Just a post-hoop session discussion my friends and I were having about Tatum. We were speculating what the Tatum “revenge” season looked like and his potential for an MVP.
Tatum is obviously an elite two-way wing and one of the most versatile players in the league. However, I just don’t see the Kawhi/PG/Tatum archetype winning MVP again. Not when you have heliocentric players like Luka and Jokic who can put up 30-10-10 with regularity. Then you have your bigs like Giannis and Embiid who can go 35/15/5 on a given night. Shai had a great campaign last year, but he’s got the ball way more than a wing.
Advanced stats are becoming more appreciated, but a lot of voters are gonna be looking at the base statistics. And 27/7/4 with great defensive metrics don’t seem to hit the same.
It’s not the counting stats that’s keeping Tatum from an MVP.
Part of it is that at times, like you know, the playoffs, he doesn’t even make a convincing case for being the best player on his own team.
And part of it is that his defense isn’t actually at peak Kawhi level. Tatum is a damn good defender, but he’s not actually great.