Tatum got the bag(5 years, $195 million)

HowBoutDemSox

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Posting this purely for the good vibes:

View: https://twitter.com/drewhanlen/status/1331078648233828360?s=21


The bigger the bag of tricks, the bigger the bag! @jaytatum0 celebrated his $195 million deal by doing what he’s always done... WORK!!


JT working on the handle, step-back, and push-off on the drive.
That sidestep 3-pointer is so deadly. Teams in the playoffs had to aggressively double him to stop him from raining those down on them. And if he keeps improving his passing in those situations, look out.
 

BillMuellerFanClub

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You can tell on a few of those shots he's pulling up from Dame range. He can already shoot the lights out, but defenses having to respect a shot at 27' could make things a little more interesting.
 

Bleedred

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You can tell on a few of those shots he's pulling up from Dame range. He can already shoot the lights out, but defenses having to respect a shot at 27' could make things a little more interesting.
My dream is that JT gets so physically strong that he starts to finish around the basket, if not like LBJ, then something approximating that (not sure who the step down comp. would be, Kawai?). If he can absorb contact and finish (sort of like when MJ realized it was time to bulk up when the Pistons beat the shit out of him those first few years), given his amazing repertoire from distance, he's going to be virtually unguardable by one player.
 

lovegtm

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The sidestep/high-release fling 3 is going to end up as his iconic shot.

Cool to see them working on leveraging the threat of the stepback to open up drives.
 

TripleOT

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Watching Hanlen videos where NBA players of various sizes go at each other one on one is fun. Tatum was beasting three summers ago, and now he’s bigger and has a lot more weapons.

Tatum could be the first Celtic to ever lead the league in scoring if he gets the shots.
 

BaseballJones

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Love watching him work. But man it's painful that they allow that 3-4 step sideways move into a jump shot. I know, I'm old and crotchety. But still. Don't like it.

But love Tatum - dude is awesome.
 

lovegtm

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Love watching him work. But man it's painful that they allow that 3-4 step sideways move into a jump shot. I know, I'm old and crotchety. But still. Don't like it.

But love Tatum - dude is awesome.
It’s less painful when you understand the amount of skill it takes to do the gather properly without it being a travel, while also leaving yourself the ability to turn some of them into blow-bys.

The combination of ball-handling and footwork required is really, really hard to get right, and then you still have to make a 26-footer over a hard contest. It’s freaking amazing that a few guys can do it at 35-40% now.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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He still refuses to finish with his left hand in that video. This post brought to you by deborah downer
They’re clearly leaking that footage so the league will be unprepared when he unleashes the left finishes he’s been working on in secret for the 2021 Finals.
 

Jimbodandy

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It’s less painful when you understand the amount of skill it takes to do the gather properly without it being a travel, while also leaving yourself the ability to turn some of them into blow-bys.

The combination of ball-handling and footwork required is really, really hard to get right, and then you still have to make a 26-footer over a hard contest. It’s freaking amazing that a few guys can do it at 35-40% now.
Yeah I came around on it for this reason. It's such a specialized skill. If it were easy to do at high volume and efficiency, everyone would do it.
 

BaseballJones

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Yeah I'm just complaining that "back in my day" that would have been a travel, 100% of the time, no matter how skilled you were. Guys like Reggie Miller - heck, even Ray Allen - would have done it if they'd have allowed it back then.

None of this is to take away from Tatum - he's a tremendously talented player and I'm glad he's adding weapons to his arsenal. And if this is now legal in the NBA, then heck yeah be great at it.
 

lovegtm

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Yeah I'm just complaining that "back in my day" that would have been a travel, 100% of the time, no matter how skilled you were. Guys like Reggie Miller - heck, even Ray Allen - would have done it if they'd have allowed it back then.

None of this is to take away from Tatum - he's a tremendously talented player and I'm glad he's adding weapons to his arsenal. And if this is now legal in the NBA, then heck yeah be great at it.
It definitely warps the game further in favor of elite self-created 3s, that’s for sure. I’m glad the Celtics have one of the league’s rising stars in that department.
 

joe dokes

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They’re clearly leaking that footage so the league will be unprepared when he unleashes the left finishes he’s been working on in secret for the 2021 Finals.
IIRC, it wasn't until after year 5 or 6 that Bird went home for the summer and did nothing but shoot lefty.
 

mcpickl

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It's wild thinking back to when he was drafted one of the biggest worries was, can he stretch range to three point land or will he always be taking 20 foot jumpers.
 

