Jayson Tatum entered his fifth season as a two-time All-Star who’d already made one All-NBA team and two conference finals. Coming off a disappointing and chaotic 36–36 campaign that precipitated major changes in the Celtics’ infrastructure, expectations remained sky high for Tatum, who, at the age of 23, had already established himself as one of the sport’s most polished and dynamic scorers.
But for Boston to ultimately move in the right direction—especially after starting point guard Kemba Walker was traded to the Thunder—they’d need Tatum to buck lingering reservations about his ability to make the game easier for everyone around him, while still satiating his own need to get shots up. The circumstance begged a simple question: How good of a playmaker could he be?
It wouldn’t be reasonable to think the answer should be him one day surveying the floor like LeBron James, James Harden or Luka Dončić, hulkish point guards at heart who can lead/have led the league in assists. But to flourish as broadly as his talent demands, Tatum would have to improve his decision-making and display the same effective self-sacrifice that Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and other comparable archetypes have mastered, setting others up when positioned as a primary ball-handler against defenses that are programmed to slow them down. In August, incoming Celtics head coach Ime Udoka said Tatum’s growth here was critical. And for it to happen he’d need to ripen inside a brand new system, beside several different teammates, with no conventional point guard in the starting lineup.
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