After leading the Boston Celtics to the top of the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum couldn't help but wish he started the season the same way he's playing in the second half of the campaign. Not because Boston would have been at the top earlier, but rather it would have made him the MVP favorite.

Tatum said as much following their 134-112 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, during which the Celtics forward exploded for 34 points, five rebounds and six assists. Boston is currently on a six-game winning streak, and it is looking more and more likely they'll finish the season at that position.

“I wish I could start the season like this. Then I'd be MVP,” Tatum said on his hot streak with the Celtics in the second half of the year, per team reporter Marc D'Amico.

Normally, Jayson Tatum would have been on the MVP debate already (and probably leading it) as the Beantown team continues to dominate. Unfortunately that is not the case after the Celtics started the season really bad and it looked like they would be fighting for the play-in. They went 16-19 in their first 35 games before turning things around in 2022–going 31-9 since the turn of the New Year.

The 24-year-old, of course, has been a major reason for that. This 2022–prior to Sunday's game–he's averaging 28.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists on 47.9 percent overall shooting and 37.5 percent from deep. That's way better than his 25.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.0 steal on 41.7 percent shooting from the field and 32.9 percent from the 3-point line in 33 games in 2021.

In their last 11 games before Sunday as well, he has been averaging a monstrous 33.6 points with shooting clips of 53.6 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from beyond the arc. If those are not MVP numbers, we don't know what is.

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Truth be told, there are a lot of players deserving to be in the MVP conversation, like Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker. However, the current narrative is on the battle of big men in Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo even though their teams have not been as successful as the Celtics or Suns.

It remains to be seen if Tatum will be able to get some MVP votes, but he sure has proven to be a true elite that will be in that conversation sooner rather than later.