Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have seemingly flip-flopped from the start of the year in terms of their style of play meshing with the team as a whole. Tatum's willingness to buy into the team mentality could be make-or-break for the season once the playoffs come.
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00:00 And Colin, look, I'm not tiptoeing around this.
00:03 I don't like snap judgments off of one game,
00:06 because that seems like it's an agenda, right?
00:08 But I do think there's quite a few people,
00:10 and I'm one of them, I think Bobby's one of them,
00:13 who are definitely looking at the Tatum situation
00:17 and wondering, and it's a really interesting,
00:20 it's the number one conversation,
00:22 it's the number one takeaway from tonight.
00:24 Tatum's been trending in the wrong direction
00:30 in terms of his style of play.
00:32 At the beginning of the year, everybody said, "What, Bobby?
00:34 "Jalen's gonna have to figure out how to get on board here.
00:37 "Everyone else has a role, and Tatum's gonna be that guy,
00:41 "and he's gonna get the ball, and he's gonna get his."
00:43 And the first 15 games or so, it kind of played out like that.
00:47 And Brown was struggling to find what he wanted to do
00:52 and how he was gonna fit
00:54 and how he was going to best affect the game with his talents,
00:57 and I don't think it was...
01:00 I think he was searching for it.
01:04 Now, recently, it's a total flip-flop here,
01:07 and it seems like everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing,
01:11 except for Tatum.
01:12 -Is it as simple as the post? -What do you mean?
01:16 It's like it happened overnight after the 2-0 assist game.
01:19 He just completely changed his approach.
01:21 Again, it's...
01:23 I wrote about some of the stuff he was doing off the court to work on it,
01:27 but that's stuff he does generally.
01:29 That's stuff he's been working on all year.
01:32 So the way it changed overnight for him was pretty shocking
01:35 this past week or two here.
01:37 Yeah, it's shocking.
01:40 Look, hold on one second.
01:43 It is.
01:47 Brown has completely changed since that graphic.
01:50 He really has.
01:51 It's not like he was playing...
01:52 He wasn't playing poorly.
01:54 It's just he was searching for it.
01:57 He was forcing shots.
01:58 He was like, "All right, my..."
02:00 He was playing the "Okay, it's my turn" game
02:02 instead of "What does the game need?
02:04 What does the moment need?"
02:06 And since then, he really has been...
02:09 you know, playing exactly the way you would want to see him play.
02:15 Actually playing in ways I didn't necessarily think he was capable of doing.
02:20 At least over a two-week span.
02:23 In terms of playmaking, he has it in flashes,
02:26 but he had several today.
02:28 He had a couple of great ones.
02:30 I mean, not only is he driving and dunking.
02:32 I think he had four dunks tonight.
02:34 But, you know, just finding the right guys.
02:38 There was one play, I can't remember what quarter it was,
02:41 where he kind of gets to the paint,
02:43 and then he just kind of one-hand zings it to Hauser over in the corner
02:48 and the defense had collapsed on him for a three there.
02:51 Found that on the break, a little bit of a hesitation.
02:55 Waited, as you mentioned, Porzingis to trail.
02:57 Flips it to Porzingis, who draws the foul there.
03:00 Again, just a beautiful play.
03:02 It was kind of a jammed-up, crowded transition situation there,
03:05 and he waited for it to develop.
03:07 The old Jalen, not the old Jalen, but versions of Jalen we've seen,
03:10 just goes charging right at it and then hopes for the best.
03:13 And he had... I mean, he's playing with such patience and poise
03:17 instead of just kind of rushing headfirst and, you know,
03:20 "I'm just faster and, you know, I can jump higher than everybody
03:23 and let's just do that and figure it out."
03:25 But the Tatum is a question because he's the one who,
03:29 while the offense is going really well, will just stop it dead
03:34 and then take a shot that doesn't need to be taken.
03:37 You have moments where everything's working.
03:40 They're working the ball, getting good shots.
03:43 Everyone's getting their hands on it.
