Siakam or Tatum

[penbeast0]

Who was the better player this year?

[Prez]

It was close early on but with Tatum's mid-season leap and Siakam kinda plateauing and then flat out regressing in the bubble, you gotta go Tatum and by a pretty decent margin. Think he's on a different tier entirely now.

[Cavsfansince84]

Tatum is closer to embracing the #1 role on a contender imo which was also pretty evident when their two teams met in the playoffs. Tatum was the best player in the series while Siakam was just another player. Also agree with the above reply on Tatum surpassing him as the season went on.

[penbeast0]

My impression too. Interesting that Siakam was 2nd team All-NBA and Tatum 3rd.

[O_6]

Siakam had a much more impressive start of the season. He was actually getting a ton of darkhorse MVP candidate attention early in the year. I could be forgetting someone but I'm pretty sure the MVP race was Giannis/Luka/Harden/LeBron/Siakam in that order after the first 20 or so games. You could tell that Tatum's defense had improved in 2020 even from the 1st game, but he was really struggling on offense at the start of the year.

Through First 20 games of 2020:
Siakam --- 25.1 PPG -- 8.6 RPG -- 3.9 APG -- .467/.384/.813 shooting -- .564 TS%
Tatum ---- 21.0 PPG -- 7.0 RPG -- 2.8 APG -- .406/.348/.824 shooting -- .512 TS%

There was no question who the better player at the start of the year was. Spicy P effortlessly stepped into the #1 scorer void that Kawhi left. Whereas Tatum was just a mess on offense and had people wondering if his rookie season had made us overrate how much potential he really had.

But after the start of the year, things kind of changed and Siakam regressed a little bit while Tatum made "the leap" into true superstar status.

Rest of the Season:
Siakam --- 21.7 PPG -- 6.7 RPG -- 3.3 APG -- .445/.346/.783 shooting -- .549 TS%
Tatum ---- 24.5 PPG -- 7.0 RPG -- 3.2 APG -- .470/.425/.807 shooting -- .591 TS%

Siakam dropped out of the MVP conversation pretty quickly and his scoring/shooting took a dive from where it was at the start of the year. Tatum, on the other hand, put it all together and just became an offensive monster in the middle of the year. These "Rest of Season" stats actually underrate how good he had become by the end of the pre-COVID season. If you look at Tatum's last 20 games before the COVID-break, he was averaging 28.2 PPG on a .611 TS% and just tearing the league apart.

IMO, one of the signature games of the entire 2020 regular season was the Boston Celtics' Double OT win against the Clippers. Tatum went right at Kawhi on both ends and just took it to him, completely outplaying him when it mattered. Kawhi had 5 points on 2/9 shooting with 3 turnovers in the 4th quarter + both OTs. Tatum 17 points on 6/9 shooting and 2 turnovers over the same stretch. THIS was the moment when I believe Jayson Tatum Officially became a superstar in this league.

When I did my POY rankings before the COVID break, I ranked Tatum 10th and Siakam 15th with a pretty clear gap between the two. I also ranked Kyle Lowry 14th, one spot ahead of Siakam.

When it comes to the All-NBA voting, I really believe the reason why Siakam got the 2nd team nod over Tatum is because of the COVID break making media members forget the flow of the season and how Tatum was clearly the better player by the time the break happened. They looked at the Raptors having a better record than the Celtics and decided that was the tiebreaker to give Siakam the nod over Tatum, since their stats looked similar on the surface.

They also decided that Siakam was CLEARLY the best player on the Raptors over Kyle Lowry. They completely disrespected Lowry by voting for Ben Simmons on the 3rd team instead of him. I actually understand the logic of Westbrook since he was playing some amazing ball when COVID hit, but thinking Ben Simmons deserved to be voted ahead of Kyle Lowry for an All-NBA team is ridiculous. And I also like Bradley Beal, but his empty stat no defense 2020 season did not deserve more votes than Lowry either.

TLDR: Siakam started hot, but by the end of 2020 there's no question Tatum > Siakam. Siakam got the All-NBA 2nd team nod over Tatum because voters 1. Forgot how good Tatum had become before COVID hit and 2. Completely disrespected Kyle Lowry

[Dutchball97]

I thought it was dead even till around the All-Star break. Then Tatum started outperforming Siakam in the rest of the season and their play-off performance has been worlds apart.

[PistolPeteJR]

This one isn't close. It's Tatum.

[mademan]

This one isn't close. It's Tatum.

It very much is close, but definitive. Tatum was better

[Heej]

I actually don't think it's THAT close either considering Siakams self combustion in the playoffs lol

[PistolPeteJR]

This one isn't close. It's Tatum.

It very much is close, but definitive. Tatum was better

Defensively, it's close between them, though I give the nod to Tatum.
Offensively, it isn't close.

Conclusion, it isn't close at all. When you can't shoot and have a limited offensive repertoire in the playoffs when defenses clamp down and the game slows down, who you really are as a player becomes much clearer. I think we've all been watching and can see what's been happening in the postseason.

[mademan]

This one isn't close. It's Tatum.

It very much is close, but definitive. Tatum was better

Defensively, it's close between them, though I give the nod to Tatum.
Offensively, it isn't close.

Conclusion, it isn't close at all. When you can't shoot and have a limited offensive repertoire in the playoffs when defenses clamp down and the game slows down, who you really are as a player becomes much clearer. I think we've all been watching and can see what's been happening in the postseason.

tbh, i thought it said RS. but youre right, including the playoffs, it wasnt close

[PistolPeteJR]

It very much is close, but definitive. Tatum was better

Defensively, it's close between them, though I give the nod to Tatum.
Offensively, it isn't close.

Conclusion, it isn't close at all. When you can't shoot and have a limited offensive repertoire in the playoffs when defenses clamp down and the game slows down, who you really are as a player becomes much clearer. I think we've all been watching and can see what's been happening in the postseason.

tbh, i thought it said RS. but youre right, including the playoffs, it wasnt close

Tbh, I didn't remember what the OP said when I made my initial comment

But it's hard to ignore the playoffs when comparing them haha, and I'm a Raptor fan.

[Pelly24]

Seriously though, Tatum has very good to elite ball skills. He knows how to attack, he can make floaters, stepback threes, reverse layups, fadeaways, etc. He's even got some solid court vision. Just give him another year and it's going to be ridiculous. I see him averaging 25/8/4 on 60 TS% with great defense for the next 10 years. Probably peaks at a higher point total. Siakam just doesn't have the bag, and I don't think you can teach it. It's something you get from watching Kobe and MJ.

[Woodsanity]

Tatum by a good margin. Its all about playoffs and Siakim melts down in the playoffs.

Only RS is comparable.

[NY 567]

I had Siakam as the better player by a hair during the first half of the season, but in the second half, and especially in the bubble, it's clearly been Tatum.

[drosereturn]

Its close. Tatum was playing like garbage in therl first 20. He just had some impressive spurt from the end to the bubble.