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DJnVa

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I don't think they're throwing shade at Hayward.

Not even a little bit.
 

lovegtm

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With the thinness at wing and Kemba out, Tatum probably will build a narrative for the outside of MVP discussion this year.

I don’t think he’s there value-wise yet, but 30/game and carrying the team on both ends is going to be the narrative imo.

Brown’s rep will also likely get a bump, just from points/usage.

Tatum at 30/game and Brown at 23-25 wouldn’t shock me. It’s not even that great for the team; they’re just the guys who are left.
 
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SteveF

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This is really the primary path to a championship anyway. Tatum needs to become the offensive engine/shot creator and Kemba needs to be replaced by a player that's more well rounded. Smart could be the "point guard" and you bring in another player -- maybe a big that can protect the rim/vertical space -- in Kemba's salary slot.

That's the only way I can really see this core being legitimate title contenders. They'll still be fun to watch otherwise, just not a real threat to win the title.
 

lovegtm

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This is really the primary path to a championship anyway. Tatum needs to become the offensive engine/shot creator and Kemba needs to be replaced by a player that's more well rounded. Smart could be the "point guard" and you bring in another player -- maybe a big that can protect the rim/vertical space -- in Kemba's salary slot.

That's the only way I can really see this core being legitimate title contenders. They'll still be fun to watch otherwise, just not a real threat to win the title.
I mean...literally this core, without Thompson, probably makes the finals last year if they weren’t exhausted from the Raps series. Thompson solves their Bam problem to a large degree imo.

“Bridge year” talk is very premature imo.
 

DJnVa

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That's the only way I can really see this core being legitimate title contenders. They'll still be fun to watch otherwise, just not a real threat to win the title.
Wasn't this core title contenders like 70 days ago?
 

Marbleheader

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Wasn't this core title contenders like 70 days ago?
I don't believe they were. They were Eastern Conference contenders, but they are still a major piece short of being a legitimate title threat.
 

lovegtm

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Wasn't this core title contenders like 70 days ago?
Yes everyone just likes to get mad when Ainge doesn’t trade away 5 future drafts for 30 year old maybe-top-30-players.

Also, everyone always has Toronto/Miami development envy, but then freaks out at the prospects of playing our young guys.
 

Cesar Crespo

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This is really the primary path to a championship anyway. Tatum needs to become the offensive engine/shot creator and Kemba needs to be replaced by a player that's more well rounded. Smart could be the "point guard" and you bring in another player -- maybe a big that can protect the rim/vertical space -- in Kemba's salary slot.

That's the only way I can really see this core being legitimate title contenders. They'll still be fun to watch otherwise, just not a real threat to win the title.
I think the path to a championship requires one of Langford, Nesmith, Granite, Time Lord, Waters, Edwards or Pritchard to make the "leap" into a starting caliber player (30+ min a game), at least in the long term. If none of those guys work out, it's going to set the team back awhile. You can't have 3 years of drafts where the best player you draft is an 15-20 minute rotation player, especially when you had 5 1st round picks. I fully expect 1 of those players to develop into a 30 minute a game player though, and another 1 or 2 to develop into 20 minute rotation players.

I hope the player that emerges is either Nesmith or Langford but I think it's most likely to be Grant Williams. Any of the 3 would help the Celtics immensely, though all in different ways. It's pretty cool that our top 3 prospects don't replicate each other at all.

Long story short, Tatum/Brown need a 3rd guy who sticks around for longer than a couple years. I guess they could also try to trade for that guy.
 

lovegtm

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I think the path to a championship requires one of Langford, Nesmith, Granite, Time Lord, Waters, Edwards or Pritchard to make the "leap" into a starting caliber player (30+ min a game), at least in the long term. If none of those guys work out, it's going to set the team back awhile. You can't have 3 years of drafts where the best player you draft is an 15-20 minute rotation player, especially when you had 5 1st round picks. I fully expect 1 of those players to develop into a 30 minute a game player though, and another 1 or 2 to develop into 20 minute rotation players.

I hope the player that emerges is either Nesmith or Langford but I think it's most likely to be Grant Williams. Any of the 3 would help the Celtics immensely, though all in different ways. It's pretty cool that our top 3 prospects don't replicate each other at all.

