Post#1748 » by Green89 » Fri Mar 8, 2024 2:49 pm
Our title hopes rest on Tatum either being Tatum, or that guy who couldn't play in the 4th last night. His comments afterward have me VERY concerned, where he said something to the effect of he's not going to force it to get his own points, he's going to make the right play. That's not the alpha, #1 team option mentality, he needs to be game winning Tatum when we need him.
I'm very concerned that he overthinks crunch time too much, always looking for and thinking about the best play instead of just playing. Besides his comments, the end of the Cavs game spelled this out to, how he looked like a deer in the headlights, dribbling slowly up the court, wasting nearly all 17 seconds trying to think what to do, and looking nervously toward the bench for input. Every other MVP type player would have just ran down the court and played that final play with the urgency needed. You can't overthink it or second guess yourself in those situations. I'd rather have him recklessly attack the rim and miss, than the stupid fallaway shot he got, after wasting all that time womdering what to do. At least we definitely would have had enough time for a KP put back there.
He didn't stop taking pullup threes lol. He just got more accurate at shooting them. Let's hope this is the norm and it carries over into the postseason. I still love bullyball Tatum though. Punish mismatches whenever possible. Drive and post-up and get fouled. Iso pullups feel like a bailout for the defense sometimes.
