Through the first 13 games of the 2020-21 season, the Boston Celtics find themselves off to a solid start.
Boasting a record of 8-5, the team holds the third-best record in the Eastern Conference as well as the sixth-best odds to win the NBA Finals come season’s end.
While there are many factors that have led to this impressive turnout, perhaps the biggest has been the stellar play by Boston’s All-NBA forward, Jayson Tatum.
Following up a career 2019-20 campaign with an even better one to kick the new year off, we see the 23-year-old averaging a stellar stat line of 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.8 rebounds, one steal, and just shy of a block per game on 47 percent shooting from the floor and 44 percent shooting from long range.
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum could thrust himself into MVP conversation
Though it was Jaylen Brown who saw himself mentioned on Bleacher Report’s early-season MVP rankings — and rightly so with the way he’s been playing –, come season’s end, it is likely that Tatum will be the one with the best chance of finding himself in such a conversation.
That said, there are still a few things that must happen before this hypothetical becomes a reality.
Today, the Houdini presents to you 3 ways in which Jayson Tatum can thrust himself into the 2021 MVP conversation:
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum MVP factor No. 1) Average around 30 points
When one views the wonder that is Jayson Tatum, the first thing that comes to mind is his stellar scoring touch.
Seemingly in his sleep, the man can drop 25 points on any given night.
However, what if he bumped that total to 30?
The league is all about scoring and, while the old saying is still “defense wins championships”, at the end of the day, it is an unquestionable truth that the team that scores the most points wins the game.
With a guy like Tatum, the Boston Celtics obviously want him to be their go-to scorer, so why not let him… and then some!?
If he wants to better his odds of attaining the highest individual regular-season honor in the sport, the All-Star will likely need to up his point-per-game averages even more, likely to around 30.
Over the past decade, seven recipients of the award either were shy of this specific threshold by just around two points, met the number exactly, or wound up even surpassing it.
We all know Jayson Tatum has the ability to be a top-3 scorer in the entire association.
Let’s see if he can prove it.