Grading Jayson Tatum, Celtics' Top Stars to Open 2021-22 NBA Season
All is not well with the Boston Celtics.
Sure, they snapped a three-game losing streak on Wednesday, but there are only so many brownie points to be earned from a triumph over the rebuilding Orlando Magic. Not to mention, the win was reportedly preceded by a players-only meeting that ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski described as "perhaps not a terribly productive meeting—maybe not even beneficial," h/t Celtics Wire.
This, of course, came after the Celtics collapsed on Monday night, turning a 19-point, third-quarter lead into a 14-point loss to the Chicago Bulls and making Marcus Smart openly question the late-game strategy afterward while calling out All-Star teammates Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
"Every team knows we're trying to go to Jayson and Jaylen," Smart told reporters. "Every team is programmed and studied to stop Jayson and Jaylen. I think everybody's scouting report is to make those guys pass the ball. They don't want to pass the ball."
Like we said, things are not great in Boston. It's (incredibly) early, of course, so maybe a few weeks are all that's needed for it to feel like the sky isn't actually falling. But this is Boston's reality at the moment, so let's dive into the early struggles and see how much of these issues land with their biggest stars.
Jaylen Brown
1 of 3
Last season, Jaylen Brown used a significant spike in offensive production to book his first ever trip to the All-Star Game.
This season, he's doing everything in his power to save his spot.
The sixth-year swingman is once again raising the bar (and his numbers) on the offensive end. His 26.9 points per game would be a new career-high. Same goes for his 50.7 field-goal percentage. While he's had better than his 37.7 three-point percentage, it still follows almost perfectly in line with his career norm (37.8).
His assists are down (3.4 to 2.6), though, and his turnovers are up (2.7 to 3.0), so it's not an across-the-board improvement. But he's a lot closer to the solution than the source of Boston's problems.
Grade: B-plus
Marcus Smart
2 of 3
When Smart urged the Jays to pass the ball more, it wasn't just a general request for more ball movement. It was a personal plea to up his individual involvement.
"There's only so much I can do without the ball in my hand, sitting in the corner," Smart told reporters.
Smart has a point. Sort of.
Despite talks of an increased offensive role and an expanded workload, his numbers are all trending down. He's averaging fewer points (8.7, down from 13.1), shots (9.4, 10.6) and assists (4.0, 5.7) than last season. His usage percentage has also declined (14.4, 17.9).
However, the more effective way of increasing his touches would be doing more with the ones he's getting. It's kind of hard to force-feed a player who's posting a paltry 30.3/28.9/66.7 shooting slash.
Grade: C-minus
Jayson Tatum
3 of 3
Skill-wise, Tatum is as good as it gets on this roster. That's not a slight to his Celtics' teammates, either. There aren't many players in the entire league with a deeper bag of scoring tricks than the fifth-year forward.
But the knowledge of how great he can be only serves to increase frustration when he finds himself in a funk like this.
He is perilously close to averaging the same number of shots as points, which doesn't seem like it should be possible when he's providing 24.3 of the former per night. That's what happens, though, when a high-volume player hits just 38.3 percent of his field goals and 26.2 percent of his threes.
Compounding Tatum's issues, he might be carrying his offensive struggles to the opposite end. Last season was the first time his matchup shot better against him (46.9 percent) than they did on average (46.0). This is on course to be his second, only the gap has widened (47.8 and 44.7, respectively).
The Celtics are actually losing Tatum's minutes by 1.1 points per 100 possessions, giving him the only negative net rating among Boston's starters. He is (a lot) better than this, but since we can only grade on what he's done so far this season, that can't cushion the blow.
Grade: D-plus
