Jayson Tatum will likely hear many doubters throughout the offseason after he and the Boston Celtics failed to win the NBA Finals, and it appears he’s looking to expand his game heading into the 2022-23 season.
The Celtics superstar faced criticism from not only national pundits but also from Boston fans who felt Tatum didn’t rise to the occasion against the Golden State Warriors. President of basketball operations Brad Stevens and head coach Ime Udoka had a similar message to Tatum after the season: Get rest.
For Tatum, he understands he needs to take it another level to help Boston earn its 18th championship in franchise history, and he’ll be working on improving his offensive game with his private coach Drew Hanlen.
Hanlen is an NBA skills coach who has worked with other top stars like Bradley Beal and Joel Embiid. In a question and answer prompt he posted on Twitter on Thursday, a person asked Hanlen what Tatum will work on this offseason.
“Driving/finishing through contact & pull-up jumpers,” Hanlen tweeted.
The 2022 NBA Finals was a coming out party for Andrew Wiggins, at Tatum’s expense. The Warriors All-Star forward shut down Tatum in the finals, and Draymond Green was there to provide support as well.
It appears Hanlen and Tatum will work on the All-NBA forward’s ability to finish in traffic and hit a diverse amount of shots on the court.
Heading into the 2021-22 season, the NBA wanted to crack down on “non-basketball moves” from offensive players to draw fouls. Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden and Portland Trail Blazers All-Star Damian Lillard were the biggest offenders of this, but Tatum was sometimes guilty of this as well — the forward would, at times, extend his arms out when driving to draw a foul.
It’s likely fans will no longer see this rip-through move and see more of Tatum trying to finish at the basket rather than try to draw a foul.
Fans will have to wait until the season begins to see the fruits of Tatum’s offseason labors, but one thing is for sure, the All-Star forward will come in motivated to prove the doubters wrong.
