fallguy wrote:Agree with most of your list. But would excise Haliburton and I expect AD will eventually fall off when he gets hurt. But your point stands. Tatum, however great he has been, isn't top-5 this season.
I think (?) most of the angst on the board with respect to Tatum speaks to a lack of confidence that he can elevate to be a top-5 player for three rounds of the playoffs (we won't need it in round one). Even with our talent advantage, we'll need Tatum to be That Guy™ for the final three rounds. It's fair to wonder if he will be, given that he hasn't done it yet. But it's also fair to believe this is his year given what we've seen from him so far.
There’s only three guys that I’d take over Tatum in a playoff run. Jokic, Giannis, and Steph. He may not be a top 5 regular season player, but we don’t need that. We need him to be that guy in the playoffs, and we will 100% get that. I’m going to quote my post from last night that got lost in the post game raging shuffle lol.
Come playoff time, it’ll be more Tatum centric. Guaranteed, 100% lock.
He’s just picking his spots, and still averaging 27 on a 60% TS.
I cannot stress enough how much of a monster playoffs Tatum is going to have. The stuff he’s made the leaps in just scream playoff basketball. Mid range, post ups, iso scoring, he’s been one of the best in the league at all of them. And for the people yelling for more drives, it’s well documented that Tatum always significantly ups his drive game in the playoffs.
And that’s while sharing the floor with bench crews a ton. In the playoffs when he’s out there with KP most of the time? Nah, lights out for other defenses.