What's the next step in Jayson Tatum's growth? | Good Word with Goodwill
Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill and basketball analyst Isis "Ice" Young discuss what's the next leap for the Boston Celtics forward. Hear the full conversation on “Good Word with Goodwill” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Shockingly, Jason Tatum is no longer 19.
We've been saying that for about, you know, 78 years, he's only 19.
That man got kids.
You know, he's part of that starting five.
Like he is a full grown adult.
Remember his hair wasn't growing.
He had that, he, he didn't have the curls back then.
He barely had facia.
He's a full grown man and now he's an NBA champion.
But ice, how much more room does Jason Tatum have left to grow when you look at his game?
Not just this season because this season he's off to a great start.
The Celtics are shooting the blood out of the ball because they're taking 50 threes a night.
Tatum is already one of the most uh decorated two way players in the game.
He takes on matchups on both ends of the floor.
Is it shot selection that you think is the final frontier for him because he cannot, it's not that he can get more athletic, you know, not that he's necessarily like lacking, but he's not a super athlete.
So is that just the final thing for Jason Tatum is just the shot selection and maybe the distribution, if you want to say the distribution isn't consistent enough for you.
I think that depends sometimes on how the Celtics play and if he's on a roll he doesn't have to, to distribute.
Right.
And so it's more so within their scheme.
Um, but yeah, I agree with you.
I think, I think he's at a, at a place now where the mature IQ is what you need to get to that You are always reading the game the right way, making the correct decisions.
Yes, of course.
Maybe you make one or 23 mistakes a game, but they have to be minimal.
So I think of it almost like you need to be playing, you know, perfect games like perfect mature games in that way.
I also think for where the Celtics are as a franchise and where they're trying to get to that, this is going to be critical for him.
Obviously, people are going to get better, they're going to challenge them a little bit better.
And so I think him growing at his maturity level and his IQ on the floor only helps them play a better brand of basketball, which is already the best one out there right now.
Um But I think that's where he can grow.
I think all the accolades and things are going to come.
He, he's got a ton, I just say it's maturity and thinking the game