Lets not overlook the fact... Jayson Tatum exposed

[PizzaSteve]

Celts were competitive. He competed hard. He just missed shots in one half of one game (through constant elitely timed help defense). The Celts lost by a dozen or so, despite this, partly due to his defensive effort). Nothing 'exposed' about that.

Curry had an 0-9 from 3 when he got similar defensive attention. Since Curry is more experienced at how to use that to open the floor for others, it didn't cost them the game.

If that was exposure, what was the PHX meltdown against Luka and Dallas?

[sp6r=underrated]

LOL,
Great RS, 1st Round, 2nd Round, CF.

Yes he played poorly in the Finals. Lots of no question all time greats have turned in poor finals. Off top of my head,

Duncan (2005), Lebron (2007), Kobe (2004), Dirk (2006)

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Leave the exposed threads to Pharmy. Only he has the temerity and wisdom to determine if someone has truly been exposed or not.

Temerity actually means the opposite of what I assumed it meant, but lets run with it, no stopping now, its appropriate anyways.

[CharityStripe34]

A month ago he shut down and beat Giannis. It took the greatest NBA team in recent memory to stop Tatum and Celtics. He is also 24 I believe, most all time greats with multiple championships didnt win their first ship until they were closing to 30.

Do people even know what exposed mean. I mean I am no expert of this language, but to me, exposed would mean that someone exposed so previously unknown weakness of something, lets say a player, that makes that player useless from now on with opponents having that knowledge. Tatum is far from eposed, he sucked, but he will come back stronger.

LOL....cmon man. I just gave Tatum his props, he will be back to this level if they keep that team together.

However, he did not shut down Giannis and his team beat Giannis's team. He barely guarded Giannis that was mostly Horford/Grant Williams...and even still Giannis put up:

24/13/12
28/9/7
42/12/8
34/16/18
40/11/3
44/20/6
25/20/9


If that is shutting down then Giannis is better than I thought. But Tatum was not exposed. I hate whenever a player loses a game or a series he is "exposed." What a joke! Tatum is a great player and ascending every year.

Fair fair, but Giannis did had his share of struggles that I guess doesnt really appear on a stat sheat, and Tatum + Horford were great defensively in that series.

Tatum was killed whenever he got switched onto Gianni so (as was Brown). Horford and G. Williams shared most of the work and did an admirable job. The best game Tatum ever played was Game 6 where he went toe-to-toe with Freak and hit some ridiculous shots to keep the Bucks at bay.

As per the original topic, LOL we need a "RealGM Exposed Players" Hall of Fame by now. Tatum will be fine he's only 24 and a very good player.

[CobraCommander]

Not many teams have a better player than Tatum under 25 years old...if any....Tatum led his team to the finals beating 3 of the best players on earth in butler, KD and Giannis - Beating Curry would have been a Dirk like finals run.

GSW beat the hell out of every one of the young guns they faced, Luka, Jokic Tatum and Ja....

but Tatum had to deal with a bunch of proven monsters and the final boss was STEPH CURRY....


Tatum needs to grab a Mountain Dew and start over now knowing the final boss is hard- but he has experience.


Problem with Boston is - what do they do to improve? Or is it - they all just get incrementally better and run it back

[Crazy-Canuck]

Or maybe give some credit to gsw for playing good defense?

[brutalitops]

Or maybe give some credit to gsw for playing good defense?

That can't possibly be a reason.

[Optms]

LOL,
Great RS, 1st Round, 2nd Round, CF.

Yes he played poorly in the Finals. Lots of no question all time greats have turned in poor finals. Off top of my head,

Duncan (2005), Lebron (2007), Kobe (2004), Dirk (2006)

All those guys were top 3 players when they had those bad Finals. Tatum is a fringe top 10 player. Stop it.

[Optms]

Or maybe give some credit to gsw for playing good defense?

Wiggins outplayed Tatum.

Are we just gonna ignore that he got the business on both ends? Andrew Wiggins shut down Tatum. Let that sink in.

[Hornet Mania]

Tatum was slightly overrated heading into the Finals after playing well in the first three rounds, but I don't think this series was indicative of anything aside from that he wasn't ready to carry the load in the Finals this year. Using that as a basis to doubt he'll ever do better is going too far.

