SquimJim

His high end being 7 is kind of absurd when you consider he was a top 5 player the past 3 years and has won a championship.

Tatum has definitely been a top 5 player since 2020. I'm not sure anyone can name 5 players who have had the regular season accolades and post-season success that Tatum has had.

I think he question implies "other than the obvious answer"

I had thought that the other one was going to have them together. Made sense to me.

I remember when Hayward was in Utah and a common debate was PG13 vs. Jimmy Butler vs. Gordon Hayward. 3 2-way wings who were all doing some great stuff.

Kind of wild to look back and think that, so far, none of them have won a championship.

I don't think you would have expected that 8+ years ago

As good as Hayward could have been, there were a lot of Celtics fans that were happy he moved on, even if we were upset we got nothing in return for him. He didn't have a single healthy playoff run with us either.

Potentially 2 championships lost imo. I think we could have had at least one in the first 2 years if he didn't get injured. I also think we beat the Lakers in the Bubble if he doesn't get injured in the 1st Round. Likely we actually take care of business in the 2nd Round and Kemba doesn't get hurt. We then face the Heat with a healthy Kemba and a healthy Hayward.

He just kept on getting injured too. It wasn't just the leg. He had weird injury after weird injury after weird injury. He probably could have returned to form if it was just the gnarly leg snap, but there were more after that.

Tbh, he never physically came back. Dude was injured every playoffs with us after that and even the one time the Hornets made the playoffs.

We can agree to disagree. I liked what I saw from them and think they can build on it. Nembhard in particular I think will surprise people. I've been wrong 1,000 times before though.

Pacers could become the new Heat, where Celtics fans understand how good you are, but others don't.

I believe in the Pacers. Their offense is beautiful and their defense improved. A lot of people were talking about how hot the Mavs were going into the playoffs, but the Pacers were arguably more hot. They probably could have won more games vs. the C's if they had more health, experience, or if their coach didn't have brain diarrhea.

lol oh boy is it true, right now

air humping broke jumpshot

lmao this is my favorite Tatum criticism of late

definitely did a spit take

OP been getting a lot of karma due to farming the Tatum stuff:

• [Highlights] Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton against Serbia todayHighlight

• Tatum's Olympic exhibition stats: 6.4 pts on 46/0/80 shooting, 3.4 rebs, 1.6 asts, 1 stl in 17.8 mins. LeBron's stats: 14.2 pts on 60/46/64 shooting, 4 rebs, 3.6 asts in 20.4 mins. Embiid who many thought has been the worst in team US: 10.4 pts on 51/33/80 shooting, 6.8 rebs, 2.8 asts in 16.6 mins.

• The Celtics are now 6-0 in the playoffs when Jayson Tatum shoots below 40%. This game is the first time they didn't blow out their opponent when he shoots that badly.

Yea, I disagree. I think offense is the more important individual skill.

In terms of talent, I think Embiid is probably 2nd in the NBA right now and has an argument for #1. Again though, there's a lot of other players I'd rather have because I can't trust him to stay healthy for a season and a long playoff run.

It's not hating, I just factor in availability when I look at how good a player is.

Yea, that's definitely true. He absolutely needs to get better there.

If playoff Ant showed up in the regular season this year he'd probably get an MVP. He just hasn't put it together in the regular season. That's the only thing that is separating him from the best of the best.

I think there's like 6 guys that are on a similar level, (Ant being among them), after the top 3 of Jokic, Luka, and Giannis. Embiid, SGA, and Tatum are at the top of those players, but I can't separate Embiid from that pack because I don't trust him to stay healthy over the course of a regular season and long playoff run. SGA is the most likely to separate himself, but he just hasn't had the playoff success yet.