Ex-NBA Player Examines ‘Maturation’ Of Jayson Tatum’s Game With Celtics

The improvement of Jayson Tatum’s statistics is the result of his ongoing development.

Former NBA player Sam Mitchell examined the “maturation” of the Boston Celtics forward’s offensive game Wednesday night on NBA TV. Mitchell used three highlights of the Celtics’ win over the Washington Wizards, in which Tatum scored 23 points on 45 percent shooting, to illustrate the jump the talented young player has taken in his third NBA season.

“… when you look at this Celtics team, and we’ve talked about how well they’ve been playing, Tatum, (Jaylen) Brown, these guys are patient, they’re comfortable with the offense, and now we’re seeing the results,” Mitchell concluded.

Tatum is averaging 19.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 10 games this season, with each of those numbers representing career highs. He has been one of the main beneficiaries of a Celtics offense that seems to be working better in 2019-20 than it has in previous campaigns.

Tatum’s growth also is the result of his dogged offseason work to improve his scoring efficiency. Celtics head coach Brad Stevens and president of basketball operations Danny Ainge praised Tatum’s development coming into the season, and Mitchell’s analysis shows the wider NBA community is re-discovering why Boston is so excited about the 21-year-old star.