Why Does Jayson Tatum Get So Much Disrespect?

Why Does Jayson Tatum Get So Much Disrespect?

I have a I have a general question and and perhaps this was sparked um by a radio appearance that I did yesterday um it feels like the Boston Celtics are the favorites should be the favorites they have done nothing but Excel uh throughout the regular season throughout the playoffs uh certainly you can nitpick certain things but you can pick certain things with any team and with any player um my question to you is do you will people in Boston be happy if they if they win they win the championship yeah look I mean you been back in Boston for a little while it’s been kind of interesting to remember that I used to do the daily Boston radio show thing for like three years and we found ways to make ourselves miserable and now being back and listening to some of it I was like oh wait wait did I do these things like is this how I talked about it like already diminishing a potential Championship so like I I don’t think I don’t think talk radio hosts that have a job to kind of engage people is is the best uh test for like how the entire city feel of course they would be I mean this would be the first title since 2008 the second one since ‘ 86 for a story franchise with the resume they have like they’re due for one of these considering this is the the what the sixth Eastern Conference Finals in the last eight years I think the problem has been for this team is that when Brad Stevens first came in and they make it to an Eastern Conference Finals in 17 it’s so far ahead of schedule like there were supposed to be on rebuild year number two it’s this really fun Isaiah Thomas season the second scoring option was Avery Bradley so they basically ran high pick and roll for Isaiah every single play and his numbers were massive he was I think fifth in MVP voting that year which is an incredible like single season but it it it’s been now when you think of it like wait this is seven years of this when is it finally going to pay off when I feel like the 17 Eastern Conference Finals is ridiculous they were even in it the 18 they went to game seven with the first year of Tatum the second year of brown so it makes it feel like these guys have been around forever but they haven’t been able to get it done you know 20 was losing I think to a better team in Miami last year was massively disappointing so I think there’s this emotional hangover with this team where 24 can’t live on its own like no one’s going to be happy about anything with 24 the spectacular statistical profile they have smashing everybody in the East nobody cares because they feel like this group has been around too long when I think they’ve just been ahead of schedule and that’s the price that they’re paying I think that’s valid I think that’s valid particularly the part about the emotional hangover because you know I I didn’t do a ton of first takes this year but uh when I was doing them and and when I certainly listen even on sort of national uh discussions and National networks um people always bring up prior years and I don’t think that’s invalid uh because certainly Joe was the coach last year against Miami Tatum and brown have been here forever um Derrick’s been part of these teams now for three years I don’t think it’s invalid Al of course is you know he spent some time elsewhere but he’s been on a bunch of these teams the point that I always make though is this team is so different right and and particularly if as we assume christops porzingis is back in the NBA Finals um Derek white is a different player this year Drew holiday is sort of a Swiss army knife that has done everything that he’s been asked of hey you got halberton on you go score great I can go score uh hey we need you to guard embiid go do that um get offensive rebounds make defensive plays like he did at the end of game three like he just does whatever and so you can talk about the past but I have a real problem with not acknowledging at least acknowledging how different this team how dude how much better Joe Missoula has been this year as a coach and in his comfort level it’s like yeah that’s fine if we want to talk about the emotional hangover but if we want to talk about basketball this is a different team yeah you’re right I mean the Drew holiday piece of this is ridiculous that you you look at Brad Stevens run through through this and he goes okay you know you’re going to have a really good team so the draft pick’s probably not going to be that great it’s like so wait San Antonio wants to get into the Derek white business of like moving him okay done like it may be boring for the front office and not worrying about the draft pick and having to scout extra hard before the draft but these are the kind of transactions where you think like that’s a no-brainer the Drew holiday one to be like okay now you’re going to flip the Brogden deal into that and Rob Williams who was just never felt healthy even when he was healthy it was like he wasn’t healthy and then you somehow end up with which I’m sure Milwaukee