One of Jayson Tatum's greatest strengths remains underrated

There are plenty of things to like about Jayson Tatum’s game in his third NBA season, starting with a career-high 21.3 points per game. The former Duke star is only playing a couple more minutes each night than last season, but he’s seen sizable jumps in almost every measurable box score category including FTA (4.0), rebounds (6.9), assists (2.8), steals (1.4) and blocks (0.8). The Celtics are better on both ends of the floor when he is on the court, putting him among the league leaders in plus/minus and tops on the team overall.

Yet, all of these numbers undersell perhaps what has been one of the biggest positives over the first three years of his career, a skill that remains largely underrated when it comes to evaluating talent across the league: Availability.

The 21-year-old Tatum has missed just five games over his entire NBA career thus far spanning 2.5 seasons. For some perspective on how impressive that feat is, there are just 10 players in the league that have missed fewer games than that over the past three seasons in total. A look at the full list:

Players with fewest games missed from 2017-present:

Joe Ingles: 0
Cory Joseph: 0
Patty Mills: 0
PJ Tucker: 0
Bryn Forbes: 2
Tobias Harris: 2
Thaddeus Young: 3
Jordan Clarkson: 3
Jerami Grant: 3
Bojan Bogdanovic: 4

It’s fair to note that while Tatum has technically missed five games, a couple of those were simply rest nights at the end of the past two seasons in meaningless contests from a seeding perspective. Outside of a minor foot issue at the end of last year, Tatum has been able to soak up 30-plus minutes every single game of the year.

It’s hard to properly rate just how valuable Tatum’s durability has been to this franchise as a whole, but a look at the caliber of names on the fewest missed games list is telling. Outside of Tobias Harris, Tatum is the best player on the list and you could even make the case he’s better than Harris right now if you factor in the defense. His usage is higher than anyone outside of Harris as well since beyond Bogdanovic, Tucker, Harris and Ingles, no one else on this list is consistently playing 30 plus minutes per night.

Currently, Tatum is only the only member of the Celtic roster that has played in all 38 of the team’s games this year, providing crucial reliability for Brad Stevens at both ends of the floor. It remains to be seen if I jinxed him or not by even writing this article (the Celtics just listed Tatum as probable for Wednesday’s game against the Pistons due to foot soreness) but his track record says that ailment will be nothing to worry about.

Joining Tatum among the most durable players in recent seasons is none other than Kemba Walker. The All-Star has missed just six games in the past three seasons, with four of them coming this year due to his neck scare and illness. The availability of those two combined with some strong minutes management by Stevens (no one on the roster is in the top-30 of the NBA in minutes per game) should help make the C’s a favorite to land the No. 2 spot in the East based on the dependability of their best players of the roster.

While the rest of the C’s personnel have had to battle through bad breaks with injuries and illnesses in the past two months, the team’s MVP in Tatum has remained the steady constant to help the team ride out the storm to a 27-11 start.

Tatum obviously isn’t completely bulletproof. He suffered a minor foot injury at Duke that caused him to miss the first month of his freshman season. A sprained ankle also caused him to miss the end of the World Cup this past summer. Those minor mishaps are few and far between for the durable forward however, which should make the Celtics feel great next summer when they offer him a five-year extension.

In order for any team to contend, they need their best players on the floor and the odds of that occurring with Tatum are about as good as anyone in the NBA right now.