{"id":93348,"date":"2024-02-16T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.celticsblog.com\/2024\/2\/16\/24072397\/three-leaf-clover-jayson-tatum-the-playmake-king-jordan-walsh"},"modified":"2024-02-16T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:00:00","slug":"three-leaf-clover-jayson-tatum-the-playmake-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/three-leaf-clover-jayson-tatum-the-playmake-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Leaf Clover: Jayson Tatum the playmake-king"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Brian Babineau\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jayson Tatum has made a playmaking jump and we want Walshy. <\/p>\n

What a fun week of basketball. The Celtics<\/a> are clearly not operating at 100% capacity as they gently float towards the All-Star break, but that\u2019s just fine. We don\u2019t need them at 100% in February, and the best part? They are still finding ways to win (and against Brooklyn it appears they found every way to win). Maybe the biggest reason is Jayson Tatum who has found his pull-up jumper and combined it with the best playmaking stretch of his career. Turns out, that\u2019s a pretty effective combo. <\/p>\n

Stat of the Week: 6.4 assists per game<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over his last 10 games, Jayson Tatum has done one of two things. He\u2019s either developed some sort of novel echolocation which allows him to understand the geometry of a defense better than before, or he\u2019s getting more comfortable reading defenses the old-fashioned way. We will probably never know which it is, but one thing is for certain, that dude is playmaking at a level he\u2019s never touched before. <\/p>\n

In his last 10 games, Tatum is averaging 6.4 assists per game, which is up from his season average of 4.8. The best part is that he\u2019s also averaging 2.5 turnovers during that span, which is exactly in line with his season average of 2.5. Putting on my math glasses (they are slightly larger than my driving glasses but smaller than my reading glasses), that means his assist to turnover ratio has climbed pretty significantly as well (up to 2.56 from 1.92). <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how real this is, but it’s extremely encouraging and it\u2019s not from some unsustainable uptick in usage either (29.7% during the last 10 and 29.4% for the season). He\u2019s not really passing that much more; instead, the passes he\u2019s throwing are more effective. He\u2019s finding guys in dangerous positions and putting the passes in shooting pockets for clean jumpers. Tatum has always had high level playmaking in his repertoire, but he\u2019s struggled, at times, with finding the right pass-shot mix. Recently, he\u2019s striking the perfect balance and dragging the Celtics towards the All-Star break one dime at a time. <\/p>\n

Xs and Oohhhssss: Jayson Tatum making the right reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

A big part of Tatum\u2019s assist jump is him making the right play every single time he\u2019s got the ball. Sometimes it\u2019s a next level pass where he slings it cross-court to an open shooter.<\/p>\n

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