Jayson Tatum can become legendary

Jayson Tatum can become legendary

Jayson Tatum earned his 5th All-Star team nomination Thursday, adding another accolade in the case of a great career in the making. Tatum has established himself as arguably a top 5 player in basketball at his best, turning 26-years-old in March. He has the opportunity to be looked at as one of this generation’s best players. Will he get there?

What has Tatum done?

In seven NBA seasons, Tatum has a career average of 22.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, shooting 45.9 percent from the field and 37.4 percent from 3-point range. Now the main man for a great Celtics team, Tatum is a five-time All-Star, won the All-Star Game MVP, is a three-time All-NBA selection and is an Eastern Conference Finals MVP. All of this has set the great groundwork for the next decade of his career. 

On top of all his accomplishments, Tatum sets himself apart from his peers due to his consistent playoff success. While the Celtics have only made the NBA Finals once since he has been in the league. They have never missed the postseason he’s been there with four Eastern Conference Finals appearances out of the following six Celtics’ postseason runs–five if we are speaking about fellow co-star Jaylen Brown. 

At such a young age, Tatum can say he is one of the best playoff performers in the NBA. At peak playoff performance, he can will his team to win and become the best player in the world. Tatum scored 46 points against the Bucks in a must-win in the 2021-22 playoffs and tallied 16 fourth-quarter points in Game 6 against the 76ers last year. Not to mention Game 7s…

Jayson Tatum has played in seven Game 7s with the Cs winning five of those games; Game 7 is where legends are made and he has risen to the occasion like great players before him, averaging 26.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists in seven Game 7s in his career. Tatum is undisputedly a superstar of the game.

What does Tatum need to do?

Jayson Tatum has already done great things in his career, but there is much more he is certainly looking to accomplish. With all of his playoff success, the Celtics have only made a single NBA Finals appearance in 2021-22.

While it has been made clear that the Celtics are surely the team you must go through to reach the Finals in the Eastern Conference, adding some ring-sized hardware is something many fans and critics are looking at for Jayson Tatum’s legacy. That’s especially true for a Celtics Franchise that knows championships very well. 

Jayson Tatum’s ability on the basketball court is something else. As a 6-foot-8 wing, he can defend well, shoot the three, drive to the rim and create his own shot relatively anywhere. Tatum is the prototypical archetype for what a team wants out of a modern NBA star. Tatum, albeit a tremendous player, has had his problems with consistency, mainly in the postseason with such highs as 50-plus point performances to keep his team alive coming with performances like his 2022 NBA Finals at times. Of course, these are things that will be worked on through the rest of his career.

Until then, that will be the main point of concern for many in regards to the Celtics superstar. Speaking of hardware, I can honestly believe a world where Tatum may never win an MVP and that’s OK; Paul Pierce didn’t win one, and the late and great Kobe Bryant only won one. Finals MVPs are more important anyway. Tatum will have a better career than Paul Pierce when the time is up for him.

Future is Green:

Leading the best team in the Eastern Conference, a clutch playoff performer and now an All-Star starter once again: Tatum is one of the faces of this great NBA, as well as the face of the Celtics. Many more years of greatness are on the horizon for Tatum considering the great support in every part of the game around him. He is not without flaws, but he has been someone who can overcome such adversity and come out the other side a better player, which is something he has proven season after season. These next 10-to-12 years will be a sight to see.

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