In Boston, Tatum has been the consummate teammate, efficient scorer, and committed defender. At Duke he was called a ball hog and disrupter of chemistry. Seems to me that the game really has passed K or is Stevens just that much better?
Why couldn’t Coach K get this kind of effort out of Tatum?
- Thread starter Matt Laurer
- Start date
Solid troll attempt. SO I will give a genuine answer before the Dukies come calling.
1. CBB is a job interview.
2. The NBA is a job.
3. About 6 million dollars. That'll sometimes inspire folk.
Those are just a few thoughts.
With the possibility of 20-30 mil a year in 4-5 years if you show you are a good player. That's all the incentive I would need if blessed with that talent and physical skills.
he was all of that in the second half of the season. He was awful during the first half of the season but the second half he got it going.
Did anyone tell OP Tatum was picked 3rd overall. Gee, I wonder why?
Biggest surprise is they broke him of his "Chucker" tendencies and made him a good 3 point shooter. Brad Stevens might be the GOAT?
Yup. Coach K knever got that potential out of him. Took Stevens to make it happen
Maybe all college coaches just suck. I was thinking the same thing about Self and Embiid as well as Cal and Davis. Can't believe Self and Cal held those two back so much.
Cal won a title so he did okay with AD. Embiid couldn't even get out of the first weekend smh fire self *
*Yes I know he didn't play
This Boston team has less talent than the Duke squad that got bounced by little carolina, yet they are competing in the ECF.
I can’t think of a single Michigan player that outperformed their production at Michigan under Beilein.
Player Efficiency Ratings:
Tatum playing for Duke: 22.0
Tatum playing for Boston: 15.3
22.0 > 15.3
Tatum playing for Duke: 22.0
Tatum playing for Boston: 15.3
22.0 > 15.3
I agree he needs to win big and a lot to cement a GOAT legacy. But the dude came from freaking Butler and got the Celtics job at 36 with no NBA experience. They have been better than anyone expected every season he has been there and now with the way he has them playing without their 2 stars it's no doubt that outside of winning titles he has checked all the other boxes. Those anonymous coaches sound butt hurt about the new kid on the block being better than most of them are outside of Pop.
You get he had a couple NBA players at Butler, right - Mack and Heyward. And Howard was no slouch. Think he had all 3 one season.
I don't doubt there is some jealousy involved as most coaches know the players are far more important than the coach. Stevens seems to get this, so no knock on hm. I would not have been surprised at all to see him say something like this at his presser...... "You all like to credit me when we win, so let's be sure to blame me and not the players for these last 2 games."
Would add I would have thought he'd have gotten a vote, but is it really so strange if a coach chose Snyder, Pop, Casey, D'Antoni or even Brown over him based on reg. season production?
Exactly he got Butler to back to back FF's and found under the radar talent and developed it to a high end recruit level. More evidence of his coaching prowess. Only problem is it's not a video game type setting and he can't control the players with joy sticks.
Not sure how finding under-the-radar college talent makes him a better NBA coach than he might be given credit.
did he forget about his coaching prowess the year after the NBA guys were gone and they went 22-15?
Shows he can develop players. NBA is largely drafted based on upside even with later picks.
Danny Ainge sure didn't care about 22-15. Plus it's not like he was recruiting/reloading with 1 and done talent. K , Roy , Wright , Self aren't taking Butler to back to back FF's.
I don't think so either, especially K who is a great recruiter. Not sure about his coaching. Butler was not lacking for talent for a midmajor.
Stevens "developed" Horford? Kyrie? Tatum and Brown, yes, but they were each the 3rd pick in the draft.
Does Casey get this kind of credit for turning the 9th and 22nd picks into All Stars?
You mean like he turned the 9th and 22nd picks into all stars, as opposed to turning two #3 picks into so far solid contributers and maybe future all stars.
You also thinking Stevens "developed" Horford? Kyrie?
No props for Lue for also developing Kyrie, Lebron and Love?
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Nice try Q but Stevens is getting more out of Tatum than K did. Maybe K didn’t know how to coach him?
Tatum and Brown are well ahead of schedule even for being 3rd overall picks. Kyrie has had his best year statistically as well.
Furthermore, Stevens has turned Smart and Rozier into great contributors as well after most draft experts felt they were “overdrafted”.
Stevens is overachieving even with high level talent especially considering they are young.
We will all be laughing in a few years that we were comparing Brown and Tatum to Lowry and DeRozan.
Jaylen is likely to be as good as Klay Thompson and Tatum will be a Paul George level player just as a baseline with potential Kawhi and Durant upside.
Lowry and DDR are nothing special.
Can we wait until we are laughing in a few years to make these statements as though they are fact? Great to know the 3rd picks in the draft MIGHT be as good as the 11th pick and 10th picks. MIGHT. And this might be a stretch.
what makes them well ahead of schedule? Is Brown so much better than Ingram? It's not crazy for the 3rd pick in the draft to be pretty good in year 2 or even as a rookie if you were not aware. Also possible they are both good and should not be shortchanged that it's the coach who made them what they are.
How, exactly, has Kyrie been so much better with Stevens? Sure his PER jumped a whopping 2 points from last year, but Lue got him to go up 3+ in his last year in Cleveland. FG%s went up. Assists went down.
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I was with you until you said Brown could be as good as Klay Thompson. He is not the shooter nor defender Klay is. Perhaps defensively one day, but you do realize Klay is one of the best shooters in NBA history ALREADY? Brown ain't doing that. I also liken the Tatum Comparison to PG much more than Durant or Kawhi. He will never be the shooter/scorer Durant is and couldn't dream of being the defender Leonard is.
All that said, both guys are fantastic with a bright future ahead of them. Comparing them to the best players in the league this early is putting pretty high expectations on them.
Stevens is great, top three coach in the league. Dude has a pretty talented roster at this point, though.
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Agree with nearly everything you said, but still think a little early to call Stevens top 3 already for same reasons mentioned in the article. Is he a very good coach and might he be firmly entrenched as top 3 (or higher). Sure.
Tatum Stats at Duke: 16.8 ppg., 7.3 reb. 2.1 assists
Tatum Stats at Boston: 13.9 ppg., 5.0 reb. 1.6 assists
Nope. K had no clue what he was doing.
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Fair enough, but out of curiosity, who do you have above him?
Pop for sure.. after that it gets a little fuzzy.
Might very well be him. I happen to believe most coaches are the same. Give them talent and they will win, don't and they wont.
In the reg. season I understood him not getting a vote. sure, I would think he'd get one, but can't really blame anyone for voting for Pop, Snyder, Casey, D'Antoni or even Brett Brown.
edit - add McMillan, as well.....lost PG and got better?
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Looks that way. How far did Duke go with him versus Boston? I say Stevens coached up Tatum better than K.
I'm not saying he didn't, but does this "logic" apply to other players? If the Cavs win this series, does that mean Lue coached up any player better than his college coach did if he never went to the Finals in college? Can he already make this claim of any player who did not get to the Final 4?
I’m comparing Tatums’ rookie years at Duke and Boston and that’s it. How far did Duke go in the tourney with Tatum compared to Boston this year? Now we can argue stats, games played etc but it looks like Stevens has found a way to use Tatum more effectively as a rookie than K did as a freshman. As for Lue, no one on his squad is a rookie that’s getting major minutes so that analogy doesn’t work.
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