As reported by Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy, Boston Celtics’ forward Jayson Tatum will not participate in the upcoming Summer League in Las Vegas.
After an outstanding rookie season, Jayson Tatum exceeded everyone’s expectations, and cemented his potential in being a legit NBA superstar. The 20-year-old from Duke, who played most of the season at age 19, started in 99 total games this past season—80 in the regular season and 19 in the playoffs. Rest is a necessity for the whole team; but Tatum, who played in only 29 games in college, should assuredly take some time for his body to heal.
"“We knew it about 50 games into the season,” Danny Ainge said Wednesday. “But look at it — he just played in (99) games. I think it would be crazy to put him into the summer league.”Boston Herald"
The quick assumption to be made would be why the Boston Celtics are so quick to not play Tatum in the Summer League, when Jaylen Brown participated in it before and after his rookie season in Boston. Brown had requested (and quoted as “begged” in an article for The Undefeated last summer) to play in the Summer League last summer, as he simply just wanted to play.
Top teams do not always it mandatory for high-lottery picks to participate in the Summer League following their rookie season, but Brown plainly chose to utilize last summer as a way of getting to the next level on his way to an impressive sophomore season.
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To compare, Brown played 95 games in his rookie season, which is only four fewer games than Tatum. However, in his first year, Brown averaged 17.2 minutes per game in the regular season and 12.6 in the playoffs. Tatum, on the other hand, averaged 30.5 minutes per game in the regular season and 35.9 minutes per game in the playoffs. In addition, Tatum led the Celtics in minutes and was second only to Terry Rozier in playoff minutes.
Tatum was a starter the whole season for the Eastern Conference runner-up, and played considerably more minutes than Brown. Additionally, Tatum put up stronger numbers than Brown in their respective rookie seasons. Thus, it does not make much sense for Tatum to play this summer, even if he wanted to do so.
Last summer, Tatum averaged 18.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.3 steals, and 2.0 assists in 3 games in Salt Lake City. Then, in Las Vegas, he put up 17.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, and 0.8 blocks. Tatum was named to the All-Summer League Second Team.
Tatum is one of three finalists for a competitive NBA Rookie of the Year race, along with Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons. He was one vote away from being named a unanimous selection to the All-Rookie First Team.
Tatum finished his rookie season averaging 13.9 points and 5.0 rebounds, while shooting 47.5% from the field, 43.4% from three, and 82.6% from the free-throw line. In the playoffs, he averaged 18.5 points in 19 games as a starter for a team that took LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
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The Celtics have a bright future in Tatum, who will take the offseason to work on certain parts of the game as requested by the team. Tatum will join a loaded Celtics lineup in the 2018-19 season with a phenomenal first year under his belt.