Tatum All Time Playoff Scoring

[PierceFan4ever]

Playing on east is unreal easy to get to playoffs, so do those stats mean anything at all?

Yeah let’s discredit Lebron James playoff stats all those years playing in the worst version of the eastern conference

[EmpireFalls]

Also this:

Read on Twitter

?s=12

Easiest East I can remember since LBJ left Cleveland, by far. With Giannis and Embiid healthy it might be respectable but they’re clearly not 100%.

Honestly this might even be easier than some of LeBron’s runs, except 2017 which was disgustingly easy, but still, the Celtics have an absolute CAKEWALK.

[Marrrcuss]

Playing on east is unreal easy to get to playoffs, so do those stats mean anything at all?

Yeah let’s discredit Lebron James playoff stats all those years playing in the worst version of the eastern conference

I mean, these guys are crafty. Dont for a minute think he wasnt an indirect target of the comment.

Edit: The preceding post proves it. Tatum is just collateral damage,

[Hornet Mania]

Total playoff stats means nothing. It benefits players who win 4-3 almost twice over players who win 4-0.

I feel this is kind of short sighted. Over a players career, you're going to have seasons where you have both. You're going to have seasons where you lose in the first round, times you win a ring and play a lot of games, hard series, short series...

If you take a look at the top playoff scoring list, it looks pretty good to me. It's just how basketball works. A few short series of 4-0 over your career is not really going to effect your all time point total, especially if you play 15 years.

Here is the list -

LeBron
Jordan
Kareem
Kobe
Shaq
Tim Duncan
Durant
Malone
Erving
West

There is the top 10. The nitpicking of shorter series to longer series seems moot at that point

If anyone has a right to claim he'd be higher it would be Jerry West, since he played less rounds and less games per round than everyone else, even less than those who came up during the best-of-five first round format. Overall the list looks like what you'd expect.

[Harry Garris]

Playing on east is unreal easy to get to playoffs, so do those stats mean anything at all?

The Celtics would be making the playoffs every year in the west too. They might not go as far in the playoffs but they're clearly been a very good team and near the top of the NBA every single season that Tatum has been in Boston.

[NZB2323]

Total playoff stats means nothing. It benefits players who win 4-3 almost twice over players who win 4-0.

I feel this is kind of short sighted. Over a players career, you're going to have seasons where you have both. You're going to have seasons where you lose in the first round, times you win a ring and play a lot of games, hard series, short series...

If you take a look at the top playoff scoring list, it looks pretty good to me. It's just how basketball works. A few short series of 4-0 over your career is not really going to effect your all time point total, especially if you play 15 years.

Here is the list -

LeBron
Jordan
Kareem
Kobe
Shaq
Tim Duncan
Durant
Malone
Erving
West

There is the top 10. The nitpicking of shorter series to longer series seems moot at that point

I’m just impressed that West is top 10. When he played, there were only 3 rounds, sometimes teams got byes for the first round, and if they didn’t the first round was best of 5.

[HotelVitale]

Playing on east is unreal easy to get to playoffs, so do those stats mean anything at all?

Of course it means something. Giannis plays in the east too and has been passed by Tatum. Celtics have been one of the best teams the past handful of seasons, it is earned for him IMO

Hmm seems like the obvious stance here is that he's been good in the PO but also been on very good teams that had no chance of missing the PO (or often losing in the 1st round even). Tatum is part of that but he also started with 50+ win teams that had been making deep runs for years, and had Brown-Horford-Smart for the early runs (plus a rotating cast of Hayward, Kyrie, etc for a while).

Both things true: Tatum was ready to be a big contributor right away and has stayed that way, and he also had a very unusual head start coming right into a team that was built to go deep in the PO.

[bisme37]

Playing on east is unreal easy to get to playoffs, so do those stats mean anything at all?

Of course it means something. Giannis plays in the east too and has been passed by Tatum. Celtics have been one of the best teams the past handful of seasons, it is earned for him IMO

Hmm seems like the obvious stance here is that he's been good in the PO but also been on very good teams that had no chance of missing the PO (or often losing in the 1st round even). Tatum is part of that but he also started with 50+ win teams that had been making deep runs for years, and had Brown-Horford-Smart for the early runs (plus a rotating cast of Hayward, Kyrie, etc for a while).

