Tatum VS Luka

[Big J]

Luka has infinitely more star power. Tatum has a pretty boring personality tbh.

[Saint Lazarus]

Um, I think the playmaking gap is smaller than the defensive gap, so I’ll go Tatum. But there’s no wrong answer here, they both look like they will be in the MVP race every season for the next however many years.

Tatum just played insane defense on KD for 150 possessions, and still averaged 30/5/7 on a 62% TS. Obviously he got plenty of help defensively, but he was the guy who did the brunt of it.

And in a series where they swept but won only by a total of 18 points or whatever, dude had a TS of 75% in the 4th quarter of the games, that’s beyond big time.

Take it from our most level-headed Tatum fanatic. This is the correct answer

Honestly, it's really close, and I wouldn't mind people arguing for either of them. But Tatum is growing into one of the best two-way players in the league; his defense on KD this series has been eye-opening for casual fans, but we C's fans have long known his defense is terrific. That's his clear advantage over Luka, whose advantage over Tatum is playmaking but Tatum blossomed in that area this season as well. So Comedian's right in saying the playmaking gap is smaller than the defensive gap.

I'm personally going Tatum because that's my boy, but I'm not surprised that most posters here are still picking Luka.

With all respect, I would say he is wrong.
Luka's playmaking, vision and passing are basically all time level, Tatum is not even remotely close to that level in those areas, at least so far in their careers anyway.

All time level? His combination of scoring + playmaking is at an all time level, but just his playmaking is certainly not. I would not classify anyone with a 2:1 TO ratio as having playmaking at an all time level. Compare this to someone like CP3 and Stockton who routinely had 5:1 or 4:1 TO ratios, and even guys like Magic are probably better as well.

[celticfan42487]

It only took me like 30 seconds to figure out the other three, haha. Two of them I visit regularly though. Oops I took lakers over bulls though.

That's def why but it's selling other teams short.

It's really a big 7, or a big 3.

Or in reality just a big one, since the difference between first and second is equal to the entire heats forum and more than the rest of the non listed forums.

The Mavericks for example is listed with about 200K posts, which I have 10% of that total just by myself.

Posts per forum on the site:

Raptors - 6.4 million
Knicks - 5 million

big drop off

Bulls - 3.6 million

exact same drop off (that just shows how massive the Knick and Raptors presence really is on this board)

Bucks - 2.2 million
Celtics - 2 million
Magic - 1.6 million
Heat - 1.4 million

... the hell?

FL represents!

Just wait till they get a good team again like back in the D12 days

[Floody100]

Looks Luka’s better IMO but for people to come on here & say the gap between them is substantial is disingenuous & shows a lack of not only understanding how important Tatum is to the Celtics but how much they struggle without him on the floor.

If I was going to rank where I have them in the NBA right now I’d put Luka at 5th & Tatum at 8th but I wouldn’t be shocked if Tatum joins Luka as a top 5 bonafide superstar in the league by the end of the playoffs.

[Wagonband]

Luka has infinitely more star power. Tatum has a pretty boring personality tbh.

That's irrelevant to the discussion.

Tatum is great, but he is not yet at Luka's level. Luka is a top 6-7 player in the NBA, while Tatum is more Top 7-12 or so. Both are elite, but Tatum needs to prove to be at Luka's level. He has a much better team around him and has had for most of his career. And Dallas is playing better than expected, but you can't really compare a lineup of Brunson, Bullock, DFS and Powell to Brown, Horford, Smart and Williams.

I firmly believe if you inserted Luka into the Celtics lineup they are the clear favorites to win it all this year.

Tatum needs to prove he is this guy that he showed in this series. Luka has proven he is basically a 30/10/10 highly efficient machine in the playoffs. Super small sample, but he is basically a top 5 playoff performer of all time. Really hard to beat that for anyone, not just Tatum

[AussieCeltic]

The only reason the poll is this close is due to recency bias.

Well yeh… we’re not going to judge them on how they were over a year ago. Tatum is ascending at a rapid rate. I’m a firm believer there is no right or wrong answer in this debate. Both amazing players.