03:44 There's good movement.
03:46 And then the next possession, it goes to Tatum,
03:49 and he just shoots a, you know, 24-foot Tatum.
03:53 I still wonder why he keeps taking those pull-up threes.
03:57 I don't understand both the pull-ups and just the decision that, like,
04:02 "All right, I'm just going to hold this one and get my shot."
04:05 And I know that's what scorers have to do, but, like, again,
04:08 it's that belief, Bobby, that, like, "I'll get mine eventually.
04:12 I don't have to force the issue ever."
04:15 We said it at the beginning of the year, like, this team--
04:18 and Tatum has said it.
04:20 He's just not doing it all the time.
04:22 This team will go farther if everybody does a little bit less.
04:26 And I don't think he's fully embraced the less yet, not consistently enough.
04:32 I know, right?
04:33 It's easy for him to say.
04:34 I remember he was like, "Any of us can come off the bench,"
04:38 but we knew it wasn't going to be him.
04:40 And we knew in terms of ball time and shots and points,
04:43 it wasn't going to be him sacrificing.
04:44 And I think as much as he can say he'd be willing to do that,
04:47 it's not going to happen here because of who he is.
04:50 And rightfully so.
04:51 I mean, he has the most gravity on this team.
04:53 So there is going to be a significant amount of time where he's on the ball
04:57 and he's going to have to embrace a little bit more of an up-tempo approach.
05:01 And I saw someone talking about this earlier.
05:04 I forget who it was, but Smart would kind of urge him to do that sometimes.
05:07 Like, he'd push him along.
05:09 He'd get him out on the move because he'd grab the ball and go.
05:12 And you wonder if Brown can sort of push him in that direction a little bit,
05:18 especially when they're both on the court,
05:19 especially if you try to overlap their minutes a little bit more,
05:22 which might be effective in that sense.
05:24 Because we've talked about it for a long time.
05:26 Brown, as frustrating as it could be with the turnovers and other things,
05:29 played with a little bit more of an urgency
05:31 and a downhill direct attacking style than Tatum was,
05:34 which sometimes was refreshing for this team
05:36 if things were really starting to seal up offensively
05:40 like they were last night in Golden State.
05:42 No shots were going down for them.
05:44 So I love Brown's forcefulness offensively.
05:48 And to see him, I think I'm looking at the numbers here,
05:52 after tonight I have to imagine over his last seven,
05:54 averaging five assists a game just about,
05:57 and closer to one turnover per game.
06:00 It's really cutting down on the turnovers for him
06:02 that's been the game changer here.
06:04 Because he's not going to have 10 assists a night.
06:07 But if you can have that ratio be a little bit more balanced
06:11 and still get your four or five assists per night
06:13 within the flow of the offense, it's golden.
06:17 Because as he's talked about, you want him being aggressive.
06:19 You want him looking for a shot.
06:21 That's what he's best at, not passing the ball over the court.
06:25 But if you're limiting the mistakes,
06:28 you're playing perfect basketball offensively if you're him.
06:30 And that's what he's doing right now.
06:32 Hitting free throws too, which is something that kind of made your head
06:34 spin a little bit at times with him.
06:36 So Brown's been great.
06:38 Tatum's going to have to adjust when he comes back.
06:40 There's no way around it.
06:41 They have to play more like this.
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07:00 Want to say thank you, Trevor, for the contribution.
07:04 We appreciate it.
07:06 And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to you
07:09 and everyone else out there.
07:12 I think this is a fair point.
07:14 Look, you need players -- the greatest thing about players like Tatum
07:18 and Brown, and honestly, you're seeing it now from Porzingis,
07:22 is guys who can do stuff when everything else is going bad.
07:26 You put the ball in their hands and they're essentially matchup proof.
07:29 They can get your buckets.
07:31 Sometimes the game slows down.
07:33 Sometimes you just need people who can make difficult shots,
07:35 and they can do it, and you absolutely need it.
07:38 And you're right.
