Shooting has been an issue for this team since Day 1, partly because the team just doesn’t have many guys who can consistently hit the 3-pointer and partly because those who can have not been able to.
Jayson Tatum is chief among them, having started the season shooting 31.1% from deep before his recent hot stretch added two points to his percentage. But Tatum has recently been able to compensate, displaying a vastly improved ability to get to, and finish at, the rim.
“It might have been a blessing in disguise when I couldn’t hit a 3,” Tatum said after blowing out Sacramento. “I still wanted to try to score, so just getting downhill a lot more during that stretch. And now just trying to put both of those together.”
It wasn’t always great for Tatum at the rim, whose season average in the restricted area is still just 63%. Earlier this season, Tatum’s drives were a bit of a crapshoot. He was either bothered by defenders at the rim or officials who refused to blow the whistle when he felt he was fouled.
But his march upward has been noticeable.
Here's the progression of Tatum's restricted area shooting percentage this season:
| October | 48.6% |
| November | 60.3% |
| December | 66.7% |
| January | 71.9% |
In his last three games, Tatum is finishing at 85.7% in the restricted area on seven attempts per game. He’s averaging 14 points in the paint in those games, a number that would be good for fourth in the NBA if it was his season average. For reference, Giannis Antetokounmpo averages 15.5.
“It’s noticeable,” Ime Udoka said after the team’s Wednesday practice. “He’s a guy that can mix it up, well, obviously, and we want to encourage him to continue to attack, get to the free-throw line, get to the basket, and then make the right plays, which he's done all year. But you can see a noticeable improvement and focus on getting downhill.”
Tatum’s 20 drives against the Portland Trail Blazers were the second-most of his career. When you couple the attacking with his added emphasis on setting up and looking for teammates, the assists start to pile up.
“Finding guys, back to back seven assists games, and then, when the shots starts falling like we knew it would, it opens everything up for him,” Udoka said. “(He) stayed confident in his work and the process and things he does every day but made a noticeable effort to get downhill and, for us and for him, I think we love the physicality and getting the freedom line and he uses his body to finish and find guys.”
The use of his body to clear space is something Tatum seems to be getting better at. The once wispy Tatum is now a broad-shouldered beast, and lately, he’s starting to act like it. The comparisons to Paul Pierce may have been premature earlier in his career, but now there seems to be a little bit more of a parallel.
Tatum is getting better at using those shoulders to body guys out of position and clear enough space to finish at the rim, a facet of his game that was very noticeable on this drive against the Washington Wizards.
Tatum has spent a lot of time trying to finesse his way to the rim; to glide past defenders, avoid contact, and lay the ball in on the other side. Now, Tatum is beginning to use a little bit more force to go along with his fancy footwork. That left shoulder to Daniel Gafford's chest did enough to dislodge him from his path and open up an easy lane to the hoop.
Understanding what his body is truly capable of pairs quite well with his new emphasis on finding teammates. The more he’s able to find open guys for good looks, the less help can be sent his way on drives.
“He’s mixing it up well,” Udoka said. “It feels like he has his base up under him a little bit, finishing much stronger, getting to the free-throw line. And so it was one of those things where we loved what he was getting; he was just missing some easy ones. And so I think with him shooting the ball the way he is now and distributing as well, it kind of opens up the basket for him. And he’s recognizing who he’s playing against – shot-blockers vs. guys he can kind of go through – and just doing a great job overall of recognizing what he has from game to game.”
If Tatum’s shot is truly back, and if he can make teams pay for sending two guys at him, then he has a real opportunity to level up.
The final obstacle to clear will be his propensity to settle for jumpers against shot-blockers. While he obviously won’t get to the rim like he would against Sacramento, he still needs to attack shot blockers and make them make plays. He needs to be able to draw fouls on those big men or at least collapse defenses to open things up for others. The more he settles against the elite defensive big men, the more predictable he becomes, and the easier the rest of the team will be to guard.
“When he's getting to the basket and recognizing the crowd that's around him, whether it's a shot blocker coming over, that's his next step is having to read that and split-second decisions that he has to make,” Udoka said. “Teams are going to throw several different coverages at him and he was missing a lot of easy baskets in the paint early in the season. He's now finishing those but at the same time, he recognizes when the crowd is there and he's making some great passes … I think he's doing a great job.”
This could be what takes Tatum to the next level. Scoring half his points in the paint opens him up to 30-plus per game scoring averages. If he can keep his assists up around seven and rebounds in the double digits, then Tatum will start getting mentioned among the game’s elite.
This is what the team has been pushing him to do. We’ve seen the early glimpses of it. Now let’s see if this can truly be who Jayson Tatum is moving forward.