Both things true: Tatum was ready to be a big contributor right away and has stayed that way, and he also had a very unusual head start coming right into a team that was built to go deep in the PO.

The thing that has been forgotten over time was Tatum got drafted to a team with Kyrie and Hayward but neither of those guys actually played in the postseason in Tatum's first season. (Or did anything good for the C's in the postseason at all during their Celtics tenures.)

JT was the #1 playoff option as a rookie and the C's got to Game 7 of the ECFs before getting Lebronned in the last few minutes of the game.

During Tatum's career the worst result for the Celtics was actually the year Kyrie was healthy and he was the #1 option instead of JT.

[Homer38]

Of course it means something. Giannis plays in the east too and has been passed by Tatum. Celtics have been one of the best teams the past handful of seasons, it is earned for him IMO

Hmm seems like the obvious stance here is that he's been good in the PO but also been on very good teams that had no chance of missing the PO (or often losing in the 1st round even). Tatum is part of that but he also started with 50+ win teams that had been making deep runs for years, and had Brown-Horford-Smart for the early runs (plus a rotating cast of Hayward, Kyrie, etc for a while).

Both things true: Tatum was ready to be a big contributor right away and has stayed that way, and he also had a very unusual head start coming right into a team that was built to go deep in the PO.

The thing that has been forgotten over time was Tatum got drafted to a team with Kyrie and Hayward but neither of those guys actually played in the postseason in Tatum's first season. (Or did anything good for the C's in the postseason at all during their Celtics tenures.)

JT was the #1 playoff option as a rookie and the C's got to Game 7 of the ECFs before getting Lebronned in the last few minutes of the game.

During Tatum's career the worst result for the Celtics was actually the year Kyrie was healthy and he was the #1 option instead of JT.

In 2021,the celtics were a .500 team and a first round exit in 5 games but you are right for the rest!

[bisme37]

Hmm seems like the obvious stance here is that he's been good in the PO but also been on very good teams that had no chance of missing the PO (or often losing in the 1st round even). Tatum is part of that but he also started with 50+ win teams that had been making deep runs for years, and had Brown-Horford-Smart for the early runs (plus a rotating cast of Hayward, Kyrie, etc for a while).

Both things true: Tatum was ready to be a big contributor right away and has stayed that way, and he also had a very unusual head start coming right into a team that was built to go deep in the PO.

The thing that has been forgotten over time was Tatum got drafted to a team with Kyrie and Hayward but neither of those guys actually played in the postseason in Tatum's first season. (Or did anything good for the C's in the postseason at all during their Celtics tenures.)

JT was the #1 playoff option as a rookie and the C's got to Game 7 of the ECFs before getting Lebronned in the last few minutes of the game.

During Tatum's career the worst result for the Celtics was actually the year Kyrie was healthy and he was the #1 option instead of JT.

In 2021,the celtics were a .500 team and a first round exit in 5 games but you are right for the rest!

Apparently I've successfully blocked that year from my mind haha.

[HotelVitale]

Of course it means something. Giannis plays in the east too and has been passed by Tatum. Celtics have been one of the best teams the past handful of seasons, it is earned for him IMO

Hmm seems like the obvious stance here is that he's been good in the PO but also been on very good teams that had no chance of missing the PO (or often losing in the 1st round even). Tatum is part of that but he also started with 50+ win teams that had been making deep runs for years, and had Brown-Horford-Smart for the early runs (plus a rotating cast of Hayward, Kyrie, etc for a while).

Both things true: Tatum was ready to be a big contributor right away and has stayed that way, and he also had a very unusual head start coming right into a team that was built to go deep in the PO.

The thing that has been forgotten over time was Tatum got drafted to a team with Kyrie and Hayward but neither of those guys actually played in the postseason in Tatum's first season. (Or did anything good for the C's in the postseason at all during their Celtics tenures.) JT was the #1 playoff option as a rookie and the C's got to Game 7 of the ECFs before getting Lebronned in the last few minutes of the game. During Tatum's career the worst result for the Celtics was actually the year Kyrie was healthy and he was the #1 option instead of JT.

