{"id":1106258,"date":"2020-02-27T11:24:23","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1106258"},"modified":"2020-02-27T11:24:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:24:25","slug":"is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Boston Celtics Star Jayson Tatum a Top-10 Player in the NBA?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When you rattle off the elite players in the NBA today, names like <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/giannis-antetokounmpo-is-the-best-nba-player-right-now-but-hell-never-say-it\/\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/whats-next-for-kawhi-leonard-after-earning-his-historic-mvp-honor-at-the-nba-all-stars\/\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> usually come to the forefront without much hesitation. Those names are usually followed by the likes of James Harden, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/joel-embiid-made-a-bold-decision-that-could-help-the-76ers\/\">Joel Embiid<\/a>, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, among others. One \u2018among others\u2019 candidate who is rapidly climbing the charts is Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jayson Tatum the all-star<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jayson Tatum is playing like an All-NBA player for the Celtics - Tim Legler | SC with SVP\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/npTZmDnnvCk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For the first time in his professional career, Tatum was named to the NBA All-Star team this season and his stock continues to rise. In his last 11 games, Tatum has been as good as anyone in the league. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In February, the Celtics\u2019 red-hot Tatum has had just one game where he failed to score at least 25 points. Tatum matched a season-high 41 points in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (he had 41 in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans in January) and added 39 in a victory over the LA Clippers. In that game against the Lakers, Tatum's performance prompted LeBron James to call the Celtics star <a href=\"https:\/\/lebronwire.usatoday.com\/2020\/02\/24\/lebron-calls-jayson-tatum-an-absolute-problem-after-tatum-drops-41-on-lakers\/\">&#8216;an absolute problem.'<\/a> Tatum finished with 33 points and 11 rebounds in Wednesday\u2019s road victory over the Utah Jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/celtics-jayson-tatum-gets-third-straight-30-point-game-and-makes-history-in-win-over-jazz\/\">For the month, nobody has been hotter<\/a>. Tatum is averaging 30.5 points per game while collecting 7.5 rebounds per contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Celtics\u2019 draft-day deal with the Sixers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jayson Tatum Drafted 3rd Overall By Boston Celtics in 2017 NBA Draft\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dnepE4f1KOY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tatum was a draft-day steal by Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge back in 2017 when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/article\/2017\/06\/19\/boston-celtics-philadelphia-76ers-trade-draft-picks-0\">Ainge traded the top overall selection<\/a> to the Philadelphia 76ers for the third pick in that same draft and a future first-round pick. The 76ers selected Washington point guard Markelle Fultz, while the Celtics claimed Tatum from Duke University. The rest is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fultz battled nagging injuries throughout the early part of his career, playing a total of 33 games in his first two NBA seasons. Fultz was eventually traded to the Orlando Magic, where he is averaging 11.8 points per game through 56 games.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tatum has been both durable and steady for the Celtics, missing just five regular-season games in his first two years, while averaging 13.9 points per game in his rookie season and 15.7 ppg. a year ago. This season he has exploded to the tune of 23.1 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jayson Tatum taking charge<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jayson Tatum in February:<br><br>30.5 PPG<br>51.4 FG%<br>50.0 3P%<br><br>Only one other Celtic has averaged 30 PPG on 50% shooting in a month in the NBA three-point era; Larry Bird. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vCpeZI7Lje\">pic.twitter.com\/vCpeZI7Lje<\/a><\/p>&mdash; StatMuse (@statmuse) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1232906901463060481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Celtics have battled injuries throughout the season with the latest being a <a href=\"https:\/\/boston.cbslocal.com\/2020\/02\/25\/kemba-walker-knee-soreness-out-celtics-blazers-nba\/\">knee injury to point guard Kemba Walker<\/a>, who hasn\u2019t played since the all-star break. Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown have also missed a combined 27 games for the Celtics, who have still managed to compile a 41-17 record that is good enough for third place in the Eastern Conference.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tatum has been the Celtics\u2019 rock and model of consistency, sitting out just four games this year. In crunch time, he\u2019s been the go-to guy in just his third season as a pro and he\u2019s accepting that leadership role in Boston.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back when the season started, it wasn\u2019t even a given that Tatum was the best player on his own team. Now he\u2019s clearly showing that he can play with the best in the league.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Boston Celtics guard Jayson Tatum proving himself to be a top-10 NBA player?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1106293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4814,91],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Boston Celtics Star Jayson Tatum a Top-10 Player in the NBA? - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jayson Tatum might not be thought of as an elite talent, but could the Boston Celtics guard be proving himself to be a top-10 NBA player?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Boston Celtics Star Jayson Tatum a Top-10 Player in the NBA?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jayson Tatum might not be thought of as an elite talent, but could the Boston Celtics guard be proving himself to be a top-10 NBA player?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-27T16:24:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-27T16:24:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/JaysonTatum.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/\",\"name\":\"Is Boston Celtics Star Jayson Tatum a Top-10 Player in the NBA? - Sports7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/JaysonTatum.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-27T16:24:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-27T16:24:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/ee02cb7d233260b2c9a2e6c26895e6d5\"},\"description\":\"Jayson Tatum might not be thought of as an elite talent, but could the Boston Celtics guard be proving himself to be a top-10 NBA player?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/is-boston-celtics-star-jayson-tatum-a-top-10-player-in-the-nba\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/JaysonTatum.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/JaysonTatum.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"BOSTON, MA - MAY 27: Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics reacts after making a basket in the first half against the Cleveland Cavaliers during Game Seven of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden on May 27, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. 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