The Boston Celtics season opener will be the baseline for the team's success. Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla have carefully handpicked new players like Kristaps Porzingis, Lamar Stevens, Jrue Holiday, and Svi Mykhailiuk among others to aid in this squad's search for their 18th banner. Jaylen Brown is also getting better along with Al Horford who is aging like fine wine. But, we are here to discuss what their main star can contribute once everything is taken care of. This is the list of Jayson Tatum's bold predictions for the Celtics' 2023-24 season.
Playmaking becomes a huge asset of his game
The Celtics have been known to be a rough team when it comes to setting up plays. Their latest implosions in the playoffs were because of the inability of a lot of their players to act as a floor general on the fly. This is why chucking up shots from way out with a lot of time left on the shot clock becomes an option. But, this might be all bound to change in the Celtics' 2023-24 season campaign.
Jayson Tatum has steadily become a better dime-dropper after they lost to the Golden State Warriors. The addition of Malcolm Brogdon to fill that hole last season made him compete for the floor general role. Although Tatum still notched 4.6 assists to go with his averages which was marginally larger than his 4.4 in the previous year, that will only go higher. He has the prowess of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis at his disposal. Both can set solid screens on the perimeter but also recognize backdoor cuts to go along with it.
Tatum will spend a lot more time with the ball in his hands to draw defenders. This conserves Holiday into being their perimeter defense specialist whenever they face guard-heavy offenses like the Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns. Derrick White is also most effective when tiring the opponents out and running through screens without the ball in his hands. Our Jayson Tatum bold prediction is that he climbs up to at least 7 assists per game.
Jayson Tatum becomes one of the great Celtics MVPs
The last Most Valuable Player to don the lucky greens was Larry Bird. No other player has been able to follow up that feat in nearly four decades. Isaiah Thomas was the most recent player who had come close to laying his hands on the iconic trophy but it just was not his fate. Tatum is in prime position to notch his first major individual trophy. Not only will he be able to get better teammates to pass to because of their offseason shakeup, but Mazzulla's schematics point toward using Tatum as an all-around star.
In their last NBA Preseason game, Jaylen Brown was the one to score more points off of passes from Tatum. Both stars played the same 23 minutes but Mazzulla realized how inefficient it would be if Tatum would be the one both facilitating, moving off-ball, and scoring in the same sequences for the Celtics' 23-24 season run.
His all-around performance against the Lamelo Ball-led squad helped him notch 11 points, seven assists, and six rebounds. With increased minutes and the same level of production, averaging a smooth 27 points, eight assists, and ten rebounds would seem easy for him.
Tatum enters the Pantheon with Banner 18
If you were going to click out of this article just because you saw that last line, don't. This has arguably been the best team that Stevens has formed to compete for the Larry O'Brien trophy. Losses like Brogdon, Smart, and Williams were all necessary to make the most talented six or seven-man lineup in the league. But, the players around them are also not messing around. Lamar Stevens loves to bring his heart when pressing an opponent on defense, Svi Mykhailiuk has a deadly clutch gene that dates all the way back to his college basketball days, and Neemias Queta has the ability to revert back to being one of the most ruthless defenders in the nation.
Potential is no longer the word that best describes this team. They are more than ready for an insane 82-game season run en route to fetching the Larry O'Brien trophy and bringing it back to its home in a singular state along with 17 other trophies. Jayson Tatum's bold prediction for the Celtics' 2023-24 season is he will win it all along with the award named after Bill Russell.
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