cover art by Little People Max Mao
(January 16) Celtic led the game by up to 24 points at Madison Square Garden in New York on January 6, and led by 20 points in the third quarter, but was caught up by Nick and was lore by RJ Barrett 108:105 loss, which may be the lowest point for Celtic so far this season. The lore, coupled with the fact that 50% of the season may not even have a play-in record, makes Celtic whether or not to continue to use the duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the core of the team to become the media. focus of discussion.
Jayson Tatum, 6’8″, 23 years old, five years of NBA experience, averaged 25.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2 All-Stars this year. Jaylen Brown, 6-foot-6, 25 years old, with six years of NBA experience, is averaging 24.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game this year. In the past five seasons they’ve been teammates, Celtic has made the playoffs four times and the Eastern Conference Championship twice. On paper, it’s not hard to imagine why Celtic would use Tatum and Brown as the core of the team. Wing players who have stature and physical fitness, and who have continued to improve in technology following entering the NBA are already rare wealth. In modern NBA basketball, players like this can provide the team with great tactical and system flexibility on both the offensive and defensive ends. They were able to win the 2017 and 2018 drafts for two consecutive years. Tatum and Brown were selected. Their personal performance has always proved the vision of the Celtic management. But since last season, 36 wins, 36 losses, just 50%, a big step backward from 48 wins and 24 losses in the previous year’s 19-20 season, and following being silently eliminated by the Nets in the playoffs, “Are Tatum and Brown? Disagreement?” “Can Tatum and Brown really be 1+1>2?” “Should we replace one person to change the lineup while both have transaction value?” Such doubts are in the media or social networks It started to appear, and with Celtic’s stumbling results and court performance this season, such voices appeared more and more frequently.
But is there really a problem with the combination of Tatum and Brown? Or, is it worth breaking up now? Let’s start by examining what they’ve been criticized primarily for on the court this season.
personal data
We have briefly listed Tatum and Brown’s personal basic data this year, let’s take a look at Tatum’s biggest problem this season. If you look at points alone, Tatum is undoubtedly an All-Star player, but the biggest criticism of him this season is that his shooting percentage is significantly lower than last year, or even a career low. He’s ninth in the league with 25.5 points per game this season, but in the top 10, Tatum’s eFG% of 48.2% is last, and even in the top 20, it’s still the second-to-last, only better than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. 46.3% of the good. Compared with last year, Tatum’s eFG% in the last season was 53%, but the distribution of shots has not changed much, the total number of shots has increased by less than one, and the ratio of two-point shots and three-point shots is almost the same as last year. 6:4 . And even if you look at various details, such as how far away from the basket, how far away the defender is, how many dribbles and shots, how long the ball is held, and how long is the attack time left to make shots, Tatum’s shot percentage is similar to last year, but his shooting percentage It’s almost all down in every detail, especially when the defender is more than six feet away from his 3-pointer, where his shooting percentage has dropped from 52.4% last season to 34.2% this season, with the defender two feet away from him. Contested shots within the range fell from 51.5% last season to 35.6% this season. In terms of this season or Tatum’s career, the drop in difficult 2-point attempts may be back to normal from last season’s exceptionally high, but it should also be expected that the wide-open 3-point percentage will rise back to normal. at least around 45%. And Brown’s shooting percentage this season also dropped compared to the previous season, but it was not as serious as Tatum. The eFG% dropped from 55.8% in the previous season to 53.2% this season. And while both men’s eFG% dropped, they both took more free throws than last season (5.3 to 6.1 for Tatum and 4.3 to 4.9 for Brown), making up for their own offense slightly.
However, in addition to shooting percentage, the two of them are most criticized for being too accustomed to singles and unable to create scoring opportunities for teammates. Tatum averaged 3.8 assists this season, down slightly from 4.3 last season, while Brown averaged 3.4 last season and three this season. However, assists are not very accurate data. If you look at potential assist (assists plus possible assists if the ball is missed or fouled), then Tatum had 8.5 last season, 8.4 this season, and Brown last season 5.9. , this season is 5.7 times, in fact, the gap is very small. Without watching the video of the game in depth to compare the timing and position of their passing, whether they created a good shot for their teammates or dropped bombs, on the surface, it seems that the teammates failed to make a shot and the number of assists on their books was reduced.
