The League is TERRIFIED of This...

The league is terrified of this as a recent report shows a major update surrounding Jason Tatum and how he has been playing this season. He's been absolutely stellar so far as we know. We wish that his efficiency would be a little bit higher, but his volume is certainly there and Jason Tatum is not even feeling fully healthy yet. He has said multiple times that he still doesn't feel like he is at his absolute best and if this isn't his absolute best. And I'm extremely excited to see what is. But folks, welcome back to Celtics Digest. I am your host, Kellen Frangione. It's a pleasure to be back talking about Celtics basketball as always. The Celtics are now off until Sunday. They played a back-to-back. They had a busy week, busy road trip. So the NBA giving them a couple days off until the next matchup on Sunday. But an important, important report just came out surrounding Jason Tatum. But before I get into that report and what it means, For the Celtics, for Jason Tatum, I want to tell you guys about today's sponsor because today's sponsor is Kalshi. And on Kalshi, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. For example, right here, you see it on the screen, the Celtics to be Eastern Conference champions, where a placement of $25 pays out nearly $182. But that is not all. You can instead pivot to something like the Celtics total wins this season. You could go for 45 plus wins, 50 plus wins, or even 55 plus wins, whatever you prefer. But folks, if you are interested in trying out Kalshi, make sure to use our code as you see it right here on screen, DIGESTNBA in all caps. If you're interested, it'll be in the link in the description, as well as the pinned comment of this video. You will get $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first 25. But once again, folks, that is only on Kalshi. Thank you to them for sponsoring this video. And without further ado, let's get into the topic. Let's get into the subject of today's video. What happened? Well, this happened right here, folks. NBA.com has ranked Jason Tatum number three in MVP rankings. Yes, you heard it right. Number three in MVP rankings. He has been going crazy. Tatum is once again the star the Celtics need, this time going solo, says Sean Powell, regarding the NBA Kia MVP ladder, where Tatum is now three. He is just below Luka and Wembanjama. Luka is currently leading the way at number one, but Tatum can certainly get there. And let's just take a look at the season Tatum is having so far, if it pops up on the screen and behaves. There we go. You can see it right here. Tatum's volume is all there. He's 99th percentile in points with 26.3 per game, eighth in the NBA, rebounds 6.1 a game, assists 7.5 per game in 34 minutes. Now his efficiency numbers, as I said, is where he's been struggling a little bit. His three-point percentage is only 30.6, not great. 41% from the field, pretty typical. Free throw efficiency still there. He has 0.6 steals per game, 0.8 blocks per game, about two fouls and a little over two turnovers per game, Jason Tatum, I am very, very happy with what I am seeing from him this season so far. If we take a more detailed look at his shooting, we will also get a better idea of what Tatum has been doing this season. You see it here, 64% of his shots are really right in the paint, 32% above the break three, barely any corner threes on that left side, 33% from the right corner. He's taking a lot of mid ranges as well. So you can get an idea of his shot profile right here. He's made 89 out of his 213 shots this season. But I'm also happy to see Tatum getting more involved in the mid-range. We know he's absolutely lethal there. He's good with his back to the basket. He can really score any way that he wants to. And that is part of why Jason Tatum is third right now in these MVP rankings. It's just he can really create for himself in a way that a lot of other guys in the league at his size cannot do. Tatum has said, I couldn't tell if it was November 10th or June 10th. It felt like an effing finals game when talking about Celtics Sixers, where as we know, the Celtics came out with a fantastic win. Paul George said about the game, I thought he handled it beautifully. I thought we put more on this game than we should have talking about that Sixers Celtics game. Once again, with a lot of baggage going on with the history with Tatum and Brown, et cetera. If we take a look at Tatum's recent. Three-pointers, you can see he's averaging about 2.6 threes made per game, which is actually not that high, not as high as we're really used to him doing, but he did have five in the game at Charlotte and at Milwaukee. He seems to be getting the touch back a little bit with the three-point shooting, but it's been lacking just a little bit, and we know the efficiency