Private enchancment is such a weird factor. It’s nearly like getting older. It occurs so step by step that the outcomes by no means really feel tangible — till you look again at the place you had been a couple of years in the past. Skilled enchancment is far the identical. It’s a uncommon talent certainly the place as soon as one thing clicks, you go from beginner to journeyman, or journeyman to professional. Ability degree is a spectrum and even all however one of many world’s masters seems as much as one other.
Enchancment is much less like placing collectively a puzzle one piece at a time, and extra like placing collectively a number of puzzles concurrently with the ultimate goal being to mix them right into a collage on the finish. Enchancment and improvement will not be linear. As a substitute, they’re a barely inverted sine wave, and so is getting older for that matter. Some days I nonetheless really feel mid-20s (though these have gotten a lot rarer), and different days the steps seem to be an unconquerable burden.
It’s been an extended improvement highway for Jayson Tatum’s isolation recreation, however he’s labored very exhausting on the disparate puzzles he’s needed to assemble to get the place he’s now. The place is he now you ask? Nicely, he’s fairly good.
Jayson Tatum continues his elite isolation play. Per Synergy, his isolation PPP (together with passes and min 50 possessions) places him on the 4th best isolation participant within the league. pic.twitter.com/u8MNz2SUYy
— Wayne Spooney (@WSpooney) November 30, 2024
Final yr, he ranked forty second within the NBA at 1.01 factors per possession, and the yr earlier than that, he was at 1.02. He’s by no means been a nasty isolation participant, however he’s by no means fairly been elite.
Till now.
Whereas it’s undoubtedly spectacular, it’s pushed by him hitting a a lot greater proportion of his 3s out of isolation and turning it over at a ridiculously low price (4.1% of possessions to six.5% final season). To me, the vital improvement there’s the shortage of turnovers. These aren’t only a sprinkle of his offense both. Isolation possessions alone account for nearly 30% of his offense, and should you embody pick-and-roll ballhandler possessions (with passes) which frequently finish in Tatum attacking a mismatch much like an iso, that’s one other 32% of his offense.
However his isolation enchancment isn’t simply concerning the numbers, or simply about his numbers a minimum of. Tatum’s isolation recreation doesn’t simply cross the attention check — it might learn that tremendous tiny print on the very backside of the web page. However probably the most spectacular half isn’t the scoring, it’s when he decides to not rating.
I’m not likely certain Tatum has improved as an isolation scorer, besides that the 3s are falling a bit extra usually this season. What he has improved on is when to assault in isolation and whom to assault. His determination making has by no means been damaging, however Tatum has embraced Mazzulla’s deliberate offensive strategy. He now has a posh understanding of the personnel on the court docket and the way he’s being defended, and he leverages that understanding at lightning velocity.
Why assault Haywood Highsmith when Duncan Robinson is on the court docket? As soon as Payton Pritchard forces the swap with a ghost display, Tatum doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t get right into a flurry of strikes that permit assist protection creep into place. He doesn’t let Robinson off the hook with a step-back jumper. He dives proper to the rim. And-1.
Similar factor right here, this time within the excessive publish in opposition to Tyler Herro. Fast determination, all the way in which to the rim.
Tatum’s pull-up 3 recreation has been the subject of many Celtics discussions, usually with a lot consternation. It’s, at occasions, a nasty shot, but it surely’s additionally a weapon that, when used accurately, diversifies Tatum’s assault. It’s going on this season and possibly that’s random, however I don’t assume so. Tatum appears to be unleashing the step-back in particular matchups, specifically in opposition to larger defenders which have a energy benefit on him. He’s additionally moving into them a bit faster, attacking earlier than the defender can sq. up.
He completely fires this factor off in opposition to Torrey Craig.
Just some crossovers to get Alex Sarr’s measure and it’s up.
Goes between the legs as soon as and it’s up in opposition to Jalen Duran.
Right here Duran does a significantly better job and really forces Tatum to point out off a little bit of his deal with. Money.
Since he’s so lethal with the pull-up in opposition to larger, slower gamers, he now works counters off of it. It’s like a grasp dancer main a newbie by a posh routine, leaving his mark a couple of steps behind.
His reluctance to settle in opposition to smaller gamers with the step-back is a microcosm of his bigger general progress as an isolation scorer, and participant on the whole. What number of occasions have we seen finish of quarter possessions finish in dribbling the air out of the ball earlier than firing up a prayer that’s not likely shut? Whereas Tatum nonetheless does this at occasions, he’s began to get downhill in these conditions as properly.
These aren’t unselfish performs within the conventional sense. In a lot of them, he’s capturing. However they’re unselfish in a extra macro method. Whereas he’s an elite playmaker out of isolations, his superior basketball IQ means he’s not losing possessions by attacking dangerous matchups or attacking good matchups within the fallacious method.
We wish Tatum to be egocentric, i.e. take lots of photographs, however we would like him to do it in a method that units himself, and the Celtics, up for fulfillment. The sort of speedy, complicated understanding of basketball is uncommon air. It’s, in some ways, the ultimate step to superstardom. Tatum is not simply manipulating his defender and weakside assist; he’s manipulating the entire court docket, each for himself and his teammates. Jayson Tatum has ascended.
