Has Jayson Tatum done enough to enter the league MVP conversation?
Boston has won 14 of its last 16 games, with wins over current, former and top-tier MVP candidates along the way. Tatum outplayed most of them and got the win. What else does Top-5 Tatum need to do?
We all knew this day was coming sooner or later.
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum has been putting up big numbers for the bulk of his four-plus seasons with the Green Team.
Just about every scoring metric available, he has met sooner than any player in franchise history which says a lot when you consider how illustrious their history is compared to the rest of the NBA.
The 54-point onslaught he put on the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday was the fourth time he scored at least 50 points in a game, a franchise record the 24-year-old now shares with Larry Bird.
We’re past the point where we can talk about him as one of the better up-and-coming players in the league.
He lapped that track a while ago.
If we’re talking top 10 players in the NBA, it’s hard to come up with a list that doesn’t include him on it now.
But when you take the numbers he’s posting now, combine it with the winning that Boston is doing more of than just about any team in the NBA, the trajectory Tatum is on takes you to one place - league M.V.P.
The thought of him being in that conversation just a couple of weeks ago would have bordered somewhere between being absurd and outright insane, a reminder of just how fluid a player’s status can be.
Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan and the league MVP talk surrounding him a couple of weeks ago has quieted down considerably since the Bulls have dropped a few games and his numbers have talent a slight dip during that time.
But there is no denying the play of Tatum has not only catapulted him to a different level among his NBA peers, but it has also given rise to a Celtics team that’s starting to feel as though their championship window is just about to crack open.
His 26.5 points per game this season ranks eighth in the NBA.
Of course, the path Tatum must take to be the league’s MVP won’t be easy.
Heck, it’ll be hard enough for him to be seen as the best player in the East let alone the NBA.
But there are some factors that are starting to at least tilt the scale somewhat in his direction.
First and foremost, the Celtics are winning…a lot.
Their 126-120 win over Brooklyn was the team’s third straight, and 14th victory in their last 16 games. Boston (39-27) is now fifth in the East, trailing East-leading Miami by 4.5 games.
The win over Brooklyn was also another opportunity for Tatum to play against another top-tier, MVP-caliber opponent in Kevin Durant who won the league MVP award in 2014 and delivered one of the most memorable acceptance speeches ever.
Tatum didn’t just hold his own against Durant, who on Sunday had a good game with 37 points and eclipsed the 25,000 career point barrier.
Durant is still an exceptional player.
But on Sunday, he was outplayed by Tatum.
Last week, Tatum was on the floor against another up-and-coming MVP candidate in Memphis’ Ja Morant.
And like Durant, Tatum got the best of Morant as well.
Although Morant scored one more point (38 to 37) than Tatum, Morant shot 13-for-29 from the field while Tatum was an efficient 14-for-25 shooting.
When Tatum was on the floor, Boston was a plus-17 compared to the Grizzlies who were minus-5 when Morant was in the game.
And last month, Tatum and the Celtics went into Philadelphia to face the Sixers and Joel Embiid, one of the front-runners for league MVP.
This was another game in which Tatum was on the floor against a team led by another top-tier superstar talent, outperformed him and Boston got the win.
There are certainly others who are clearly ahead of Tatum when it comes to being this year’s MVP, such as Denver’s reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic (arguably the overall front-runner) as well as former league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo whose Milwaukee Bucks are the reigning NBA champions.
But there is no denying that Tatum is closing the gap, something we all knew was bound to happen sooner or later.