The Boston Celtics have not had an NBA MVP Award winner since Larry Bird. Bird won the award in three straight years from 1984-1986. The wait for another MVP could be for Boston this season as another star emerges.
Jayson Tatum is in prime position to take home his first MVP award. He’s coming off of an incredible second half of last season, where he lead the Celtics to an NBA Finals appearance for the first time since 2010.
In the final 29 games of the 2021-22 NBA season, Tatum averaged 28 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. In the process, he shot 49% from the field and 39% from deep. Tatum did an excellent job turning things around after a slow start to the season for both him, and the Celtics.
He probably would’ve taken home the award last season if he had just played well for the entire year. Tatum got off to an incredibly slow start. He was still able to put up 26 points per game over the first 48 games of last season, but only shot 43% overall and 33% from beyond the arc.
If Tatum is able to carry that momentum over, he’ll be in the conversation for the league’s MVP award for sure. The three-time all star told last season’s MVP runner-up Joel Embiid that he’d better win the award, saying:
"“You better win the MVP this year, because next year, it’s mine.”"
Playing exceptionally well is always something that puts a player’s name into the MVP conversation. If JT is able to put a full season of exceptional play together after what he did in the second half of last season, then he’d definitely be able to win MVP.
Here are 2 more things that need to happen for Boston Celtics F Jayson Tatum to win the MVP…
Jayson Tatum needs the other Boston Celtics to step up
As funny as it may sound, for a player to win MVP, he is not the only person that needs to play well. The rest of his teammates need to play well too. Not so much because of the actual play, but because of the team’s record.
A lot of voters see team success as something that should determine which player takes home the MVP award. Since the league expanded its schedule to 82 games in the 1967-68 season, only seven players have taken home the award when their team won less than 50 games. That number excludes seasons where the NBA had a lockout or shortened season.
If this upcoming season truly is Jayson Tatum’s year, then the Boston Celtics cannot underachieve. They are a team that has high expectations after a busy summer. Boston brought in veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon to boost their bench at basically no cost. The Celtics sent Aaron Nesmith, Daniel Theis, Nik Stauskas, Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan, and a 2023 first-round pick to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for the former Rookie of the Year.
The Cs are coming into the season as title favorites. They have +500 odds to take home Banner 18 in 2023. With the amount of hype behind the Green this season, the team can’t afford to underachieve if Tatum wants to win MVP.
Jayson Tatum must further elevate his play
As I already mentioned, for a player to take home an MVP award, they have to play at an exceptional level. For the most part, Jayson Tatum does that. However, there are things he can do to take his game to an even higher level.
The first thing that really sticks out is his finishing. At the beginning of last season all of the talk surrounding the three-time all star was about the muscle he had put on. Despite his new guns, Tatum really struggle around the rim early on. It seemed as if contact was bothering him and he was looking for foul calls too often.
There was a stretch when something clicked for Taco Jay and his layups started to fall more consistently. He looked more comfortable inside and more focused on the game he was playing rather than the one that the officials were calling.
Last month, Tatum told Taylor Rooks that he picked up an injury during Boston’s surge in the playoffs last spring. Looking back on it, it was clear that something was bugging him as he struggled around the rim.
Over the last season or two, JT has made an effort to improve his playmaking ability, another tool that will be important to his MVP campaign. Tatum’s ability to set up his teammates and to make them better will absolutely earn him the approval of voters this season.