When the Boston Celtics selected Jayson Tatum with the third overall pick in the 2017 draft, they knew they'll be getting a player ready for the NBA. As it turns out, though, even New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis saw great things from the second-year forward before he played in the league … well, even before he started in college.
In an interview with Adam Himmelsbach of Boston Globe, Davis revealed that he had a chance to play against Tatum when he and some of his teammates went to Duke in 2016. Tatum, who hasn't even played a game for the Blue Devils back then, impressed during a workout that they conducted.
Tatum left a deep impression on Davis, making the Pelicans star believe that the then 18-year-old kid has NBA potential.
“When we left, I knew [Tatum] was NBA ready,” Anthony Davis said. “He did some amazing things out there. He was going at us like we were any other guys. And everything he did at Duke when we were down there, he’s showing right now.”
True enough, Jayson Tatum had a stellar rookie season. In his first year in the league, he averaged 13.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists for the Celtics. He even started in all the 80 regular season games he played during the 2017-18 campaign, eventually helping Boston reach the Eastern Conference Finals.
Interestingly, Davis and Tatum have been linked with each other in the past few weeks.
After the Pelicans decided to not trade Davis despite his request, the general consensus is the Celtics will make a move for him in the summer. And in those speculations, Tatum is tipped to be the primary chip to make any Davis-to-Boston deal happen.
On the season, Tatum is putting up 16.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per contest. On the other hand, Davis is averaging 27.8 points, 12.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists for the Pels.
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