“Quote me with those metrics that directly prove me wrong but I’ll disagree because it doesn’t fit my narrative”, they’re literally quantifying the exact offensive pressure and creation he was generating while being clearly compromised physically. Saying he was “underwhelming the whole series” because the raw PPG wasn’t at peak Tatum level ignores literally every impact indicator.
Tatum was at 85% physically and still:
• Celtics were 18.9 better per 100 with him ON the floor
• Offensive rating jumped from 100.0 to 119.7 with him ON
• Team 3PT% jumped from 27.3% to 37.2% with him ON
• Rim FG% went from 67.9% to 70.7% with him ON
• Midrange FG% jumped 4.7% with him ON
That’s not “team impact fluff,” that’s him warping the defense and creating quality offense everywhere on the floor.
And the funniest part is people are pretending he was chucking inefficiently when his overall playoff scoring efficiency was literally still great:
• 59.9 TS%
• 5.8 rTS
• 1.07 PPP overall
Meanwhile his role shifted heavily into creation because Jaylen had 6% more usage and was finishing far more possessions. Tatum’s on-ball creation load was still massive:
• 24.3 assist points per 100
• 17.3 potential assists per 100
• 5.0 assisted 3s per 100
• only 1.9 bad pass turnovers per 100
So even while clearly not fully healthy, he was still the primary offensive engine AND the guy driving the lineup dominance.
People see he wasn’t scoring the same amount he used to and think that means he played poorly. Basketball impact isn’t just PPG. If the offense completely collapses without you and becomes elite with you, you were probably the best player on the floor regardless of whether you took fewer finishing possessions than your teammate, was he as good as before, no, but he was still by far the best player on the team and was great.
And acting like an extra long off-season under his belt after playing this good won’t get him back to 100% is just pure ignorance.
Yall can quote those stupid advanced metrics all you want. Yes Tatum is a good playmaker and impact player but HE WAS UNDERWHELMING the whole series and you cannot brush over that with team impact. His offense was not there and if you can’t admit that then your coping