It's not like he's 30. He's still improving, adding to his game, and in the future it's possible he will learn from this experience and get over the hump.

I say that as someone who has never been a Tatum true believer (I think his potential is lower end of top 10-15 in the league, not MVP candidate)

[timO]

His finals were a choke job.

[yosemiteben]

Just fyi, Tatum played 200 more minutes in the playoffs than guys like Steph and Wiggins.

He was also 4th in the league in minutes played during the regular season, and played 400 more minutes than Wiggins who had the most regular season minutes for GSW.

He also played in the Olympics last offseason.

Dude was gassed and the opposite of load managed. Give him a full offseason to rest and load manage him a bit, then let's see if he struggles in the finals.

[a8bil]

LOL...these threads. Good grief. There's not a team in this league that wouldn't take Tatum on a max contract.

[Raps in 4]

Screw off with this take.

How about you tell me why he is a top 10 player instead getting salty this morning Or just ignore the post.

1. Giannis
2. Jokic
3. Steph
4. Luka
5. Embiid
6. KD
7. Lebron

He'd be fighting over the last three spots with old and/or always injured guys like Kawhi, AD, Harden, Dame. If Kawhi and AD can return to form next year, they're going to slot in there (Kawhi at his best is easily top-5), but that's a big if.

[_NoMas]

Screw off with this take.

How about you tell me why he is a top 10 player instead getting salty this morning Or just ignore the post.

1. Giannis
2. Jokic
3. Steph
4. Luka
5. Embiid
6. KD
7. Lebron

He'd be fighting over the last two spots with old and/or always injured guys like Kawhi, AD, Harden, Dame. If Kawhi and AD can return to form next year, they're going to slot in there (Kawhi at his best is easily top-5), but that's a big if.

Agree with this. I’m assuming kawhi comes back close to his best, so that’s 8 players definitely ahead of Tatum. After that it’s a bit of ‘what do you prefer’ with guys like Ja, Tatum, Booker, AD, Butler etc

[a8bil]

Screw off with this take.

How about you tell me why he is a top 10 player instead getting salty this morning Or just ignore the post.

1. Giannis
2. Jokic
3. Steph
4. Luka
5. Embiid
6. KD
7. Lebron

He'd be fighting over the last three spots with old and/or always injured guys like Kawhi, AD, Harden, Dame. If Kawhi and AD can return to form next year, they're going to slot in there (Kawhi at his best is easily top-5), but that's a big if.

OP is mistaking "exposed" with what happens when a non-ball dominant player becomes the focal point of a defense's efforts. Even Curry struggles at times when teams load up to defend him, but Curry can still excel because of his ball handling and ability to distribute within an offense where the players know how to become the second option. Tatum still needs to develop, but the Celts offense as a whole needs to get better. Too much ISO ball.

[sp6r=underrated]

LOL,
Great RS, 1st Round, 2nd Round, CF.

Yes he played poorly in the Finals. Lots of no question all time greats have turned in poor finals. Off top of my head,

Duncan (2005), Lebron (2007), Kobe (2004), Dirk (2006)

All those guys were top 3 players when they had those bad Finals. Tatum is a fringe top 10 player. Stop it.

He finished 6th in MVP voting this year.

[JayMKE]

My opinion of Tatum is mostly unchanged, consistency and mental toughness are things he obviously needs to improve on but he’s only 24. If he stays healthy he’s going to have a long career and score a lot of points, Celtics should be competitive for foreseeable future so he’ll get more chances to prove himself in the future.

[Eric Bieniemy]

Jayson Tatum is the poster child for the benefits of properly nurturing talent. He has benefitted mightily from being drafted by a great organization and being allowed to play many minutes right away while being coached well and surrounded by strong vets to show him "the way".

There are many talented players, especially those with heads on their shoulders, who would benefit from his opportunity. Kudos to him for taking advantage and becoming an all-NBA guy. He has earned it.

All that being said, he's overrated for sure. He is good but not nearly as good as the media purports him to be. However, if I'm Boston, I don't hesistate to run it back again with this same group. The only change I'd make is giving White more minutes at lead guard, possibly starting him over or with Smart. Boston has a great opportunity to be really good ... even if Tatrum never becomes an all-time great.

[CptCrunch]

Tatum is still barely a baby.

Burnt out from playing a long season and playoff series.

Had a bad series.