What is Jayson Tatum's ceiling?

[exculpatory]

Yeah totally possible he sees some regression to the mean. He's playing so much better than early season right now that it's not clear it's totally sustainable.

One thing he has going for him is that (unfortunately) there injuries have hampered or wiped out a good five or six guys who would have been considered for all-NBA if they were 100% healthy. If the season ended today, there would definitely be fewer than 15 players who would be 100% guaranteed to be selected above Tatum without question, but there would be a whole mess of other players who you could compare against him and they have arguments for and against them. So if Tatum keeps playing great and the Celtics end up as a high seed with him as their top scorer and an elite defender, his case for third team could be pretty compelling.

And then next year, he could even improve over his play this year but not make all-NBA at all because he will be competing against newly healthy players like Steph, KD, Kyrie, PG13, Oladipo, etc. Pretty wild thought.

Steph is wildly overrated.

Be that as it may, he's pretty much guaranteed a spot on an all-NBA team next year if he's healthy.

True but potentially wrong.

[zoyathedestroya]

Barring the unexpected, All-NBA locks this season so far, forwards: Giannis, Lebron, Kawhi

Then a bunch of guys who will fight for the other 3 spots: Siakam, Butler, Middleton, Tatum, AD, who else?

[Slax]

Barring the unexpected, All-NBA locks this season so far, forwards: Giannis, Lebron, Kawhi

Then a bunch of guys who will fight for the other 3 spots: Siakam, Butler, Middleton, Tatum, AD, who else?

Oh yeah that's right, they do it by position, don't they? I think Butler was classified as a guard and Davis as a center for all star selection this year, so if they do that again for all-NBA, the forward spot is unusually weak due in large part to the injuries to KD, PG13, and Griffin. I would add maybe Ingram and Bam to your list? But if you have Tatum, Ingram, Bam, Siakam, and Middleton competing for three spots, I can't see Tatum not getting one of them unless he regresses a lot. I could even see him challenging Siakam for second team if Siakam doesn't regain his early season form and Tatum continues playing the way he has recently.

EDIT: My mistake, Butler was listed at forward for all star selection, but Davis at center.

[zoyathedestroya]

:oops:

Barring the unexpected, All-NBA locks this season so far, forwards: Giannis, Lebron, Kawhi

Then a bunch of guys who will fight for the other 3 spots: Siakam, Butler, Middleton, Tatum, AD, who else?

Oh yeah that's right, they do it by position, don't they? I think Butler was classified as a guard and Davis as a center for all star selection this year, so if they do that again for all-NBA, the forward spot is unusually weak due in large part to the injuries to KD, PG13, and Griffin. I would add maybe Ingram and Bam to your list? But if you have Tatum, Ingram, Bam, Siakam, and Middleton competing for three spots, I can't see Tatum not getting one of them unless he regresses a lot. I could even see him challenging Siakam for second team if Siakam doesn't regain his early season form and Tatum continues playing the way he has recently.

For All-Star voting, there are no centers -- just guards and forwards/bigs. Davis and Butler were classified as forwards. I think AD will be classified as a forward with Dwight and McGee playing center for the Lakers. Yep, Bam and Ingram will both be in the convo but I think Tatum will win out against those two -- best player on 3rd seed vs. 2nd best player on 4th/5th seed then Pels might not even make the playoffs and Ingram's D is iffy.

[Fencer reregistered]

:oops:

Barring the unexpected, All-NBA locks this season so far, forwards: Giannis, Lebron, Kawhi

Then a bunch of guys who will fight for the other 3 spots: Siakam, Butler, Middleton, Tatum, AD, who else?

Oh yeah that's right, they do it by position, don't they? I think Butler was classified as a guard and Davis as a center for all star selection this year, so if they do that again for all-NBA, the forward spot is unusually weak due in large part to the injuries to KD, PG13, and Griffin. I would add maybe Ingram and Bam to your list? But if you have Tatum, Ingram, Bam, Siakam, and Middleton competing for three spots, I can't see Tatum not getting one of them unless he regresses a lot. I could even see him challenging Siakam for second team if Siakam doesn't regain his early season form and Tatum continues playing the way he has recently.

