Jayson Tatum is one of the best players in the NBA. Until the final minutes of close games.
Tatum is now shooting 31.3% in clutch situations, which is defined as the minutes when the game score is within five points in the final five minutes. He’s also making 31.3% of his three-pointers in the clutch, markedly different worse than his overall splits of 47.3% field goal shooting and 37.6% from deep.
What’s the problem? TV producer and Boston superfan Michael Schur thinks Tatum is taking too much inspiration from his basketball hero, Kobe Bryant.”He has this one vestige of his Kobe obsession left,” Schur explained on “The Dan LeBatard Show.” “He still thinks that the best shot the team has, with two minutes left in a three-point game, is for him to slowly dribble the ball up the court, wait until there’s four seconds left on the shot clock, and then take an absurd 23-foot fadeaway.”
The numbers bear this out. Boston plays at the league’s slowest pace in clutch situations. They rank top five in isolation plays in the clutch. And while Tatum takes 50% more shots than any of his teammates when it’s close and late, he shoots at the lowest percentage.
Perhaps Boston should focus on Kristaps Porzingis, who’s making two-thirds of his clutch shots this season. Perhaps they should pass more in the clutch, rather than going isolation-heavy.
The upside for Boston is that there haven’t been all that many clutch situations for them this year. Tatum has only played in 26 games with clutch situations, far less than league leaders Pascal Siakam (38 games) and Coby White (37). The poor shooting could be a result of a small sample size.
But also, he should stop taking so many fadeaway jumpers.