was like wait what happened like I’m sure you know I still think the Bucs would have done any deal that involved them getting Dame and raising their their ceiling potentially with a talent like Dame and then porzingis where I had no issue with them moving on from smart I thought in 22 was like the best smart had played but I’d also watched enough of it to see that smart had moments where he kind of felt like he was the guy because he was the emotional leader but that they could have they could have replaced that with just somebody else who understood the role a little bit better and smart probably understood his best when they went to the finals in 22 so being fair to him but like Drew Dave W is like okay I’m the sacrifice guy you know unfortunately for like Ray Allen when he came in ‘ 08 like he was the one that sacrificed the most but with Drew it’s like okay I already know what I’m going to do I may have my moments where I’m going to be hitting some of these shots and so then when you figure it out with the final porzingis thing he was so good last year he changes who you can be on offense especially if you want to start looking ahead of the Dallas matchup of a big that’s actually going to pull gaff or Lively way and they maybe challenge Dallas in a way that they haven’t been challenged at all against Minnesota because you know Rudy like if you stretch it just means that you’re just going to ignore them so you’re not really changing your defensive alignment all that much so you’re right they have more options they’re better they’re they’re the best team of this entire group it’s not debatable but I think where they get in trouble is when you look at like the historical comparisons of the 16 Warriors net rating you’re like well they’re not those guys or the second three Bulls you’re like well that’s not true or the early 70s Milwaukee Bucks like their profile tells you they’re one of their team one of those teams and yet I will as somebody who’s watched this team throughout the entire season have these moments where I’m like tie ball game minute left is Tatum going to hold it in the triple threat for 20 seconds with no one cutting and no passes whatsoever and his talent and his size tells him that’s a good shot but it just becomes really easy to defend because nobody else really has to move or anticipate any other stuff because they’ll stop moving they will stop in those moments offensively and that’s the part that I think drives Celtics fans crazy and why despite those numbers and agreeing with you that the the entire sum of this is better than any of these other versions they’ve had this awesome record these dominant wins and yet we still have these moments you’re like I’m not going to trust any of those guys as much as Luca with the ball with a minute left but how much of this discourse is just the overall Tatum disrespect and people being I mean you’re seeing it we saw it after after game four was like people were saying oh he’s not happy enough for Jaylen Brown like like they they zoom in on his face and like he’s not smiling enough there seems like for whatever reason Smiler I’m not a Smiler like he’s a guy we we’ve we’ve had him on the show a bunch um you he’s a great podcast guest but he seems like a guy that like he lets his work do the talking and he doesn’t need to be front and center all the time and I wonder if that hurts him a little bit in terms of uh like his resume like like like you just mentioned speaks for itself from when he came into the league what he’s accomplished since then he’s never missed the playoff game he’s playing 1008 playoff games at this point like how much of this is just like Tatum disrespect the Tatum part of this always feels like it’s easy for me which makes it complicated in the way we talk about him because he’s never going to be the best player in the league he’s maybe going to flirt with number five okay made all NBA first team this year he should have I voted him for that like you know I thought that was that was pretty easy to go ahead and make that move to put him on first team but he’s never going to be best player so you’re going to be kind of pining for like oh is he ever going to be one of those guys and maybe there was a time you thought that could potentially happen but as great as he is I don’t think he is like he’s not yic he’s not Luca he’s not Giannis um I’m not even sure if he’s SGA so that in itself come comes like this entitlement thing where you become frustrated that he’s not going to be one of those guys but he also isn’t like extremely disappointing so you can’t really dog him so we I think it should be simple because that’s where he is those are the book ends he’s going to be top 10 for a really long time but because the top five guys seem to dictate titles every single year I think that becomes part of the frustration I also think his demeanor with all this nonsense after the Jaylen Brown thing by the way I think Tatum should have won Eastern Conference Finals MVP I was actually maybe I wasn’t shocked because Jaylen Brown had the two moments