{"id":48566,"date":"2022-10-06T12:17:44","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T16:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=48566"},"modified":"2022-10-06T12:17:44","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T16:17:44","slug":"top-nba-players-2022-23-9-jayson-tatum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/10\/06\/top-nba-players-2022-23-9-jayson-tatum\/","title":{"rendered":"Top NBA Players 2022-23: #9 Jayson Tatum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jayson Tatum<\/b><\/a> is number 9 on our list of the best players for the upcoming 2022-2023 season. The <\/span>Boston Celtics<\/span><\/a> originally traded <\/span>Markelle Fultz<\/b><\/a> to the <\/span>Philadelphia 76ers<\/span><\/a> for Tatum and a future Philly first that become <\/span>Romeo Langford<\/b><\/a>. Tatum has since become one of the best players in the league, and the clear-cut best player on a team that just <\/span>made the NBA Finals<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tatum will face immense tests of his on-court talents and leadership abilities this season. The absence of head coach Ime Udoka for at least this season means the Celtics will need to avoid the infighting and players-only meetings that have plagued them in the past. Tatum will need to balance his individual goals with those of his ascending teammate <\/span>Jaylen Brown<\/span><\/a>. What\u2019s in store for Tatum this <\/span>season with the Celtics<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Top NBA Players 2022-23: #9 Jayson Tatum<\/h2>\n

Jayson Tatum\u2019s 2022-2023 Season<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Everything seemed calm in Boston just a few weeks ago. Now with Udoka gone and <\/span>Robert Williams III<\/b><\/a> missing significant early-season time after knee surgery, Tatum has a much larger on-court load to bear. New Celtic <\/span>Danilo Gallinari<\/b><\/a> tore his ACL during this summer\u2019s Eurobasket tournament, taking away one player who could have eased Tatum\u2019s burden.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately for Boston, Tatum\u2019s upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing. He\u2019s been Boston\u2019s unquestioned number 1 option on offense the last two seasons and averaged over 26 points per game. Normally the increased responsibility would decrease a player\u2019s efficiency, but he\u2019s increased his two-point shooting percentage over that time. Tatum accomplished this by<\/span> improving his at-rim finishing numbers<\/span><\/a>. He converted just 59.3% of those shots in 2019-20; that increased to over 68% in each of the past two seasons. <\/span><\/p>\n

Shifting more ball-handling responsibilities to <\/span>Marcus Smart<\/b><\/a> has had a positive impact on Tatum\u2019s game. Smart had assists on just over a quarter of Boston\u2019s made baskets while he was on the court, a career-high. Tatum\u2019s decreased playmaking responsibilities let him focus more on his scoring and defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tatum was a key part of Boston\u2019s league-best defense last season. The 6\u20198\u201d small forward is strong enough to avoid bullying from post-up threats. He can also move well enough laterally to provide resistance against most smaller players\u2019 drives. Among Boston\u2019s regular rotation players, only Williams and <\/span>Al Horford<\/b><\/a> forced opponents to <\/span>shoot a lower percentage as defenders<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jayson Tatum\u2019s Areas of Improvement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tatum could be named <\/span>NBA MVP<\/span><\/a> as early as this season, but the 24-year-old is far from a finished product. He needs be more consistent. Tatum has a history of starting his seasons slowly. He had by far his best two- and three-point shooting months in March and April last year. His best months in the oddly-paced 2020-21 season were in April and May. Increased consistency in the beginning of the season would help Boston bank more wins and be less dependent on having a strong late-season run for playoff seeding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much like his teammate Brown, Tatum needs to improve ball security. He committed 3.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, the most in his career. With Smart, <\/span>Malcolm Brogdon<\/b><\/a>, and <\/span>Derrick White<\/b><\/a> around to handle the ball, Tatum needs to (and should) reduce those turnovers. He occasionally dribbles the ball too high and improving his knee and hip flexibility would enable him to get lower when handling the ball.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tatum has improved his finishing at the rim, as mentioned above, but the <\/span>Finals loss<\/span><\/a> to the <\/span>Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a> exposed how elite defenses can still affect his layups. The Warriors had <\/span>Andrew Wiggins<\/b><\/a> as the primary defender with <\/span>Kevon Looney<\/b><\/a> waiting at the rim. <\/span>Draymond Green<\/b><\/a> used his preternatural timing to meet Tatum at the rim as well. Tatum could not finish around or through the swarm of defenders. Improving his at-rim finishing and\/or foul drawing would give Tatum an effective counter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, Tatum can improve his scoring efficiency between the rim and the three-point line. He shot just <\/span>37% from midrange and 40.3% from floater range<\/span><\/a> last season. Getting those percentages closer to 42% and 45%, respectively, is a reasonable expectation. Reaching those numbers would help make Tatum an MVP front-runner rather than simply a candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word on Jayson Tatum<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tatum is a special talent who has established himself as a top-10 player in the league. Still, the versatile small forward only turns 25 in March and has a number of improvements to be made to his game. Boston should make the playoffs again, and Tatum\u2019s performance there will be particularly enlightening. Contrast Tatum with his counterpart in last season\u2019s Eastern Conference Finals, <\/span>Jimmy Butler<\/span><\/a>. Tatum was a steady contributor, and Boston\u2019s best player, but he didn\u2019t reach Butler\u2019s heights. In order for Boston to win a title, Tatum may need to submit his version of Butler\u2019s back-to-back Conference Finals classics, which saw Butler put up 47 and 35 points in Games 6 and 7. Asking for that level of performance from a young player in Tatum feels unfair, but that\u2019s the last step for Tatum to take in his career.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jayson Tatum is number 9 on our list of the best players for the upcoming 2022-2023 season. The Boston Celtics originally traded Markelle Fultz to the Philadelphia 76ers for Tatum and a future Philly first that become Romeo Langford. Tatum has since become one of the best players in the league, and the clear-cut best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":48570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,62],"tags":[798],"class_list":["post-48566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics","category-nba","tag-jayson-tatum"],"modified_by":"Kunning Chen, Department Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}