This season can be said to be an important turning point in the history of the NBA. In the regular season, the Thunder and Timberwolves rose in the West, and the Celtics dominated the East; In the playoffs, after the Warriors went out of the play-offs early, the Suns were swept by the Timberwolves, the Lakers were sent home by the Nuggets to fish, including the Clippers left early without Leonard again; The Heat + Bucks + 76ers in the East have not escaped the fate of being eliminated in the first round, and the NBA playoffs have suddenly become unfamiliar: if there are no veterans such as James, Durant, Curry, and Harden this season, will they be able to go further next season? Including Brother Alphabet and Embiid, in the less competitive East, there is a lack of a place, which shows the rapid rise of the new generation, as well as the real level of leadership of some stars. Of course, Brother Alphabet's injury is an exception.
After the departure of these championship giants and legendary supergiants, the situation in the West has become more complicated, the Thunder and the Mavericks are inseparable, the Timberwolves and the Nuggets are comparable, and the four teams have some obvious shortcomings, which will have to compete with the team boss to lead the ceiling, at least Jokic > Edwards = Alexander > Doncic, this sort is not much of a problem. And on the eastern side, at a glance, the Pacers only have offense and no defense, the Knicks only start and no bench, and the Cavaliers have fallen as the playoffs go deeper, even the first two scoring points of the starters, Mitchell and Allen! It's a bit sad, but at the same time, congratulations to the Celtics, the biggest favorites this season, for entering the Finals with one foot, which is also the guaranteed floor of their strongest starting five, which is not enough to reach their ceiling! So where is their ceiling?
In the end, it depends on Tatum. Last offseason, Brown and the Celtics reached a five-year, $304 million contract (the contract became a five-year $288 million due to the salary cap shrinkage), and this summer Tatum's five-year, $338 million super cap salary contract, it is certain that the Celtics will not miss the opportunity to renew the contract early, otherwise the future expenses will be greater, and Tatum will not be willing to live under Brown! In the regular season, Tatum averaged 27 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game, Brown averaged 23 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, and in the playoffs, Tatum averaged 24.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, and Brown averaged 24.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. The stats are close, but Brown's effective shooting percentage is 61.3 percent, which ranks 20th in the league; Tatum's effective shooting percentage is 46.3%, which ranks 101st in the league (112 players in total).
Counting last season's playoffs, Tatum averaged 23.7 points per game in 12 playoff games, shooting as low as 41.8% + 22.7% from the field. The Celtics can crush 85% of the league's teams in the regular season, relying on the magic ball system, to put it bluntly, it is a three-point projection team, as long as the hand is opened, it is like mercury pouring on the ground, and it often hits the opposite side in waves. But as the boss of the Celtics, Tatum's ability to solve the game is even inferior to Brown and White. Even in the regular season, Tatum's average of 2.9 points + 36.1% + 33.3% per game at critical moments is not worth mentioning. And the playoffs are a good mirror, the first game between the Celtics and the Cavaliers, the Celtics easily won by 25 points, Tatum was 7 of 19, plus 4 free throws, a total of 18 points, and the team's winning heroes were Jaylen Brown and White!
In the fourth game against the Cavaliers, the Cavaliers lost Mitchell, the Celtics won by an embarrassing 7 points, Tatum made 25 shots + 9 free throws, scored 16 points in the first quarter, and scored 33 points in the game. To put it simply, Tatum is not very consistent in the playoffs when he is not under pressure. It's really a stalemate, Tatum is aggressive offensively, far less than Jaylen Brown. Coach Mazzulla has emphasized this many times, hoping that Tatum will be more resolute, but Tatum can't change it, his personality is like to float on the outside to shoot, lack of effective offensive means in the low post, and the details of the offensive frame are not solid, often drop the ball or make mistakes. There are also many examples in the regular season, such as two games against the Nuggets, one with 22 points from 24 from the field, and the other game with 15 points from 5 of 13. Playing a big team, Tatum seriously lacks self-confidence.
The real opponent of the Celtics led by Tatum is not the Raptors, Wizards, and Hawks in the East, but the opponents in the West who are potentially standing on the stage of the Finals, because the lower limit of their lineup is already the Finals! Could it be that he can't move the upper limit of one step forward? But in this season's playoffs, even in the face of the Heat without Butler and the Cavaliers without Allen, Tatum's efficiency is still not high. When the intensity of confrontation was increased in the playoffs, Tatum and the leaders of the new generation: Alexander, Edwards, and Brunson were different, and the other cores were to face difficulties, and the more I was sandwiched up, the more I had to score and carry the team forward; Tatum is hiding! When James was in the East, the Celtics had already touched the Eastern Conference finals, and there was no suspense that Tatum would reach the Eastern Conference finals for the fifth time in his 7-year career, but was this his credit or the credit of the whole team?
The NBA's overrated supergiant is naturally Tatum. Even if Tatum stands on the stage of the finals again, facing the competition of several super teams in the West, Tatum's core competitiveness is incomparable to that of other team bosses. Year after year, the Celtics use the framework of the double tanhua system, and it can't be said that they have failed, after all, their lower limit is already very high, but it is just a little bit, what can't be done in the past few years, Tatum still hasn't improved and changed this season, and it's doomed! Say goodbye to the championship, Tatum is really not the material to be the boss of the team, this is also the biggest pain point of the Celtics, really, the long pain is better than the short pain, and the double tanhua should be dismantled.