By: Mike Doherty ’19

He is only 20 years old.

Jayson Tatum, the Celtics first round pick in the 2017-18 season is balling out this year. The former resident of St. Louis, started playing basketball when he was in grade school. Ever since he was in high school ESPN has ranked him in the top 100 players in his graduating class.

After high school he decided to attend  Duke University for a single year, where he averaged, nearly 17 points, six rebounds, and two assist. After one year of dominice he declared for the NBA draft where he was drafted 3rd by the Celtics.

This season Tatum has played even better than expected.  In just his sophomore year in the NBA, he is averaging over 20 points a game, along with more than 10 rebounds and over 1 steal a game. Numbers like these make Tatum a serious threat for opposing NBA teams.  

Even though the season has just started, Tatum is showing signs of becoming a future NBA star. Tatum is one of the most valuable members of this new Celtics team.  

A major part of his game that is helping is his incredible rebounding ability. In just one year Tatum has increased his rebounding per game by 5 rebounds. This is an area the Celtics struggled with last year, but this season with their small forward grabbing 10 plus rebounds a game, the Celtics are looking scary.

One aspect I would like to see Tatum improve on during the rest of the season is his assist rate. We all know Tatum is a great scorer and that his role on the team is to but the ball in the hoop, but he is surrounded by many other talented players who can also score the ball.

Tatum is not a selfish player and it is great to see him playing well, but there are three other all-stars on the team and the Celtics are all about sharing the basketball.

I know if Tatum keeps up with his scoring and rebounding, and improves his assist rate even by a small margin, the Celtics will be a force to be reckoned with in the NBA.

And remember, he is only 20 years old.

Sources used:

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/4065648/jayson-tatum

https://www.nba.com/celtics/draft/profile-jayson-tatum

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/jayson-tatum-1.html