Boston Celtics: 3 ways Jayson Tatum is a dark horse MVP candidate

Reason No. 1) The Boston Celtics are winning and trending up

If the Boston Celtics were not winning basketball games at the rate they have been, or on one of the hottest streaks in all of the league, then there would be no real case here for Jayson Tatum.

Most often, it’s not even the most valuable player that wins this award, as it typically goes to the best player on the best team.

Let’s look at the C’s position in the Eastern Conference standings and overall playoff picture.

The Boston Celtics sit in the fifth spot in the East with a 41-28 record. To put that into a larger perspective, they sit one win back from the Bulls for the fourth seed, one and a half wins back from both the Bucks and Sixers for the second seed, and just four wins back from the number one seeded Miami Heat.

With one of the more generally favorable remaining schedules, while also being one of the hotter teams in all of the NBA, there is a real shot that we see some serious movement up the standings.

If Boston can position themselves nicely into the top four in the conference, any aspect of not winning enough games will not count against Tatum. It is tough to not project the Celtics as a homecourt team coming to these playoffs with the run they have been on.

ESPN, TNT, and all the major national basketball outlets are taking note and even some oddsmakers have the team slated to win the conference title.

In the MVP race, winning matters, and the shamrocks are consistently winning basketball games.