People like you whose sole goal is to troll Celtics and their supporters shows what type of person you are. Like you spend your whole day just trolling? Go get a life bro.

[mpoo_sin]

To reiterate what I said as OP.. this is insane. KD is arguably the most skilled scorer of this generation and Tatum put the clamps on him. That’s unheard of.

Read on Twitter

Is that Finney-Smith in 2nd place? Wow...his contract is such an amazing steal.

[Big J]

The only reason the poll is this close is due to recency bias.

Well yeh… we’re not going to judge them on how they were over a year ago. Tatum is ascending at a rapid rate. I’m a firm believer there is no right or wrong answer in this debate. Both amazing players.

People like you whose sole goal is to troll Celtics and their supporters shows what type of person you are. Like you spend your whole day just trolling? Go get a life bro.

Problem these days is that any time you say something negative about a guy get called a troll or a hater. Just shows how soft people have gotten.

[TheMartian]

The only reason the poll is this close is due to recency bias.

Well yeh… we’re not going to judge them on how they were over a year ago. Tatum is ascending at a rapid rate. I’m a firm believer there is no right or wrong answer in this debate. Both amazing players.

People like you whose sole goal is to troll Celtics and their supporters shows what type of person you are. Like you spend your whole day just trolling? Go get a life bro.

Problem these days is that any time you say something negative about a guy get called a troll or a hater. Just shows how soft people have gotten.

Nope. Based on your posts, your anti-Celtics bias is clearly evident.

[Big J]

Well yeh… we’re not going to judge them on how they were over a year ago. Tatum is ascending at a rapid rate. I’m a firm believer there is no right or wrong answer in this debate. Both amazing players.

People like you whose sole goal is to troll Celtics and their supporters shows what type of person you are. Like you spend your whole day just trolling? Go get a life bro.

Problem these days is that any time you say something negative about a guy get called a troll or a hater. Just shows how soft people have gotten.

Nope. Based on your posts, your anti-Celtics bias is clearly evident.

Nah, I'm not anti-Celtic, the players seem like decent dudes. I am just adding some much needed perspective to balance out the takes that I've seen that the fans have about this years team that hasn't proven squat.

[DroseReturnChi]

Luka has infinitely more star power. Tatum has a pretty boring personality tbh.

That's irrelevant to the discussion.

Tatum is great, but he is not yet at Luka's level. Luka is a top 6-7 player in the NBA, while Tatum is more Top 7-12 or so. Both are elite, but Tatum needs to prove to be at Luka's level. He has a much better team around him and has had for most of his career. And Dallas is playing better than expected, but you can't really compare a lineup of Brunson, Bullock, DFS and Powell to Brown, Horford, Smart and Williams.

tatum was never lukas level not sure why ur claiming they are both top 7 players. one is a perennial 1st nba the other guy barely made all nba 3rd one time. tatum needs to make 1st team 5 times straight to get on lukas level. hes widly inconsistent. and whats embarassing is tatum is much older the trajectory isnt even close he has much lower ceiling.

[Saint Lazarus]

Advanced stats this season.
DPM: Tatum 5.7/Luka 3.7
EPM: Tatum 5.8/Luka 4.5
LEBRON: Tatum 5.1/Luka 3.0
RAPTOR: Tatum 6.7/Luka 6.3
RPM: Tatum 8.7/Luka 6.6
BPM: Luka 8.2/Tatum 4.9

Yeah, those.

I think Tatum does everything with less usage, so it looks like Luka is doing more because he literally has the ball half the time for Dallas while he's on the floor. PER does favor Luka though (25.1 vs. 21.8), but that's a stat skewed towards per minute numbers and usage. I prefer win shares, where Tatum leads Luka (9.6 vs. 7.6). Again, Luka just 'feels' like he's doing more, but Tatum is the better overall player today.

And when they play each other, it looks like that,

Watch on YouTube

And like that,

Watch on YouTube

I admit Tatum played some good D in this games.

The irony of posting two head-to-head games where they don't even guard each other for the majority of the games, and then acting like they are a superior basketball mind

[bfchs123]

Luka has infinitely more star power. Tatum has a pretty boring personality tbh.

