Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry IV
Jayson Tatum is tired.
After the win over Philadelphia, Tatum couldn't get through his postgame interview without clutching handfuls of his shorts, admitting mid-way through how exhausted he was.
After the loss to New York, he talked about missing his bed after two weeks away from home.
Tatum has crafted his once slight frame into a prototype for an NBA body. He is broad-shouldered with a strong base. He has added muscle to his frame to absorb the shock of contact he absorbs on his way to the rim. He’s a large human, built to withstand NBA punishment.
But the grind wears on everyone.
Tatum wears two crowns every night. One is tattooed on his left shoulder, peeking out from his jersey as part of a larger “God’s Plan” work. He adds to it regularly, creating a narrative that his journey from St. Louis to Boston is part of a divine script.
His second crown is figurative, and if Tatum is uneasy about wearing it, he doesn't show it often. The one thing Tatum exudes is an ability to take life as it comes. He seems to march through his days with the kind of unrelenting practicality that belies his youth. Tomorrow is another day for Tatum, who preached “never get too high or too low” on his way out of Madison Square Garden.
‘Ejected after a 1-9 shooting night from deep? That sucks. Okay, well, see you tomorrow.’
But it’s not that easy, because the ejection is the antithesis of that mantra. Never too low? Man, you got two technical fouls and got thrown out. That's pretty low.
I'm sure NBA officials get a real kick out of hearing Tatum talk about being even-keeled. And yeah, sometimes he has a legitimate beef, but other times he doesn’t. He was right about getting pushed in the back on his way up for a dunk, which led to his first tech. But he was wrong about the slap on the arm which led to the incessant yapping that got him tossed (the ball was released. Yes, there was contact, but it came on the hand after the ball was gone, which rarely gets called).
The reality is that while Tatum can quickly put aside the emotions of the game and move forward, the ‘too highs’ and ‘too lows’ of the game itself are still very much a roller coaster Tatum rides too often. He’s done a pretty good job this season of starting to put that behind him and focusing on other parts of his game when the shots aren’t falling, but it doesn’t change the fact that Tatum, for all his incredible ability, still falls victim to emotions.
Hey, he’s human. He’s not a robot, so the ups and downs are going to be there from time to time. Especially when he’s obviously tired.
But this is also what Tatum has wanted his whole life. This is the situation he has asked for. The Celtics are 20 games away from another playoff run and, as Malcolm Brogdon said, “it’s important to get that number one seed. We’re focused on that. That's the goal.” In situations like this, a week after celebrating his All-Star MVP, Tatum should be rising to another level against the Knicks.
So why can’t he?
“It's a long season, and Jayson's been playing, as we all know, at an MVP level for most of the season,” Al Horford said. “There's going to be ups and downs. And he's the last guy that I'm worried about. I know what he's about. And my biggest thing with him is making sure that he feels right. And that he's good to go in April once the playoffs start.”
Sure, there are ebbs and flows and maybe this is just one of them for Tatum. But the lack of consistency is at least a little concerning. The string of generally great night nights that made Tatum an MVP candidate have tapered off. Just in February, he started out shooting 63% against Brooklyn, then he went 20%, 46%, 33%, 62%, 19%, 62.5%, 36%, 41%, 33% the rest of the month.
That might average out to something fine, but the ups and downs of this stretch aren’t typical of Tatum. He’s certainly prone to hot and cold streaks just like anyone, but the wild swings smack of “I feel good tonight, but I didn’t that other night” kind of performances.
So when Horford says “my biggest thing with him is making sure that he feels right,” it feels like he’s saying more than that.
It’s too late to limit his minutes now. The playoffs start in two months. He might be due for some more time off, but the games he plays can’t all be low minute games at this point because he has to get ready for the high-minute grind of the playoffs.
Tatum is in a more complicated spot than “you gotta step up.” There's more to it than that. This has nothing to do with his new sneakers or potato chip commercials. Tatum is obviously committed to the cause and he wants to win.
The questions about Tatum now are about whether he can find something deep inside him to propel him to the actual MVP level he craves. Because right now, as far as I’m concerned, he’s nowhere near the top of the MVP conversation. The questions are about whether Joe Mazzulla has pushed too hard, too soon with his star, and whether Tatum’s stubbornness about his minutes have proven costly.
What I know is what Tatum should be looking like after the All-Star break, and what the has looked like in the past. He shot nearly 10% better after the break last season. He’s made noticeable jumps in shooting and scoring after the break in each of his last three seasons.
This time, he’s stumbling out of the break.
It could be nothing … just a blip in a long season. But on a night when Boston slipped into second in the East with just about a month left to go, the blip is magnified.
The crown can get pretty heavy around here. The harder it gets to sleep, the harder it is to hold that head high, the tougher this place gets on a player. Tatum knows where he needs to go to avoid all that. He knows he needs to get to a certain place to reach that ultimate goal.
Can he get there?