Long story short, Tatum/Brown need a 3rd guy who sticks around for longer than a couple years. I guess they could also try to trade for that guy.
Yeah, another way of putting it is that I think Grant might be that guy as soon as this year, but his skillset is such that it doesn’t move the needle enough. Mostly ditto for TL, although elite rim protectors are great to have.

Langford and Nesmith have skillsets such that if they were legit starters, you’d be getting exactly what you need around Tatum and Brown.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Yeah, another way of putting it is that I think Grant might be that guy as soon as this year, but his skillset is such that it doesn’t move the needle enough. Mostly ditto for TL, although elite rim protectors are great to have.

Langford and Nesmith have skillsets such that if they were legit starters, you’d be getting exactly what you need around Tatum and Brown.
Yeah, I'd agree with that. I think Grant has an outside chance of moving the needle if his offensive game improves a lot. That requires him developing into an average/above average 3 point shot at decent volume.

Waters and Edwards taking the step doesn't change much at all but does give Ainge some trade chips and Kemba insurance.
 

lovegtm

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Yeah, I'd agree with that. I think Grant has an outside chance of moving the needle if his offensive game improves a lot. That requires him developing into an average/above average 3 point shot at decent volume.

Waters and Edwards taking the step doesn't change much at all but does give Ainge some trade chips and Kemba insurance.
Yeah I should give Grant the credit of a bit more upside. He was a very good FT shooter in college, and his shot looks clean and compact; probably could speed up the release over time. That puts him somewhere as “better offensive PJ Tucker, from a younger age, maybe with an above-the-break 3”, which is a pretty good player.
 

Euclis20

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Yeah I should give Grant the credit of a bit more upside. He was a very good FT shooter in college, and his shot looks clean and compact; probably could speed up the release over time. That puts him somewhere as “better offensive PJ Tucker, from a younger age, maybe with an above-the-break 3”, which is a pretty good player.
To be taken with a few grains of salt, but once he hit his first 3 pointer and got that monkey off his back, he shot .386 from 3 for the remainder of the season (including playoffs). That's over 65 games, a not insignificant sample. It wouldn't be surprising to see him shooting around that percentage going forward, and would make him a very useful player.
 

Cesar Crespo

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To be taken with a few grains of salt, but once he hit his first 3 pointer and got that monkey off his back, he shot .386 from 3 for the remainder of the season (including playoffs). That's over 65 games, a not insignificant sample. It wouldn't be surprising to see him shooting around that percentage going forward, and would make him a very useful player.
34/88. Not insignificant but a smaller sample size than you'd think. That's why I added the moderate volume part. His 3PA/per 36 in the playoffs was 3.6. For the year, it was 3.3.
 

DJnVa

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There should be improvement with young guys, but when the offseason was essentially 2 months long, in a pandemic world, it's not like there's a lot of time there.
 

chilidawg

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I think the path to a championship requires one of Langford, Nesmith, Granite, Time Lord, Waters, Edwards or Pritchard to make the "leap" into a starting caliber player (30+ min a game), at least in the long term. If none of those guys work out, it's going to set the team back awhile.
I said the same thing about last year(it didn't happen to the degree necessary), and I think it's spot on about this year as well. At very least they need some impact play off the bench from GW, Nesmith, and hopefully Langford. I don't have high expectations for Edwards and Waters, and don't expect RW to see much time unless one of Theis or Thompson is hurt. Pritchard is likewise blocked by Kemba and Teague, although the injury possibility is obviously higher there.
 

nighthob

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I'd say their most likely road to contention lies in Nesmith hitting his 10% projection and becoming Klay Lite Ice. Having an elite shooter that can provide above average D on the wing just creates obscene amounts of space for the Jay-Crew to operate. Langford reaching his 10% projection would be another avenue. If they both hit their 10% projections I wouldn't be shocked to see Langford traded for a bunch of first round picks.
 

bakahump

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Tough to ding Williams shooting .386 on not having much volume. Kid was playing with Tatum, Brown, Gordon (well somtimes), Kemba and Smart. All having priority over him on shot taking. With Gordon gone, Kemba slowed and another year of experience and confidence 4.5 a game isnt out of the question which even at 36% is useful. if he plateaus at 37% for his career thats tough not to like. Especially when he may well provide some tough rebounding that this team needs. Difficult to find a +3pt shooter who can also grab rebounds inside.