Boston Celtics: 3 goals for Jayson Tatum in 2018-19
2. Continue the defensive effort
Last season Tatum also had a pretty productive season playing defense. That’s something that gets overlooked when you have a lot of good defenders on the league’s top defense. However, he was a big contributor toward the Celtics being so elite on that end.
He finished the year averaging 1.0 steals and 0.7 blocks per game. For a rookie (or anyone for that matter), it’s good to almost average one steal and block per game. He even had a defensive rating of 100.3.
Pretty much everyone on the Celtics had a good defensive rating, but Tatum was tied for 17th in the NBA in that category. He could’ve been even higher if it wasn’t for the fact that some players played less minutes.
Still, 17th is really good. On the Celtics’ roster, he was tied for third with Jaylen Brown. Plays like these were not out of the norm for the former third overall pick.
Jayson Tatum gets the strip on defense then finishes the one-man fast break by skying for the jam in tonight's @JetBlue Play of the Game! https://t.co/psV6Ch9CNZ
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 7, 2017
That looked like a veteran move right there. With another year under his belt, things should become even easier on that end. The more he plays and understands other players in the league, the more he will be able to succeed and become a two-way force.
Having Brad Stevens as the head coach of the Celtics will only help Tatum. The things that Stevens does to help his players on defense is incredible. Tatum will learn new nuances to the game each year he is in the league, which is a frightening prospect for Boston’s opponents.