Jayson Tatum had long been seen as a star in the NBA but last season was perhaps when he emerged as a superstar. Tatum was outstanding for the Celtics in the second half of the season and in the Eastern Conference playoffs, as he led them to the NBA Finals.
Tatum and the Celtics took a 2-1 lead in the Finals over the Golden State Warriors as well, but things went downhill after that. The Warriors won the next 3 games to win the championship, and Tatum, in particular, came under a lot of criticism for his performances.
Chris Mannix Says There Has Been A Shift In Jayson Tatum’s Mentality This Offseason
Tatum averaged 21.5 points per game on just 36.7% shooting as he struggled against Andrew Wiggins’ defense, and that was one of the biggest reasons why the Celtics came up short. The loss and his performances hit him hard and Chris Mannix says people around Tatum have noticed a shift in him this offseason.
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“I spent a few weeks before that talking to people that were close to Tatum. They did describe a shift in him, a change that they’ve seen from previous offseasons. A guy that went from kind of focused on a few different things to focused only on one thing, and that’s finding a way to get his team to a championship level.”
“That meant improving his own game, so he targeted very specific things. He targeted ways to get to the free-throw line more when he goes to the basket. He worked with Kevin Durant this offseason, we all saw those pictures online. But when he was working with Durant, one of the things they worked on extensively was how Durant was able to protect the basketball so well. We know Tatum had 100 turnovers in the playoffs last year. That was a point of emphasis for him this offseason. So, he went into the summer really locked in on finding his weaknesses and shoring each one of them up.”
Once someone gets a taste of playing at that NBA Finals stage, they do develop an obsession with getting back there, especially when they were on the losing side. It is good to see Tatum putting all of his focus on finding a way to get his team to that championship level, and they’ll need him to be at his absolute best for that.
Sorting out those turnover issues would help a lot, as he did set the record for the most turnovers in a single postseason run, but Jaylen Brown has another challenge for Tatum. On the back of this whole Ime Udoka situation, Brown wants Tatum to become a more vocal leader, so as to correct the ship and get things off to the right start for the Celtics.
