Boston Celtics: 3 ways Jayson Tatum could one day win league MVP

Improve distribution skills

Sure, we just had an entire slide talking about how his chances to win the league’s most illustrious individual award would be improved should he up his scoring averages to around 30 points per game. However, a real MVP — at least, according to the Houdini — is not just a player who can make himself shine bright but, rather, one who can make his teammates better as well.

We get — Jayson Tatum is an elite scorer. Understood. Registered. Great!

But if he were to make himself more of a threat in the passing game it would make his own game and presence on the court that much more intimidating. Not only this, but in regard to the MVP race, it has proven to bode well for one’s chance to win.

When taking a walk down memory lane on the league’s previous award winners, one would notice that it’s last 12 recipients all averaged five or more assists per game. Heck, over the past two decades only four league MVP’s have averaged less the aforementioned number of assists per game (Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan twice and Dirk Nowitzki).

By no means are we saying he has to turn into a LeBron James type of facilitating forward (leads the league in assists per gamed in 2019-20 with 10.6), but working on getting his teammates more involved and upping his assist averages (2.9 per game this season) would be a great way of strengthening his case for consideration of the league MVP.