For All-Star voting, there are no centers -- just guards and forwards/bigs. Davis and Butler were classified as forwards. I think AD will be classified as a forward with Dwight and McGee playing center for the Lakers. Yep, Bam and Ingram will both be in the convo but I think Tatum will win out against those two -- best player on 3rd seed vs. 2nd best player on 4th/5th seed then Pels might not even make the playoffs and Ingram's D is iffy.

Paul George? LMA? Joe Ingles? That's about all I got. Not threats to the guys already mentioned.

Butler, I presume, will be viewed as a guard for all-NBA purposes. Lebron perhaps should be as well, but most likely won't.

[Bleeding Green]

Tatum will be 2nd or 3rd team I'd say this year. Of the 15 players who got selected to the three teams last year, five (Griffin, Curry, George, Durant, Irving) of them are injured and won't be a consideration. Gonna be some new All-NBA players.

[bisme37]

New JT article from FiveThirtyEight...

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-jayson-tatum-changed-his-game-and-became-a-star/

[zoyathedestroya]

I love rando threshold marks haha. Tatum's numbers are fun to play with on bbref because of his age.

Read on Twitter

[zoyathedestroya]

Read on Twitter

Gods will what? Tat could use an apostrophe there. Still better than NO RAGRETS.

[Bleeding Green]

That is so bad lmao. I love that he feels so strongly about it that he felt he needed to get it done during the NBA season, though.

Tatum with the 50L suit jacket, 28 inch waist.

Since we could only see the first half of the first letter and that it ended in an 'l', I had really hoped it just said, "basketball". Kinda ruined my fantasy.

[Slax]

Read on Twitter

Gods will what? Tat could use an apostrophe there. Still better than NO RAGRETS.

Maybe he's polytheistic and believes that multiple gods are willing right now?

Also, Proverbs 3? Really? Real Bible stans know that Deutero-Isaiah is where all the best **** is at.

[3D Chess]

[LondonCeltics]

Saw on social media that he’s notched up 21 games this season with 25+ points compared with 3 last season and 1 in his rookie season. Assuming those figures are correct, has the ‘jump’ been made or is it the case that psycho’s departure simply allowed him the best benefit of more usage?

[K For Three]

Read on Twitter

Gods will what? Tat could use an apostrophe there. Still better than NO RAGRETS.

He missed a golden opportunity to get "Hello darkness my old friend" tattooed on his back, but it's his body and he can put what he wants on it.

[Duke4life831]

Tatum will be 2nd or 3rd team I'd say this year. Of the 15 players who got selected to the three teams last year, five (Griffin, Curry, George, Durant, Irving) of them are injured and won't be a consideration. Gonna be some new All-NBA players.

All depends on how the national media view his defense. It seems like whenever I hear the national media talk about him, the defense is an afterthought. The crappy thing about defense is lots of times you don't get the defensive accolades until a year after you become an elite defender because it takes some time for the narrative to catch up to the actual defensive product.

So if they dont give Tatum the full credit of being a defensive stud this year, I wouldn't be shocked if he misses out on the All NBA teams.

[24istheLAW]

Jayson is a marvelous basketball player. But god DAMN, how do you misspell a word in a tattoo?

[zoyathedestroya]

I'm no tattoo artist/expert but it seems salvageable. Just add an apostrophe in the space right above the s. Or just write "provide" on his mid-back area.

[Feed Your Head]

Between that ink and him choosing Power over The Wire, starting to doubt he can be our franchise player going forward.

[cloverleaf]

Forsberg wisely sidesteps commentary on it.

[TheSheriff]

Between that ink and him choosing Power over The Wire, starting to doubt he can be our franchise player going forward.

Well he is Generation Z not a Millennial.