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Jayson Tatum didn't live up to expectations in 2018-19. Of course, he wasn't the only player on the Boston Celtics who disappointed, either. The Celtics were a trendy championship pick going into last season, adding Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward to a roster that came within a single victory of the NBA Finals, but were instead beset by an overall lack of chemistry and cohesion that caused them to bow out of the playoffs with a whimper ultimately prompted their two best players to leave in free agency.
But Boston, fortunately, doesn't need to dwell on missed opportunities of the past, not after replacing Irving with Kemba Walker and retaining most of one of the deepest rosters in basketball. Tatum doesn't, either, not now that he's primed to shoulder offensive responsibilities more befitting of his exceedingly rare talents.
While discussing what he deems is an unfair critique of Tatum's sophomore campaign, though, acclaimed skills trainer Drew Hanlen couldn't help himself from alluding to the rising third-year wing's “frustration” over the role he played a year ago.
“I mean, he shot 40 percent over his first two years in the NBA,” Hanlen said of Tatum, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “I think people overcriticize him. If he would have shot 37 percent his rookie season, everyone would have freaked out, and now he shot 37 and people look at is as a drop-off. But I think there was just some frustration with him not being in the role he thought he would be in after the previous season.”
Tatum averaged 15.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.1 steals per game last season – all improvements on his standout rookie campaign. But he shot worse from both the field and the three-point line, taking a significantly smaller share of his shot attempts near the rim.