Sure but my point was that his teams were always very well set up so that a good scorer could come right in and lead them to deep runs, Tatum desreves big credit for that but context is relevant. Tatum came in and played great right away in the PO (I remember all too clearly as a Sixers fan), but he probably wouldn't have dragged a 25-win team to the 3rd round like most top-3 picked rookies would have to do. If he was drafted at #4 instead of #3, he probably misses out on at least 5-7 PO series in his first 3 years. He walked into a team that was ready for a solid scoring wing to elevate them and he filled shoes of IT/Kyrie/Hayward and that was obviously very impressive; then he got better from there while the team also did a gret job shifting and shuffling the supporting casts around him (J Brown developing and making killer trades to bring in White and Brogdon, and then Jrue and Porzingis).

Another simple way to frame this is that we all know Tatum's a perennial top-10 player and will be in the HOF, but he's a legit threat for all-time PO scorer because of team context. Doesn't feel unfair to him to put it that way.

[shi-woo]

Playing on east is unreal easy to get to playoffs, so do those stats mean anything at all?

This is a trash take that should be lest in the 2000's.

The East has had most of the Top teams in the league since he walked onto the court, and those teams have more continuity than any team out West not named the Warriors.

The Bucks, 76'ers, and MIA have all been incredible teams that would be great even out West, and Tatum has had to go up against 2-3 of those teams every year since he came into the league.

That's not even mentioning the LeBron led teams his first couple of years...

If he was doing what he does against bottom feeders or on a team like CHI then sure, you would have a point to make, but he's not. He's doing it against the best Eastern Conference since the early to mid 80's, and has played and looked the part.

He might not be on the level of guys like LeBron or Luka, but he's still clearly one of the best of his generation, and is deserving of that respect, especially when he continues to have performances like he did against MIL and MIA in big games.

He got hurt last year in game 7, and acknowledged that his body wasn't ready to play that many games in 22 (something most star players refuse to do). Other than those two blemishes, he really has been an incredible playoff performer, and doing it against the MVP's of the league.

[ropjhk]

Tatum has played a lot of playoff games in his career already. Ultimately the question of where he ends up in all time totals depends on how many more playoff games he plays. The Celtics look like they could be one of the better teams for a long while.

I can see him eventually surpassing Jordan in career totals if he stays healthy and plays long enough on contenders. He's only 24 and he plays for a franchise that has expectations to be a contender almost every season.

[Joshyjess]

Also this:

Read on Twitter

?s=12

You realize that this list actually works against Tatum scoring more points. He'll either not get as much playing time during the actual games (possibly sitting out much of the fourth quarters), or the Celtics will only have to play less games to advance. A schedule against higher quality, fully healthy teams would most likely add more to Tatum's overall points.

[zero rings]

Nobody cares about totals in basketball.

[GiannisAnte34]

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

[PierceFan4ever]

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

If that helps you sleep better at night. Bucks were the favorites last year and co favorites this year to win the chip at the beginning of the season but let’s use team excuses now

[Joshyjess]

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

[GiannisAnte34]

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

If that helps you sleep better at night. Bucks were the favorites last year and co favorites this year to win the chip at the beginning of the season but let’s use team excuses now

I'd rather have a competent franchise than one that simply got lucky to have a better #1 option. the Bucks have fumbled so many opportunities to put a better team around Giannis. the Celtics with Brad at the helm have made so many smart decisions, which add up to a team that just has better supporting pieces

you can delude yourself into believing that it's all because Tatum is a better player though.

[PierceFan4ever]

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

I think we all know what would happen if Tatum and Giannis swapped teams. The Celtics would be a dynasty and the Bucks would struggle to be relevant

If that helps you sleep better at night. Bucks were the favorites last year and co favorites this year to win the chip at the beginning of the season but let’s use team excuses now

I'd rather have a competent franchise than one that simply got lucky to have a better #1 option. the Bucks have fumbled so many opportunities to put a better team around Giannis. the Celtics with Brad at the helm have made so many smart decisions, which add up to a team that just has better supporting pieces

you can delude yourself into believing that it's all because Tatum is a better player though.

Maybe giannis has fumbled the bucks. Got not 1 but 2 coaches fired because he wanted a different coach which he got, threatened to leave unless the bucks made a change and got lillard to which he was ecstatic about. But now things don’t look so good for the bucks even though like I said they were co favorites to win the title, the excuses and saltiness is out about giannis needing more help or as if the team didn’t give him whatever he wanted

Maybe giannis should learn to change his playing style and develop a jump shot for once maybe then he can be healthy for a post season run