I just took a look at Tatum's shot chart. To the right of the FT line mid-range he's a disaster. To the left, he's money. Overall he's at 36.3% from 16 foot to the arc this season, and 42.9% last. I also felt that Kobe polluted his game, but the volume from there is the same as last year, 2.4 shots a game. The biggest difference is 57% of his makes from there were assisted last season, and only 44% this year. Overall, only 55.8% of his makes are assisted this season, to 66% his rookie year. The downtick in accuracy can be attributed to him trying to do more off the dribble than out of passes, and I attribute some of that to Kobe.
Well, that explains the drop in percentage.
I think that his mid-range fadeaway/turnaround has been a crutch for him. It's a shot he can get any time he wants it, and he knows that. And there are certain situations where it is a good shot (eg, late in clock, Tatum's on the floor without guys who can create, etc). Because's confident that he can get that shot, and it is legitimately valuable
sometimes, so he goes to it too often. As a result, he hasn't developed (or hasn't developed confidence in) other, better, moves.
Sometimes I think he should watch a lot of McHale video. When Kevin first came up he, too, took a lot of fadeways, it was only later that he put together his arsenal of insanely effective post moves. And his fadeaway remained one of those moves, but not really what he did most often or what he is really known for. The analogy only goes so far, Tatum not being a big, but I can't help but think there is stuff he could learn there.
BTW, did anyone see the (sort of) give and go he worked with Al Horford in the first quarter last night? Tatum makes an entry pass to Al to the mid post and is sort of just watching Al with the ball. Al, holding the ball, makes a gesture at Tatum that basically says "WTF are you waiting for?", Tatum cuts, Al gives it back, and there is help underneath (that maybe wouldn't have been there had Tatum just passed it and cut) but he scores anyway. No one commented on it, but it was hilarious.