but I just think as far as like which player is dictating what’s going on more and which player is dealing with more and dealing with the tougher defensive assignments I was a little disappointed to see the voting go that way but I wasn’t as outraged as say 2015 with the NBA finals and Iguodala over Curry but I just think the voters have a harder time with that stuff but Tatum is the face of a franchise where you know the the dumb way we look at this stuff whereas like Jordan’s better off you know not losing the finals is great but LeBron losing in the finals and not losing in the Easter Conference Finals has somehow seemed worse you know like if if Jordan had had losses outside of the finals that’s better on the over all resume because he gets to say six and0 where like I wonder sometimes with tat and brown if they had been better off never getting to the Eastern Conference Finals as many times like having their only two Eastern Conference Finals appearances be in 22 and then in 24 it reminds me a bit of Ohio State like back 15 years ago when Ohio state gets blasted by Florida and LSU and everybody’s making fun of Ohio State and they’re going well wait like we’re at least making it to the national championship game and some of you guys can’t even win seven games and you’re making fun of us like what’s the point so the stakes and the attention as we all know rais the deeper they go into this and these guys have been going so deep and they play all the time in a league where we’re like hey how many games is that guy going to play is that a good contract is that guy going to shut it down is that guy even going to be healthy these dudes play all the time so I I’m personally like hey I know who he is I know what his ceiling is and that’s awesome you should be thrilled you have him but it does feel like it’s more negative around him than it should be yes and I think this is the case with several players where pundits want them to be the number one or the number two guy in the league and it’s not it’s not feasible given given the timing of everything and we we like always want more out of guys and we’re like I to me it’s like well do do you want do you want 31 10- six in a Conference Finals right do you want that because that’s pretty good and and to your point about the MVP I actually didn’t have a problem with it either if I had had a vote I would have voted for Tatum and that’s not a knock on Jaylen Brown because he had the 40-point game in game two he had the tying shot in in game one of course Tatum had 10 and overtime um and then you know he made he made the play at the end of game forward to Derek white plus the block right so I I I totally and he was awesome the whole series they had no answer for him off the dribble he got in the paint whenever he wanted to um but it in some ways it’s like it’s not as egregious as 15 and even last year with with the Eastern Conference Finals when it was like should we give the MVP to Caleb Martin it’s like no come on man Jimmy Butler’s the MVP or in 22 they’re like hey Wiggins is playing great in the finals should we give the the finals MVP to Wiggins just please just give it to the best player unless the best player sucks and has an awful finals and like gets bailed out like Tatum didn’t get bailed out he he was the guy who who who did Aaron E Smith guard the entire Series right see that’s my whole thing t on Tatum and and I’m GNA not go long here but like when I watch the way the defensive assignments lined up throughout the entire playoffs for Tatum here it’s like okay so they got they’ve got Caleb Martin on Tatum and then Heroes on Brown so guess what the offense does because the Celtics been around and they’re smart Brown starts abusing hero and so then I was waiting for Cleveland I’m like what’s going to happen here okay a coro’s on Tatum and that means stru is on Brown because the Cleveland even if they had been healthy we’re going to have all sorts of matchup issues with the four perimeter guys that Boston has with Garland and Mitchell in the mix so then you’re like okay so it actually got so ridiculous they switched it and put a coral back on a brown but that’s not how it started and then I knew to your point with this series I’m like okay so n Smith who you could probably call a foul on every possession he works as ass off he’s going to be all over Tatum and I think that part of it gets lost in you know I’m not trying to knock Brown here I just whenever I look at the not it’s not a knock on Jaylen Brown’s never he dominated every match up he did get like

In this clip, JJ Redick, The Ringer’s Ryen Russillo, and Tommy Alter discuss why Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum seems to get so much criticism and what it would mean to Boston if the Celtics win the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks (Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving.)

Subscribe to The Old Man and The Three podcast w/ JJ Redick (ESPN / First Take) and Tommy Alter YouTube channel today for more NBA analysis, player interviews and highlights.