It Remains Extremely Impressive Just How Badly Jayson Tatum And The Celtics Continue To Break The Brains Of The National Media

Billie Weiss. Getty Images.

Just two days ago I blogged about how you can always tell when the NBA season is upon us because ESPN goes back to the well when it comes to shitting all over the now-defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics and their best player Jayson Tatum. After having to listen to nonsense on our TVs and timelines for 8 months and then things reaching a truly absurd level once we got to the playoffs, one would think that given what transpired maybe these talking heads would realize that this approach is pretty embarrassing and they should maybe change course.

Naturally, they haven't. It is funny how all of a sudden all the same people who picked against the Celtics suddenly can't come to grips with reality. It started with Shaq and Udonis Haslem (both of who picked the Mavs to win the title btw)

and to nobody's surprise, ESPN soon followed suit. Their bullshit began with Perk, which wasn't all that much of a surprise. 

and it didn't take long for yet another ESPN talking head to perhaps have an even more broken brain take

If that wasn't bad enough, the double down from Richard Jefferson today might be even worse

I could understand Perk fulfilling his role as the hot take/viral quote guy on ESPN, but isn't RJ supposed to be the analyst? The former player who does something other than shit like this? It really begs the question what about this team and Jayson Tatum specifically breaks brains like this? 

Let's begin with the obvious. Swapping Jayson Tatum for Donovan Mitchell does not bring the Celtics a championship, and that has nothing to do with Mitchell as a player, who I think is awesome. It's almost like despite seeing the Celtics win and contend for YEARS at this point, these people still don't understand what makes them successful in the first place. Either that or they don't care and would rather just feed the flames of NBA Twitter who seems to love shitting all over Jayson Tatum because he keeps beating their favorite player. Either way, it's very weird and very embarrassing.

The reason the Celtics won the title this year and were one of the most dominant teams in NBA history, is because their roster is perfectly balanced. It's versatile, it has shooting and playmaking at every spot, and their best player is able to adapt his game and responsibility to whatever the game needs. If that means being a playmaker, Tatum does it at a high level. If that means rebounding, no problem. If that means guarding 1-5, he does it on the biggest stage at a high level. The main reason the Mavs were so overmatched is because Tatum guarded their centers and completely took away the lob threat. Something that Ant and SGA couldn't seem to do in their playoff losses to the Mavs, but I digress.

This is not to say the Celtics aren't loaded, of course they are. But that's in large part because of Jayson Tatum and what he brings on both ends of the floor. Swapping him out for another small guard (Mitchell) would destroy the very thing that makes their starting 5 so tough to beat. You can't attack anyone defensively in that lineup as constructed, and if you assume KP is out just like he was this postseason, how does having Mitchell instead of Tatum make you just as good? Is he grabbing 10 boards and guarding centers? I don't think so. Not to mention, he's also taking shots away from your other scorers because his impact is mostly through shooting, whereas Tatum has developed into a player that impacts all aspects of the game.

I'd say the same thing with Luka/Ant/SGA. If you swap Tatum with any of those players and the Celts have the same injury issues they faced this past postseason (no KP), the Celtics do not win the title. Period. We have years and years of evidence that very clearly show why Tatum is so important to what the Celtics do on both ends of the floor, but why care about that when you could just slander and discredit him for clicks?

Now of course the usual response here is "this is all part of their act, just ignore it", and I understand that to some degree. I just think it's fascinating how it doesn't seem to matter what happens in reality, these types of takes still exist. Coming on the heels of ESPN letting Zach Lowe go, this is their basketball product? Yikes.

At the end of the day though, just like I said in the Perk blog, this is all yet another blessing in disguise. I cannot remember a time when a defending champion entered the season with so much bulletin board material and extra motivation, but god damn am I happy that it exists. I sneaky hope that just like last year it never stops, all the way through the playoffs. 

We all saw how that turned out.