07:40 You can play one brand of basketball in the regular season.
07:44 It's not going to be as -- you won't necessarily be able to do it in the playoffs.
07:50 So, yes, of course Tatum is essential.
07:52 Nobody's arguing that he's not.
07:54 It's simply more a matter of you get more out of everyone else
08:00 when you kind of buy into it, because there's so many people who can do something.
08:05 In the past, it was -- I mean, how many seasons are recovering this team, Bobby?
08:09 And it's like, just give the ball to Tatum in the fourth quarter.
08:12 Why is Marcus shooting?
08:14 Why is this guy this?
08:15 Why -- this isn't that team this year.
08:18 Do you have any problem with Derek White taking the last shot in regulation?
08:21 No, and that's exactly where I was going to go.
08:23 It's not about Brown or Tatum at this point.
08:26 They need White in control more often.
08:28 And it looked like they were doing that to start the year.
08:31 But, again, he's so willing to defer, and those guys are so ball dominant sometimes
08:38 that he's just going to step to the side and do what he needs to in an ancillary role.
08:42 But there's some nights, like tonight, and when Tatum steps out of the lineup,
08:45 I'm sure he was like, uh-uh, I better grab that ball and go.
08:49 And that's exactly what he did here.
08:51 Trick and roll, maestro, never turns the ball over, throwing alley-oops to guys,
08:57 making all the right decisions and being confident in his shot too.
09:01 I mean, this guy is just perfect.
09:04 It's unbelievable.
09:06 I do have to question comments like this.
09:10 How do you guys think this works?
09:13 Like you just praise everybody all the time when they're bad?
09:16 When people are playing well, you say they're playing well.
09:19 When they're playing poorly, you say they're playing poorly.
09:21 Or when they're doing stuff, that's how it works.
09:24 It's like, were you supposed to say at the beginning of the season,
09:29 Jalen was playing his best basketball?
09:31 What do you say when he actually does start playing his best basketball?
09:34 These comments blow my mind.
09:36 Yeah, Tatum, look, the Tatum numbers and the Brown numbers, Bobby,
09:40 to start the year were ridiculous in terms of lopsided towards Tatum.
09:46 The Celtics were up here with Tatum on the floor and down here when he was off it.
09:52 And Brown's on/off numbers were dreadful, dreadful.
09:57 And they were last year, all of last year too.
10:00 That's flipped.
10:01 That's flipped a lot.
10:03 And it's happened recently.
10:05 So, yes, there's a bit of a change here in terms of how they're playing
10:09 within the kind of dynamic of the entire team.
10:12 It is weird that it kind of changed.
10:14 It also kind of goes back to the compatibility conversation of like,
10:19 can only one of these guys thrive?
10:24 Is it always an either/or?
10:26 It always comes down to splitting up the Jays is stupid.
10:30 Probably, I guess.
10:31 You don't want to just get rid of good players.
10:33 But it still kind of comes down to, can they both get it at the same time?
10:39 And I think people confuse getting it with they each got 30 tonight,
10:43 so they both had good games.
10:45 Can they both play those kind of complementary style games at the same time?
10:48 Yes, we've seen it happen.
10:50 Can they do it consistently over time?
10:52 It doesn't come down to such little stuff.
10:53 I'm so sick of hearing, oh, you can't screen for each other
10:56 because it's just a switch to the same stuff.
10:58 Just do something that will be a little bit more involved in the same actions,
11:02 to play off each other, to pass to each other.
11:05 Not just swing because he's to your left or throw the ball ahead to him
11:10 because he's on the move.
11:11 In the half court, be a little bit more creative to get each other involved
11:15 and get guys shot who might not be involved in the game.
11:18 Twitter did die, by the way.
11:19 Twitter's down right now, so the only information you're getting is here.
11:23 This is Twitter, baby.
11:26 Get in the chat.
11:27 It's pretty much the same thing.
11:29 We are Twitter.
11:30 We're driving the conversation here, okay?
11:32 [♪♪♪]