"Normalizing uplifting one man without bringing another one down" - Jayson Tatum lashes out at Kendrick Perkins
NBA and Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum has hit back at critics for trying to cause division between the players in the Cs locker room.
Former NBA champion and Boston Celtics player Kendrick Perkins took to Twitter to praise Jaylen Brown while highlighting Jayson Tatum's poor shooting night. It didn't take Tatum long to respond. He said:
"Normalizing uplifting one man without bringing another one down… JB played great it’s alright to leave it at that."
Kendrick Perkins earlier reacted to the Boston Celtics beating the New York Knicks 99-75. In the loss, Jaylen Brown recorded a 22-point triple-double, while Tatum only scored 19 points and went 6 of 14 from the field. Perkins said:
"Jaylen Brown completely took over this game with his first triple double of his career! Played a perfect game while Jayson Tatum went 6/14 from the field. They got the win tho! Carry on…"
Normalizing uplifting one man without bringing another one down… JB played great it’s alright to leave it at that twitter.com/kendrickperkin…
How far can Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics go this season?
With Tatum and Jaylen Brown in their ranks, the Boston Celtics have two players with the potential to be MVP caliber players in the future. However, that seems a long way away as both players are yet to gel on the court and play winning basketball for the Celtics.
It is easy to forget that Tatum is just in his fifth season in the league as the forward is averaging 25.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists while shooting the ball better than 41% from the field and nearly 34% from the perimeter.
While his shooting numbers are at a career-low, this may be because he is having to carry a bigger load this season as he is attempting the most field goals of his career.
23-year-old Jayson Tatum enters today's game against the Bucks (2:30 ET on ABC) just 20 points away from passing Paul Pierce for the 2nd-most points before turning 25 in Celtics history. https://t.co/1SJbcEMru3
The Celtics aren't considered heavy favorites in the East right now because of the quality of the teams in the conference with the likes of the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets and the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks. Another reason why they have struggled this season is because of the Brown-Tatum duo and their inability to play winning basketball together.
In many ways, this duo is very similar to Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum's problem in Portland. Extremely talented scorers but can't produce winning performances on the court together. What the Celtics need is a quintessential point guard, someone like Chris Paul who can orchestrate with Tatum and Brown and let them worry about scoring rather than running the offense.
With Tatum and Brown, there is very little ball movement and too much focus on isolation play as both thrive in one-on-one situations.
Tatum put the world on notice when he went up against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers a couple of years ago in the Eastern Conference Finals. The potential is there for everyone to see, but it needs to be translated into winning performances on the court.