Boston is going through a few growing pains at the moment with a 9-9 record, but the real question is who’s the best player on the Celtics? Is it Kyrie? Is it Tatum? I teamed up with @J_PerSources for a full analysis on both sides to this debate.
When it comes to the Boston Celtics, you get a blue-collar ball club with great team unity. Brad Stevens has spent the last few years showcasing this.
One of the most valuable qualities in a basketball player is being able to accept a role and perform at the highest level possible within a system. They don’t complain, run to the media, or question authority. Jayson Tatum is one of the perfect examples of a system player, and he’s thriving under it. He exemplifies the qualities, and the amount of work he’s put in to get this point is beyond his years as a player.
Tatum is arguably the best player on the Celtics right now, and I’ll tell you why it’s not Kyrie Irving.
When it comes to scoring the basketball, Tatum’s composure carries himself through the whole game. Averaging 13-15 shot attempts a game, the majority of those attempts come through the last five minutes of the game. Like Irving, who takes 18-25 shot attempts a game, most of his buckets come through the first three quarters.
The ball finds Tatum instead of him finding the ball. Tatum scores for a purpose while Irving just scores to score. Tatum can slow a game down very similar to Kobe. His composure and balance are what separates him from Irving. In at least seven games this season, the ball found Tatum, forcing him to make a decision. I’m not saying he’s more clutch than Irving, but that only shows who Stevens wants to go to late-game.
On the contrary, stats speak a lot, and Irving has him beat in almost every category, but numbers aren’t everything. I’m a firm believer in making an impact. Tatum’s impact on the floor goes beyond the stats. If you take Irving out of action (which happened this season) the Celtics have been successful and saw little to no losses. With Irving in the lineup, the team is close to .500 which speaks volumes. You take Tatum out of the lineup, Boston will struggle against top-tier teams in both conferences.
Overall, people can’t accept the fact that a 20-year-old is taking over the franchise and that Kyrie Irving is stuck in his shadow. As of right now, Tatum’s efficiency and impact outweigh Irving’s. Boston needs to understand this because this stretch hasn’t been pretty.
Truth be told, Jayson Tatum might end up being the best player on the Celtics by next season. As of now, however, resident superstar Kyrie Irving still leads the team.
Irving is a man in his prime, who’s averaged 27.0 PPG, 5.1 REB, 7.9 AST, and 2.9 STL over the last two weeks. Compare that to Tatum’s 16.5 PPG, 6.6 REB, and 1.1 AST, and 1.3 STL over the same span. Stats never tell the whole story, but in this case, they compose quite a large piece of it.
Even when we dive deeper, it’s hard to definitively argue that Tatum has been better for the Celtics. The efficiency is simply too hard to swallow. Irving is shooting an excellent 48.7% from the field, while Tatum is only making 42.6% of his shots. Scoring stars have to be efficient, and Tatum just doesn’t compare to Kyrie in that department.
So from a basic statistical viewpoint, it’s clear that Irving has been better than Tatum. But what if you pose the question from a “Van Gundian” perspective? What if you threw the stat sheet into the trashcan and studied the game like a true basketball purist? After all, Danny Ainge didn’t draft Jayson Tatum off his college stats.
The answer is that Tatum needs to start playing smarter and less like a lone wolf superstar from the mid-2000s. Sometimes Tatum can be spellbinding, with his uncanny footwork and ball-handling. He’s as crafty as any NBA veteran in the mid-range, with his wide array of hesitations and subtle ball-fakes to get a shot off. Creating shots is easy for Jayson Tatum. Making the shot? Not quite so easy.
Tatum’s only converted 29.3% of his shots from the mid-range, which is horrible for any distance. Tatum’s an effective three-point weapon but insists on incessantly pulling shots from 16 feet out. He’s taken 75 mid-range shots compared to 76 three-pointers when he’s been able to shoot 39.5% from three this season. The mid-range has been Tatum’s bread and butter for most of his life, but he has to realize his skills are better applied in other more efficient areas.
He’s excellent at creating contact and staying on-balance, able to finish over both bigs and guards. If he wants to jump Irving in the team hierarchy and avoid a Carmelo Anthony type career, he needs to lose the love for the mid-range. The world will never forgive Tatum if he throws away the vast potential he’s shown, just because of his penchant for the long-two.
Meanwhile, Kyrie is a spectacle to behold each and every night the Celtics are on. The dazzling ball-on-the-string handles are always there, and Irving could miss 20 shots in a row and still hit the game-winner. His defense will never be elite, but when he’s surrounded with studs like Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart it’s nothing to cry over. Few players can terrify opposing fans as much as Irving when the clock is winding down in a tight game. His video game lay-up package coupled with the eagle-eyed Al Horford’s passing vision creates devastating backdoor opportunities. Perhaps his shot selection can be sketchy at times, but more often than you might expect, it goes in.
When the Celtics need a basket, they go to Irving, not Tatum. Tatum has too much learning to do to be better than Irving right now. Both are talented scorers, but Tatum isn’t quite on Irving’s level yet. Within a year, there might be a different answer to this question, but as of now, Irving is still the better basketball player.