steady the second unit? A player that can move between the two units and morph his game to what they need is valuable.

If your issue is with performance provided per cap dollar rather than his game itself, then I understand, I just think that's a tough replacement to get at the dollars the Cs would need. I think there is also something to be said for the wing redundancy given injuries/load management. If Langford is legit/grows, then maybe it's a lesser risk to move Haywire. It would be my preference to keep him and use the versatility in his game to their advantage. If nothing else, he's a higher end utility man... which again, there's a cap impact for what all players deliver.
 

nighthob

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He's basically the best shooter in the league on off-the-dribble 3s, on very high volume that could probably stand to go even higher.

There are only a couple guys in the league who have hit the cheat-code status of needing to be doubled 30 feet from the rim: off the top of my head, just Harden and Steph depending on the defender/scheme.

That kind of attention simplifies reads and opens up passes so much.
When you're burning and pillaging opposing defenses and offenses it's referred to as Attila the Hun Mode. And Jayson is officially in Attila the Hun Mode.
 

slamminsammya

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It occurred to me today that Tatum reminds me a lot of Scottie Pippen defensively, the way he is so long and just kinda glides around and surprises you with the length.
 

Jimbodandy

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Porter is just so overpaid it's ridiculous. Evan Fournier is ok I guess. He just has that Orlando stink. I was worried Jaylen Brown would end up like Otto Porter. I guess it doesn't really matter what he's paid though. You're retaining the slot and arguably getting talent elsewhere. I'd wonder if the Bulls would have interest in moving LaVine. There would have to be other moving pieces in that deal to make it work though. I could see something centered around Myles Turner too, who I think would work VERY well with Jayson Tatum. That would also have to involve other moving pieces but Hayward seems like the perfect Pacer for so many reasons and Turner is not a good fit there.

Problem with a Turner deal is there's a $15 mil gap between his contract and Hayward's. Lamb would cover some of that or a combo of McDermott and some other stuff. I'm sure they could make it work if they wanted to. Of course Turner isn't a shooting upgrade over Hayward but he is a shooting upgrade over our current centers.

Turner/Tatum/Brown on defense would be a terror. Put Smart and Langford in the back court and good luck other teams. Of course that lineup would require Tatum to improve as a play maker a lot. Either that or Langford surprises us all.

Brown for Turner has definitely passed but I think Hayward for Turner makes a lot of sense for both teams if they could get it to work financially. McDermott would even have a roll on the team.
If we ever meet at a Bash or something, I hope you're a hugger.
 

lovegtm

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I don't want to read too much into a game where Brad clearly felt he had to both rest Tatum and take load off him, but there were some disturbing signs when Tatum did play.

I'll pull together clips later if I get a chance, but I don't think that Brad instinctively likes the kinds of things you need to do schematically to leverage a 6-9 guy with an unstoppable stepback 3. He's still running the egalitarian "can come at you from anywhere" offense when, in practice, no other team is at all scared of Marcus Smart and Brad Wanamaker coming at you from anywhere.

(I do think that some of this was on Tatum himself and that he was physically and mentally fatigued, so take this more as a "things to watch" rather than "OMG lovegtm thinks Brad can't coach!!!11!!."
 

Imbricus

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I think one clear problem was Tatum was pressing. He was trying to do too much. He knew they didn't have the starters they needed (Kemba was a non-factor, and Jaylen and Hayward were out), and the bench was stinking up a storm again (5 for 18), so he took it on his shoulders. He seemed to be dribbling out of control too much while defenders chased him and he was slower about passing out of double teams.

That he and Kemba could both have mediocre nights, and they could lose by only 5 with both Jaylen and Gordon out is a good sign I guess, if you're looking for a silver lining.
 

tbrown_01923

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Sign me up for pressing and not quite being ready for the fierce double teams he is facing. The team just doesn't have the type of scoring off of the bench where having two of their four scorers out is easy for them and I think Tatum is trying to lead in these situations. He is not there yet and I think he gets there soon. It'd been great if kemba pulled up on a couple of his drives as opposed to trying to score over the 8'6" gober - it may have loosened things up just enough for Tatum.
 

Jimbodandy

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That he and Kemba could both have mediocre nights, and they could lose by only 5 with both Jaylen and Gordon out is a good sign I guess, if you're looking for a silver lining.
Last night stuff is correctable. Basically if you both a) don't get enough on ball pressure and b) have poor cheat defense, then your opponent gets downhill and easy 3s. Some effort problems, but a lot of it was the result of big minutes for the likes of TL, Romeo, and Javonte. They were awful. Even Grant and Kanter were terrible.
 

BaseballJones

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The kid is 21. He's gonna have some bad games, even as he reaches elite status. Even so, he had a +12 (yes I know that number in a single game sample is not necessarily indicative of how a guy plays but still...) and in fact all the starters had positive differentials. The bench? Yikes.

Grant W: 17 min, -11
Kanter: 5 min, -13
Robert W: 16 min, -11
Wanamaker: 26 min, -25
Green: 13 min, -4
Langford: 5 min, -16

Meanwhile, Utah's bench:
Niang: 12 min, +23
Bradley: 15 min, +25
Clarkson: 27 min, +26
Ingles: 30 min, +22
 

chilidawg

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Tatum piece in BSJ:

https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com/2020/03/31/jayson-tatum-reveals-led-midseason-breakout/


Surprised the All Star nomination affected him so much.

Early in the season, I put so much pressure on myself mentally,” Tatum told Goodman. “Obviously, I wanted to win. I wanted us to be a really good team, but I also thought about making the All-Star Game every day. Every time I had a bad game I remember I would text Drew and I’d be like, ‘Drew, I don’t think I’m gonna make it any more’ and he’d be like, ‘Bro, relax.'” And then I would have a good game and I’d be like, ‘Bro, I think I’m gonna make it.’”
 

lovegtm

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Tatum piece in BSJ:

https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com/2020/03/31/jayson-tatum-reveals-led-midseason-breakout/


Surprised the All Star nomination affected him so much.

Early in the season, I put so much pressure on myself mentally,” Tatum told Goodman. “Obviously, I wanted to win. I wanted us to be a really good team, but I also thought about making the All-Star Game every day. Every time I had a bad game I remember I would text Drew and I’d be like, ‘Drew, I don’t think I’m gonna make it any more’ and he’d be like, ‘Bro, relax.'” And then I would have a good game and I’d be like, ‘Bro, I think I’m gonna make it.’”
Tatum has always cared very obviously about external validation and awards+historical context. I remember him saying he wished the Celtics hadn't traded down so that he could say he was the #1 pick.

I think it's a positive tbh: it seems to push him to round out his game in all areas. A lot of great players have really cared about things like All-Star games and MVPs--peer/coach/media validation is a powerful motivator.