Not to shovel dirt on the last guy who was here, but it has only been one preseason game with the two together, and it already feels like there’s a better connection between Jayson Tatum and Paul George than JT ever shared with Jaylen Brown.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the JT/JB pairing was extremely successful, and the two elevated each other with friendly competition and a shared passion for winning and greatness. But in terms of on-court synergy and chemistry, their games never fully enhanced each other, and their greatness felt more like two superstar individuals than a shared collective.
With PG, it feels like he’s fully comfortable in his role as the sidekick to the true alpha, Tatum, and he’s here to complement him and bring out the best version of JT, which will, in turn, allow the entire team to prosper. Part of this is obviously due to the fact that George is a 36-year-old 16-year veteran who knows his days as an alpha are behind him.
He’s at a point in his career where he’s very comfortable in his own skin and confident taking a backseat to a better player in an attempt to help the team win. Understandably, Brown is in his prime, still 29 years old, and just proved his excellence with a second-team All-NBA season that landed him sixth in MVP voting.
Tatum and George already in lockstep
But it’s not just that. It’s a level of understanding and awareness that George has learned, and Brown simply hasn’t yet. PG attributed it to his time with the Clippers and playing alongside another elite wing, Kawhi Leonard.
The Clippers never reached their ultimate goals with the duo, but when that team was at full strength, they looked special, and part of that was the cohesion between Kawhi and Paul, with PG realizing that he needed to fit in, to an extent, and that for that team to reach the mountaintop, he was going to have to fit around Leonard, not the other way around.
That situation had some rocky moments, but it seems that it was valuable in George’s learning curve, as he revealed that playing with Leonard prepared him to fit in with another elite wing like Tatum. We’ve only seen the connection for a single preseason game, and George has said that even in practices, the two have been going against each other, not playing as teammates.
And still, they looked deadly together, and this is just scratching the surface. With PG catering to Tatum and the team and utilizing his skill set in the best way possible to help JT reach a higher level, the sky is truly the limit for Tatum, his partnership with George, and the Celtics as a whole. And in a funny way, it’s in part thanks to a long-time rival in Kawhi Leonard.
Add us as a preferred source on Google