has not been the best. Now, another interesting little statistic, Tatum has been really good with Sam Hauser on the floor at the same time as him. You can see that with Hauser, every single one of his numbers here goes up except for rebounds. Usage rate goes up, points go up, true shooting percentage goes up, assists barely goes up, and three-point percentage also goes up with Sam Hauser on the floor. So just an interesting little thing right there because honestly, I'm a guy who's kind of down on Sam Hauser sometimes I feel like he doesn't bring too much besides his ability to shoot the three-pointer, but I think that's really all we need from him because when he is functioning at that high level, hitting those outside shots, it's also helping his teammates. It's helping Tatum create more opportunities for him. So you know what, Sam Hauser, my cap's off to you. You and Tatum work really well on the court together, but moving forward, what else is going on? Well, Jason Tatum's comeback is really gaining force. As we know, he tore his Achilles really not too long ago still, and He said it just kind of felt good to finish through contact after Celtics-Sixers. It's been about 19 months since I dunked on somebody talking about when he dunked on LeBron for the second time, might I mention for the second time, second time. So it felt good to get that feeling back under my legs. But it's just a basketball play. Tatum, humble as always. You can admit it, bro. You just posted the goat. Come on now for the second time. After doing it in your rookie year, you just did it again right on his head top. Sent that man back to hospice care. Continuing on, Joe Mazzulla has said that Jason Tatum's mental toughness is underrated. His emotional intelligence is underrated. His ability to just stay focused on what matters most is one of his best gifts. And I agree. A lot of people hate on the fact that Tatum always seems even keeled and doesn't get emotional too much. I know I've said sometimes that I want him to show a little more emotion, but I really think that part of that. And staying stone-faced, even-keeled, that's really part of his best ability. That's a great way to approach it because he just stays calm, stays in the moment. This is also why he can perform in the clutch. So I think Tatum knows what he's doing. I don't think we need to tell him to show more emotion, okay? Continuing on, Jason Tatum said, I've kind of been this way since I was a kid. Never too high, never too low. Give a lot of credit to my mom. I've always had good perspective on things. And I believe that it absolutely shows on the court. Another quote from Tatum, like I said, there are no headlines about anything like that. I would just get him ready for the game, ready for jump ball, go out there, compete, have some fun, and try to get a win in talking about that Celtics-Sixers game. So once again, kind of ignoring the outside noise with Jalen Brown and him being corny and not dapping Tatum up, all of these things, he just doesn't care too much. Now, more on Tatum and his offense, his play style this season. You can see that 38% of his shots are actually the above break three, which. I mean, I'm not too surprised. Tatum does like to pull up all the time. Sometimes it annoys me because he thinks he's Steph Curry when he's 6'10", and he can literally just take it to the rack, score however he wants to. Sometimes I feel like he just doesn't choose the best shot. But. Jason Tatum, you're a professional. This is where his shots are coming from. He also runs 31% pick and rolls, 21% ISO, 8% post-up. You can see he has a 32.5% usage rate, a 36.8% assist rate, one and a half deflections a game, 4.4 contested shots a game. Tatum, we just got to keep clapping it up, man, because this guy has been fantastic, and I'm extremely, extremely happy. If we get a look at, you know, his field goal percentage, 42.9% on average field goal percentage in the last 10 games above his season average in seven of these 10 games, his best was the 56% in Charlotte. We know Tatum loves to fry the Charlotte Hornets whenever he possibly can. So you just love to see it, more good numbers for Tatum, more backing for him and his MVP case. But moving forward, it's not all Tatum. Paul George has really been helping Tatum lead Boston this summer. It's not summer, sorry, season. I've been extremely, extremely happy with Paul George. I really can't say it enough. Tatum, I mean, sorry, George has said plenty of times now, I'm here to help you. I'm in a way here to serve you and make you become the best player that you can become when talking about Jayson Tatum. He's also backed this up many times. Tatum also commented on the following. He said, he's been incredible all season talking about Paul George. The joy he's played with, what he brought to our