Jayson Tatum is struggling from 3. He's shooting 35% this season, which currently ties the lowest mark of his career. He started out this season shooting 37.9% in November, then 35.4% in December, and now 30.6% in January. There was a lot of talk about his shot being fixed this season after subpar shooting in the playoffs, but the touch has obviously faded since then.
People go through slumps, so the point of this piece isn't to worry about Tatum's percentage just yet. If he was alone in the shooting dip, I might be more concerned, but this is a bug the whole team has been fighting for a little while. I think as the offense gets back into a groove, the shooting will follow.
And that's where Tatum is struggling the most.
The Rockets game highlighted Tatum's worst habit when his shot is off for an extended period. When given equal choice between driving and shooting, Tatum tends to try to shoot his way out of the slump rather than get himself into the rhythm of the game and let more open shots happen organically.
The Celtics started the game on a run and Dillon Brooks was answering it with a couple of 3-pointers. This shot screamed "I'm going to answer" instead of "I'm going to run good offense." But why not fake that 3 and drive into the heart of the defense to (a) probe for a better shot than a contested 30-footer or (b) open things up for Kristaps Porzingis, who started the game hot from 3.
It's as if Tatum took a heat check before getting a look at the basket.
And I'll interrupt myself here to say sometimes you have to live with shots like this when it comes to a superstar. I understand that players like Tatum take some bad shots sometimes and maybe he was probing to see if Porzingis' early heater was contagious. I'm not going nuts over this shot other than to say it was part of a pattern. The shots coming up are worse.
Tatum runs a pick-and-pop with Payton Pritchard and launches when a drive was available against Aaron Holiday.
There's a big juicy open space in the middle that would draw two defenders and leave Xavier Tillman or Jrue Holiday open from the corners. As much as Tatum is hoping to get going, finding Holiday in that spot is still preferable. Tillman is another story, but maybe Pritchard could have rotated over to reset the play or get a shot. We can argue about it being a 50/50 call for Tatum, but this is my point. When Tatum gets into prolonged slumps, he chooses the shot over the drive most of the time hoping to get himself going.
I'm not going to get worked up about his one. There are six seconds to shoot and Tatum is sharing the floor with Tillman, Neemias Queta, Jordan Walsh, and Pritchard. The only argument I'll make is that if he was more selective about his shots and in a better rhythm to start the game, maybe a crap shot like this would find its way in.
This is another great example of choosing the shot over a better option. Is it a decent look? Yep. Can he argue that he should make this shot? Absolutely.
But Jalen Green's momentum is going towards the sideline. A little head fake would send him flying into the front row with a massive lane into the paint there for Tatum to take.
Of course, at this point, he has Walsh and Jaden Springer as his corner options, which is less than ideal, but he also has Luke Kornet in the dunker spot and a potential alley oop there if his defender steps up to stop the drive.
And, by the way, if Springer and Walsh are your two options, then so be it. They have to be trusted to make those shots the same way Derrick White or Jaylen Brown would be. You never know when a drive and kick like this can get these guys going. Springer has been playing pretty well lately, so why not give him that chance?
The right play there was the drive, more than any of the other ones. This next play really drove me nuts.
That turnover is Tatum's fault. Why didn't he just keep going?
That is the widest of wide-open paths to the basket. Holiday was looking right at Tatum hoping to make the pass either over the top of his defender or an alley-oop. But Tatum stopped and retreated. He didn't even flare all the way out to the corner. Luckily, Tatum made the right play later in the quarter in almost the exact same situation.
It's amazing how that works.
I'm highlighting this one game because it gave me plenty of examples in a neat little package, but it's not the only game where Tatum was clearly searching for his 3-point shot. And it's not to say driving first is guaranteed to get Tatum going either, because he did it against Dallas and he still shot 4-12 from deep. But it's still going to give him the best chance of getting comfortable and getting into the flow of the game.
Also, as we can see from these examples, Tatum is missing chances to make "the right play" not just for himself, but for his teammates.
And I get how first quarters can be tough for Tatum now that Brown is getting the bulk of those minutes and getting going early on. Highlighting these plays doesn't mean Tatum hasn't also been making good reads to start games. He had a couple of assists in the first quarter and I think he generally played well. I understand that he's getting fewer chances to settle into games than before and that makes it tougher.
This also isn't a big anti-3-pointer rant. I don't care if he takes 12 in a game. But, as I always say, I want them to be good ones ... understanding that there will generally be a couple heat checks that you have to allow stars to take. NBA superstars can make bad shots. This isn't high school or college where even the good players have to take nothing but good shots to succeed.
It doesn't change the fact that searching for those early 3-pointers can be counterproductive. The entire point is that Tatum is chasing something in an effort to get going instead of letting the game come to him. I don't know how things would have gone had Tatum taken those driving opportunities early on. At the same time, I have a good feeling that the right plays tend to pay off over time.
Tatum is playing well but shooting poorly, and part of that is his forcing some shots in hopes of finding his touch. If he just lets things happen, he'll find the shots he's looking for organically.
