pacers33granger wrote:You heavily implied it. Otherwise, the comparison is pointless. You could have just as easily used Pierce and Rudy Gay as comparisons, but that points to the opposite result you're advocating for.
Rudy Gay doesn't make any sense. We saw LBJ and Pierce go head to head in 2008, and they were rivals as stated by LBJ himself. The primary difference was Pierce was many years older and not nearly the defender. Pierce won the championship, LBJ got eliminated in the ECSF.
Rudy Gay has absolutely no parallels with this situation. Nowhere was the skill level equated, except for your imagination, however the situation is pretty obviously relevant.
pacers33granger wrote:I don't see how 25 is someone's athletic peak. There's typically a few more years of growth. And I do not think Siakam can be the best offensive player on a title team, but there's no evidence that Tatum can either.
At 25 your quick-twitch muscles are no longer developing. You can gain endurance, but most track and field athletes focusing on explosive and short-distance related events peak around 24-25. Tatum in his rookie
pacers33granger wrote:Tatum really has not shown that kind of offensive skill. Very skilled no doubt, but it's hyperbole to say he's shown Kobe-esque abilities on that end.
Watching Kobe early in his career, it's definitely a safe comparison. Kobe was not this good in his rookie year, or even close. They have very similar skill sets, albeit different mind sets.
pacers33granger wrote:I don't think they're similar level players. One had an outstanding breakout season culminating in a title as the 2nd option. The other had an underwhelming regression that, while still good, had people questioning the ceiling of the player and most realizing they need to pump the brakes on expectations.
Siakam had a great season, but Tatum's playoff run was arguably better than Siakam's. Siakam averaged .5ppg more on 4% lower TS as the second option than Tatum did as the highest scorer on his team.
Siakam struggled in the playoffs, but nobody pumped any breaks because Fred VanVleet and Lowry stepped up huge. Siakam wasn't the second option for much of the playoffs, or even the 3rd best player. Siakam averaged 14ppg on 47% TS against the Bucks and 19ppg on 53% TS against the 76ers. His defense wasn't that exceptional. It's exciting how much he's improved since last year, but to say he was the second best player on the Raptors during the playoffs is a giant stretch.
Tatum, meanwhile, was the first option and second best player on the Celtics. Just because they didn't incorporate Kyrie and Hayward in successfully, doesn't mean pump the breaks until he's less valuable than Siakam. Ben Simmons vs Tatum was a reasonable debate, although it seems like Simmons projects higher. Simmons is clearly better than Siakam already, but Tatum is pretty close to Siakam by most measures.