team so far has been great. So we're lucky to have him. I completely agree. I mean, it's really best possible scenario, best case scenario for Paul George right now. The big question was, what version of Paul George are we gonna get this season? Are we gonna get the guy that has really seen a decline, getting overpaid on his contract, et cetera? Paul George has played phenomenal this season, and he has been a major part of why Tatum can be third in the Kia MVP ladder at the moment. Now, Joe Mazzulla also said the following. He said, to think that a group of guys are supposed to just be happy with each other all the time, this isn't camp. We're going after something that's highly competitive and stressful. There's things at stake. With that comes conflict. And I believe this was referring to Tatum and Brown, the entire situation there. But once again, We saw he was praising how Tatum always keeps that even keeled mindset, always just being able to ground himself in the game at hand, not worry about the outside noise. But it's true. Joe Mazzulla is right. Conflict is going to happen when you're in a highly competitive setting, when you have a big lofty goal that you're all trying to achieve. It makes sense. Now, Tatum and Paul George, how have they actually been together on the court? Well, as you can see right here, Tatum's usage rate goes down a little bit with George on the court, which makes sense. His points go up with Paul George on the court. His true shooting percentage goes up by 6.3% with Paul George on the court. His assists and rebounds barely go down with George on the court. And his three-point percentage also increases by 8.3%. with Paul George on the court, so more positive numbers about Tatum and his Celtics teammates showing the synergy that he has with some of these guys, especially with Paul George and the 230 minutes that they have played together so far this season. What else with Paul George? His assist numbers have been decent. Tatum's assist numbers have really been more incredible. He's averaging seven and a half per game. But PG, he's been throwing a few in there. The past couple games, he hasn't had that many, but he did have eight in Chicago and Orlando. So he's been doing some good things every once in a while with that. Versus Brooklyn, he also had seven assists. So he's not always passing, but when he can, it's good. Jason Tatum, his rebounding, how has that been? Well, 6.3 on average in the last 10 games. He's above his season average in five of these 10, and his best was nine versus the New York Knicks earlier this season, so you can see it. Jason Tatum, still getting his typical rebounding numbers, still snatching what he should at his height. And finally, to round things out, folks, what else? Tatum's playmaking has really been keeping the MVP case moving because Tatum is... Taking on that role, passing more, as I was saying, 7.5 assists per game. Now, the offense really runs through his hands rather than around his hands. 76% of his tracked possessions are on-ball actions against a league median of 20%. So Tatum is well over that. He is at his most dangerous in transition. No surprise there. He scores 1.52 points per possession in transition against a 1.12 median for players who run it as often as Tatum does. What else? Sean Powell once again said that's not to suggest a two man race either, especially if Jason Tatum continues to uplift the East leading Celtics. Yes, for the one seed in the East, it's been great. Win percentage 0.833 net rating plus 11.7 second in the NBA out of all teams. You absolutely love to see it. Another quote to throw in here from Jason Tatum. He said no game is bigger than the others. Definitely in the regular season. It's one game. It's one game. The hoopla is definitely over. And we get ready for tomorrow where they went on to win in Toronto. But folks, that is all I have for this video. And I want you to vote in the comments down below. Put A, B, or C based on this poll and let me know what is going to move Jason Tatum from number three in the MVP ladder to number one. Is it going to be improved shooting efficiency? Is it just going to be him keeping Boston atop the East, keeping us as a contender team or C, his points per game? Does it have to go up past 30? We'll And Luka are both doing this. Luka Doncic is averaging nearly 40 points per game. So do you guys think for Tatum to stay in the conversation, be does his points per game have to go 30 plus? I think it probably does, unfortunately. right He's close, he's close, but he's not quite there. But I don't know. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Put A, B, or C. And folks, thank you very much for watching this video. back. Once again, I'm your host, Kellen Frangione with Celtics Digest, and I'll see you all in the next one. Thank you.