This Will Put the Celtics in Tatum's Hands...

This will put the Boston Celtics in Jason Tatum's hands more than ever before. As we know, this offseason brought a lot of changes to the Celtics, including losing Jalen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in a trade that really shook up the NBA world. We know Tatum is back this season, he's fully healthy, but what does that mean for the Boston Celtics? What is he going to bring? How is his role going to change? How is his leadership responsibility going to change? Well, folks, today on Celtics Digest, we are going to be discussing all of that. I'm your host, Kellen Frangione. It's a pleasure to be back talking about Celtics basketball. As always, we are now fully in training camp, getting closer and closer to preseason, and then finally to regular season to NBA basketball, more importantly, Celtics basketball. It's a very exciting time to be here on the channel, so make sure that you guys are watching all of our videos. Make sure you subscribe, hit the bell if you like what you're seeing. We really appreciate it, and it helps us out immensely. But folks, what are we going to be talking about today specifically? Well, a report came out saying the following, Joe Mazzullo will reportedly have Jason Tatum taking on higher playmaking duties with the ball being in his hands more this year for the Celtics point forward Tatum, as Polymarket Hoops says. I'm very excited to see this now. We already know that Jason Tatum is one of the best point forwards, if not the best, in the league right now. I can't think of many people that do it better than him. He's a great playmaker, despite what a lot of people say. He still takes bad pull up shots from time to time, but he's a talented passer, and he knows how to create space for his guys. He knows how to get guys open. He knows how to drive and kick effectively. 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When you use code digest NBA, you will have $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first $25. So folks, once again, if you are interested in trying it out, make sure to use our promo code digest NBA. It also helps us out a lot on the channel. It gives us more resources to do the things we love to make these videos to cover the Boston Celtics. So we really appreciate it if you do use the code. But now back to the video, what are we going to be discussing? Well, as I showed you briefly before, Missoula has said that Tatum is going to be taking on more playmaking duties this year. And now that makes sense because, I mean, you're losing Jaylen Brown, who was another guy that would be slashing and creating plays. But I'm not worried because Tatum was already more than capable of doing this. Now, as 3pointstats tweeted, point forward Tatum could be a problem. His 25-26 profile already shows 97th percentile assists, 96 assist percentage, 88 assist to turnover ratio, and 97th usage among NBA forwards, on top of 94th percentile scoring and 98th percentile 3-pointers made. If the Celtics put the ball in his hands even more, the playmaking upside is obvious. And I have to agree because I think, as I've already been saying, Tatum is already one of the most talented at being a point forward. If you can see it right here in the percentile profile that was attached to this tweet from 3pointstats, you can see it all here. 94th percentile points, 97 for usage and assists, 96 assist percentage, 88 assist to turnover, 99 defensive rebounding percentage, 94 steals, blocks a little lower, points and PIR high, 3-pointers made, 98th percentile. I'm not worried at all. Tatum is going to make plays when he can. And I think that if he cuts down on some of the bad jumpers that he takes from time to time, where it's early in the shot clock and he just kind of rushes to his spot and tries to get a which I'm also not always mad at that because there's times when you're playing and you feel like you're in rhythm and you want to shoot and you can't, you don't want to get knocked out of your rhythm just because you miss once. You want to try and go back to it and get back into a rhythm. But those times when the shot is really not falling, Tatum can easily just look to his playmaking. We know on a Celtics team with Joe Mizzoula at the helm and the amount of shooters that the Boston Celtics have, more likely than not, you're going to find someone else around the perimeter who is going to be able to shoot it and make it. We also know from Tatum's last healthy season in 24-25 what he was capable of. You can see the stats right here. His volume is off the charts. He's 99th percentile points, 96 for rebounds, 96 for assists, and 96 for minutes. The efficiency is where things take a little bit of a dip, but still not horrible numbers, 45 percent from the field. The three-point percentage could be a little higher. It was only at 34 percent and free throws only at 81. His stocks were still high. 85th percentile for steals, 76 percentile for blocks. Tatum can really do it all. As we discussed in the previous video, that quote from Derek White from Media Day where he said that it's helpful to have a guy like Tatum who you know can basically do anything that he wants to on the court. A guy you look up to try and model your game after. We know he's capable. Now also, if we take a look at the past three seasons with Tatum, his assists to turnover ratio, it's pretty good. 23-24, 364 assists, 288 turnovers. That seems like a lot of turnovers, but compared to the assist numbers, it is not bad at all. In 24-25, 431 assists to 209 turnovers. Then in the very small sample size of this previous season where Tatum returned only for the very end, 85 assists to 39 turnovers. It's just a positive thing to see. The assist numbers are way, way higher than the turnover numbers. Tatum can be sloppy with the ball sometimes, but that's also not always from him trying to pass it. That could be he just gets ripped and it happens occasionally. The top defenders in the world are in the NBA. You're going to turn it over occasionally. What else though? What else adds to Tatum's case for being maybe the best point forward in the entire NBA right now? If you take a look at his last four seasons, we can get a little bit of the story because over his last four full and healthy seasons, Tatum averaged 26.3 plus points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.8 made threes, and 4.2 assists per game. A rare combination of high volume shot creation and secondary playmaking for a player that is his size. A lot of people talk about 6'8". I think that Tatum might actually be 6'10". That's been a conversation online as well. He seems like he's a little taller than 6'8", especially with shoes on. He posted 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.1 steals across 72 games. That's a stat line that looks more like a point guards than a traditional forwards while still functioning as the Celtics primary shot creator. He is especially going to be the primary creator this year now that Jalen Brown is gone and the duo has been split up. Tatum also just has a unique blend of size and shot making at 6'8", which I think could be 6'10". A wing forward who can bring the ball up, initiate the offense, shoot off the dribble, and still crash the glass. The literal definition of a point forward. Few players at JT's size combine that much on-ball responsibility with that volume of perimeter shooting because we know Tatum occasionally forgets that he is in fact basically 6'10". Sometimes he likes to think that he's Steph Curry. Additionally, another little data point that I think is especially relevant now with Tatum coming off of his Achilles. As we know, he tore it in May 2025. Rather than sitting out that full season as expected, he returned in roughly 10 months, which is one of the fastest Achilles comeback timelines on record. And in the 16 games that he did play, playing under a minutes restriction as well, he still had nearly 22 points per game, 10 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.6 stalks per game. In his actual season debut, he posted 15, 12, and 7, but keep in mind that's still in a minutes restriction. And in a playoff game against Philly shortly after, he nearly had a triple double with 23, 10, and 9 assists. And that is while still physically compromised. You could tell that he was slower. He was being a little more gingerly. He didn't have the burst that he would typically have because he was trying to be careful. I mean, it makes sense. Why wouldn't he be taking the most precaution possible coming off an injury like that? So it's just a strong signal of how high his playmaking and rebounding floor is, even when he isn't fully himself as a scorer. And we know that Tatum is more than capable as a scorer. So there's just a lot of good things in Tatum's favor. Folks, I want to hear all your thoughts in the comments. What do you think about Joe Mazzulla's comments calling Jason Tatum, saying that he's going to be in more of a playmaking role this upcoming season? Do you like that? Do you think that Tatum should dial back on that a little bit? Should he play into this more? I, as I have said many times in this video, think that Jason Tatum is more than capable of being a point forward, of being a guy who drives the offense, of being a guy in a leadership role. And I have very high expectations of him this season. I hope that they do not flop miserably in our faces. But folks, we will see the season is approaching fast. Stay tuned here on Celtics Digest. Once again, I'm your host Kellen Frangione. Thank you guys very much for watching this video. We will see you all in the next one.