Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Matrim55, post: 5058429, member: 3376"] Tatum was the primary defender on KD in a playoff series and destroyed him head-to-head. He was the secondary defender on Giannis in a playoff series (Jaylen was tertiary) and still scored 50 in a road elimination game 6. Jaylen definitely made it a point to take the tougher assignment this year, but in large part that's because Tatum was expending more energy than ever running the offense. The other part of it is that the 1-5 switching that Tatum does -- which includes guarding 5s in the post and not just taking away lob threats (watch the Indy series) -- can't be replicated by Brown. And you're wrong about Tatum not elevating an ok team. The '19-20 Celtics, when Tatum was just 21, played at a 55-win pace despite injuries to Kemba & Hayward and Brown not knowing how to pass the ball yet. Take Tatum away and that team was no more talented than this year's OKC without Shai. And yet they played at roughly the same win pace and made it equally as far in the playoffs, with Tatum four years younger than Shai is now. Tatum was also the second-best player on the '21 Olympics team that won gold. I don't even like the guy that much, but the downplaying of his accomplishments is getting ridiculous. Especially when comparing him to guy who's the exact same age and has only really done anything of note in the regular season. [/QUOTE]