Over the last week, with the NBA regular season entering its final stage, the drumbeat for Jayson Tatum’s MVP candidacy has gotten progressively louder. Some of that’s Tatum, who in an All-Star interview with ESPN declared that he was the best player in the league. Some of that is coming from others, like Draymond Green, who on his podcast said that those not considering Tatum are moving the goalposts on the award.
“The Celtics are 7.5 games ahead of the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference,” Green said. “Do people think the Celtics are that great to where Jayson Tatum is only in [sixth in the race]? Sometimes it’s like, that team is winning and that guy is the best player and playing well. In this situation, clearly that’s not the goalpost.”
Green was referencing the most recent ESPN straw poll, in which Tatum did not register a single first-place vote, finishing well behind Nikola Jokić, who sat atop the February version of the poll.
