Kevin Durant Believes Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Has Future MVP Talent

Kevin Durant is well-positioned to call Jayson Tatum’s talent like he sees it.

The Golden State Warriors superstar said Wednesday on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” he believes the Boston Celtics forward has the talent required to win an NBA MVP Award in the future. Durant, who won the 2014 NBA MVP Award, saw Tatum’s skills up close last summer during offseason pickup games.

“He showed me some stuff,” Durant said, per MassLive.com’s Tom Westerholm.

Not content with Durant’s mere teasing of his views on Tatum, Simmons pressed him to elaborate.

“Really?” Simmons asked. “Tell me more.”

“Nah, he’s nice. He’s nice,” Durant responded.

Simmons then asked Durant whether he believes Tatum might contend for an MVP one day.

“He’s got that talent, yeah,” Durant replied.

Tatum is improving in his second NBA season as he adjusts to a different role than the one in which he thrived during his rookie year. His per-game averages have climbed to 16.4 points (up from 13.9 last season), 6.6 rebounds (5) and 1.8 assists (1.6), and the prevailing wisdom says those numbers would be much gaudier if he wasn’t surrounded by so many other stars.

Nevertheless, the 20-year-old has plenty of time to meet expectations and prove Durant correct.

Few Celtics fans would love that to happen as much as Simmons.