Jayson Tatum has his flaws, but Kendrick Perkins among those spewing nonsense about Celtics’ star
Perkins is not alone in roughing up Tatum to accumulate hot-take points. He’s just the most egregious transgressor.
Let’s be straight about this from the opening tap.
No assessment of Jayson Tatum’s game and his approach to playing would be accurate or honest without acknowledging that he possesses some frustrating recurring flaws. These criticisms aren’t new, so feel free to nod with me in agreement.
His 3-point shooting isn’t always the deadly weapon he thinks it is. He shot 37.6 percent in the regular season, which is fine, but entering Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night, Tatum was at 26.6 percent from long distance in this year’s playoffs. That’s after shooting 32.3 percent from 3 last postseason.
He relies on his stepback jumper too often, especially against smaller opponents, or when there is plenty of time on the shot clock and a better look to be found.
The offense is at its most efficient and aesthetically pleasing when Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are the initiators and chief decision-makers — rather than Tatum or Jaylen Brown, as exceptional as they are as offensive players.
Tatum can bring that aesthetically pleasing offense to a standstill when he “gets into his bag” and goes into his skills-and-drills, isolation-ball mode.
This is the big one to me. I mentioned offhandedly in a column earlier in this Celtics playoff run that the TD Garden crowd kind of sounds like it murmurs in unison when Tatum holds the ball too long.
Well, there’s no “kind of” anymore. It definitely happens. A faint but noticeable mini-grumble that can be translated to, “C’mon, JT, do something.”
He also doesn’t have the greatest track record in, to use baseball parlance, late-and-close situations. Of course, the Celtics, who have won 54 more games than they have lost (74-20) this season, including the playoffs, haven’t had a lot of tense, late-game circumstances in which to practice coming through in the clutch.
So there. That’s the list.
Those are the valid — and relatively small in scope — criticisms of Jayson Tatum. As it is, I probably gave them too much real estate.
Now can we puh-leeze talk about how much absolute nonsense Tatum — a three-time first-team All-NBA selection who works his tail off on defense and rebounding, and carries himself with a perpetually even-keeled grace — has had to put up with lately, particularly from the national media?
I abhor giving these takes any more oxygen and ink than they have already had. They’re disingenuous, uninformed, or some moronic combination of both. In different circumstances or lower doses, they would be easy enough to ignore. Kind of like what we do when, oh, Felger and Mazz talk Celtics.
But the criticism Tatum is receiving nationally is patently unfair. That needs to be said, especially since it’s an ex-Celtic who is the loudest voice.
When Kendrick Perkins is on “First Take,” he consistently gives the worst take. Submitted as evidence, here are a few of his comments about Tatum this postseason:
“I’m so over Jayson Tatum. When is he going to arrive? He talked about how he couldn’t wait to get to the postseason. Well, it’s here. What are you going to do about it? It’s in his hands, this is Jayson Tatum’s moment.”
Despite the dip in shooting numbers, it should be noted that Tatum averaged 25.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game entering Game 3 Saturday night.
“Jaylen Brown is the best player on the Celtics.”
I don’t believe that to be true — Brown is the 1B to Tatum’s 1A, and they’ve become simpatico on the court more than ever this season even if their skills aren’t an exact complement. But I’d at least listen to the argument from just about anyone but Perk, who voted Tatum first-team All-NBA but did not have Brown on any of the three teams.
Perkins is not alone in roughing up Tatum to accumulate hot-take points. He’s just the most egregious transgressor.
On his show, “The Herd,” a few days ago, Colin Cowherd said he’d take pretty much any NBA superstar other than Devin Booker and Anthony Davis over Tatum in the fourth quarter. That aired the day after Tatum scored 10 of his 36 points in overtime in the Game 1 win over the Pacers.
I’ve tried to figure out why this is happening, other than sports talkers’ desperation for content and engagement. I think it’s a few things beyond that.
Tatum is so familiar — this is his sixth Eastern Conference finals appearance in eight years — that there’s not much new to say about him. His methodical game isn’t as fun to watch as, say, that of Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, even though Tatum is a superior all-around player.
And his never-too-high, never-too-low personality probably works against his image, even though that is an immensely valuable attribute to have as a basketball player. It allows him to keep his head straight when things are going wrong and bounce back within the same game. (See Game 6 versus the Sixers last year, or, heck, Game 1 in this series.)
If history tells us anything, it’s that Tatum has a huge performance in his near future. This is a player that scored 51 points in a Game 7, and 46 in a Game 6 on the road trailing a series against the defending champions. He has eaten Kevin Durant alive in a playoff series, and he has led Celtics teams that have dismissed Durant, Kyrie Irving, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid from the playoffs.
Rational Celtics fans require no recitation of Tatum’s basketball résumé. The reminder is for those who let the national nonsense permeate their own perceptions of Tatum.
That’s not you, right? Don’t go all Perk on us.
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