Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter praised his third-year teammate Jayson Tatum effusively on a recent appearance on the Bill Simmons podcast, showering the Duke product with praise for his offensive eruption this past February.
Tatum, who averaged just under 30 points per game in that month after being named to the first All-Star game of his career, catapulted himself into the top-20 player conversation with his transformation into a superstar this season, and the outspoken Turkish big man made it clear he was among the believers in the St. Louis native’s megastar potential.
“I’ve never seen any player get so much better doing that in like four or five month period, you know?” offered Kanter. “So like when he started the season, I mean, he was good obviously. He was still like one of the best players out there but before the pandemic, this dude averaged almost like 30 points [per game], and there was no way [to stop] him!”
Tatum’s ability to his from almost anywhere on the court has made him nearly unstoppable.
The addition of his off-the-dribble 3-pointers have made him, as LeBron James put it, “an absolute problem,” and Kanter concurs.
“Some of the shots he made, we turn around to each other on the bench like ‘Did he literally do that?’ But he’s getting better, man. He’s learning — this dude is still like 21, 22 [years old]; 21 I think. In a few years, he’s definitely going to be [among the] top-five, top-six players in the league.”
The former Blue Devil has truly come into his game in his third season in the league, and is poised to pick back up where he left off with the resumed season seeing its first inter-team scrimmages starting this Friday.
Jayson Tatum's 10 best games before the Disney 'bubble' https://t.co/25MGkHJvup via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) July 19, 2020
Averaging 23.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game with the Celtics this season, it’s starting to look like Boston has a real chance at a title in the Disney-hosted restart due in no small part to Tatum’s leap as a player.
We’ll soon find out just how tight he’s kept his game in the COVID-19 hiatus, with games that count starting at the end of July.
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