That's irrelevant to the discussion.

Tatum is great, but he is not yet at Luka's level. Luka is a top 6-7 player in the NBA, while Tatum is more Top 7-12 or so. Both are elite, but Tatum needs to prove to be at Luka's level. He has a much better team around him and has had for most of his career. And Dallas is playing better than expected, but you can't really compare a lineup of Brunson, Bullock, DFS and Powell to Brown, Horford, Smart and Williams.

I firmly believe if you inserted Luka into the Celtics lineup they are the clear favorites to win it all this year.

Tatum needs to prove he is this guy that he showed in this series. Luka has proven he is basically a 30/10/10 highly efficient machine in the playoffs. Super small sample, but he is basically a top 5 playoff performer of all time. Really hard to beat that for anyone, not just Tatum

Top 5 playoff performer of all time? He has never even won a playoff series lol...

[Bob8]

Yeah, those.

I think Tatum does everything with less usage, so it looks like Luka is doing more because he literally has the ball half the time for Dallas while he's on the floor. PER does favor Luka though (25.1 vs. 21.8), but that's a stat skewed towards per minute numbers and usage. I prefer win shares, where Tatum leads Luka (9.6 vs. 7.6). Again, Luka just 'feels' like he's doing more, but Tatum is the better overall player today.

And when they play each other, it looks like that,

Watch on YouTube

And like that,

Watch on YouTube

I admit Tatum played some good D in this games.

The irony of posting two head-to-head games where they don't even guard each other for the majority of the games, and then acting like they are a superior basketball mind

No, it's just interesting how Luka always beat Celtics.

[Big Joke Line]

Stick Tatum on Orlando and he's just another guy. Outside of Boston nobody really talks that much about him. Luka's different, he transcends market.

I lived in NYC for 15 years and FL the last 3 and I can tell you for a fact that more real people are talking about Tatum in those two places. At least every single person I talk hoops with in those two places; and that’s a decent amount.

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

[HumbleRen]

Luka, switch those teams and I don't think Mavs are even a top 8 team in the west while the C's would be contenders from the jump IMO.

Tatum has made huge strides though and I think he has a higher ceiling if he continues to develop his passing ability.

[Fencer reregistered]

Luka has infinitely more star power. Tatum has a pretty boring personality tbh.

That's irrelevant to the discussion.

Tatum is great, but he is not yet at Luka's level. Luka is a top 6-7 player in the NBA, while Tatum is more Top 7-12 or so. Both are elite, but Tatum needs to prove to be at Luka's level. He has a much better team around him and has had for most of his career. And Dallas is playing better than expected, but you can't really compare a lineup of Brunson, Bullock, DFS and Powell to Brown, Horford, Smart and Williams.

tatum was never lukas level not sure why ur claiming they are both top 7 players. one is a perennial 1st nba the other guy barely made all nba 3rd one time. tatum needs to make 1st team 5 times straight to get on lukas level. hes widly inconsistent. and whats embarassing is tatum is much older the trajectory isnt even close he has much lower ceiling.

There's slightly less than a year in age difference between the two.

[Saint Lazarus]

And when they play each other, it looks like that,

Watch on YouTube

And like that,

Watch on YouTube

I admit Tatum played some good D in this games.

The irony of posting two head-to-head games where they don't even guard each other for the majority of the games, and then acting like they are a superior basketball mind

No, it's just interesting how Luka always beat Celtics.

Jalen Brunson > Tatum because the Mavs beat the Celtics

[Bob8]

The irony of posting two head-to-head games where they don't even guard each other for the majority of the games, and then acting like they are a superior basketball mind

No, it's just interesting how Luka always beat Celtics.

Jalen Brunson > Tatum because the Mavs beat the Celtics

I will give you their numbers in last 4 games against Celtics and let you to decide, who was more instrumental for 4 wins.

Brunson was averaging 17.5/4/3 in those 4 games.

Luka 31.5/9/6.5, 56% Fg, 56% 3pts with 22 3s in last 4 games against Celtics. 4 wins, 2 buzzer beaters and 1 assist for buzzer beater. Crazy staff. You can say that he owns Celtics.