Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.
The world’s greatest athletes draw motivation from just about anything, big or small. We know that. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise Tuesday to hear Jayson Tatum say he’ll use his experience in this summer’s Olympics as motivation for the upcoming season.
Being benched in two of five games as a recent NBA champion and All-NBA First Team player isn’t a perceived slight. It’s a slight. Intentional or not.
“Motivation? I guess you could say that if you want to simplify,” Tatum told reporters at Celtics media day. “In real time it was tough.”
What he said next, though, was a little surprising to hear.
“I talk to Joe [Mazzulla] a lot. Joe was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP and that I didn’t play in two of the games in the Olympics,” Tatum said. “So, that was odd. But if you know Joe, it makes sense.”
Jayson Tatum on Olympics: “In real time, it was tough. I talked to Joe (Mazzulla) a lot. Joe was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP and that I didn’t play two of the games in the Olympics. So that was odd. But if you know Joe, it makes sense.” pic.twitter.com/wq2Hk8EADK
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) September 25, 2024
I don’t know Joe. Aside from what he chooses to share with reporters. Like how he watches The Town entirely too much and how he’s probably put more thought into robbing a bank than the average person has. But even the little tidbits we get from the Boston Celtics head coach are enough to understand why he would take joy in his players facing difficult challenges.
This is the same man who was “excited” about a borderline dirty play against Tatum in April, because he wanted to see how his team responded. Mazzulla obviously believes these little obstacles make players better. He would be more disappointed if Tatum didn’t draw motivation from not winning Finals MVP and not being a part of the Olympic rotation.
How far that motivation actually goes remains to be seen. Tatum has been working on fixing his jump shot, which could make the 26-year-old a more lethal player than he already is. So, he’s clearly not resting on his laurels. But he also doesn’t have much to complain about. As Tatum said himself, he won a championship, signed the biggest contract in NBA history and landed the cover of NBA 2K25. Life is good.
Veteran sports writer Frank Isola made that very point Wednesday on SiriusXM’s NBA channel.
"He's accomplished a lot already."@TheFrankIsola on Jayson Tatum's mindset pic.twitter.com/IuERMQck39
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) September 25, 2024
“Did I need any extra motivation coming into the season. No. I’m not going to give anybody in particular credit that they’re motivating me to come into the season,” Tatum said.
Motivated or not, the Celtics are the best team in the NBA. They’re +300 favorites at BetMGM to repeat as champions. If they simply play up to the level they’re capable and stay healthy, they’ll be right there in the mix for a title at the end. Tatum can’t manufacture the type of motivation players who haven’t won can.
That’s likely why Mazzulla was happy. Because he knows players that more recently come up short, like Joel Embiid, Paul George, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton and Donovan Mitchell, are extra motivated. And now they’re hunting the Celtics. Boston can’t afford to let up now.
JJ Redick’s Lakers starting 5
JJ Redick was on a recent episode of The Lowe Post podcast with Zach Lowe, and he revealed what his starting lineup is going to be for the Los Angeles Lakers when the season starts.
It’ll be LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura.
Surprisingly, it’s a lineup former Lakers coach Darvin Ham didn’t play at all during the first half of the 2023-24 season. But as FTW’s Bryan Kalbrosky wrote, it was a very effective lineup once he did come around to it:
“As noted by Redick, the five players mentioned above went “23-10” during their games together last season.
When he was head coach of the Lakers, per Basketball-Reference.com, Ham did not play this five-man group until January 21. That realization somehow took until more than halfway through the season.
But starting from when this group began playing together, it became one of the best high-volume five-man lineups in the league.
Los Angeles has outscored opponents by 9.46 points per 100 possessions in the 547 minutes that this unit has played alongside one another, via PBPStats. It is a data-backed group that performs well on both sides of the ball.”
Sometimes good coaching is just a matter of doing the simple things, like sticking with what works. Good on Redick for doing just that to get things started.
Time will tell if he’s able to make the necessary adjustments when things aren’t working as well.
Shootaround
— LeBron James has already viciously scored on Bronny during a Lakers scrimmage
— Kamala Harris going on the ‘All the Smoke’ podcast has NBA fans cracking all the jokes
— Jaylen Brown arrogantly singled out the Pistons with a flex about his leadership style
