Who are the NBA’s top one-on-one players so far this season? Given that the Boston Celtics are an absolute unit to start their 2023-24 campaign, it probably should not surprise to see a Celtics star among them in the estimation of Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale.
Using a statistical approach to rank them based on both volume and efficiency, the B/R NBA analyst devised a formula that considers each player’s isolation performance by subtracting the league average points per possession from their individual points per possession and multiplying the difference by the total number of isolation plays that player has used this season (check out the full breakdown of the methodology here).
The player who made the cut? Jayson Tatum — coming in third overall, just ahead of the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Halliburton and just behind the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Celtics Lab 131: Assessing the 2023-24 trade season around the NBA with A. Sherrod Blakely https://t.co/ymBQ4ejV4Y pic.twitter.com/nmM2eBREtp
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 12, 2023
“We are officially entering a different tier of one-on-one bucket-getter,” writes Favale. “It begins, not unpredictably, with some dude on the Boston Celtics.”
“Jayson Tatum’s path to the No. 3 slot isn’t particularly complicated. He is far from a free-throw merchant but remains a billboard for tough shot-making. His efficiency on pull-up treys isn’t sexy (29.5%), but he fares well inside the arc and has the overall volume to put himself in rarefied air. Luka Doncic is the only other player who has scored as many unassisted twos and unassisted 3s, per PBP Stats.”
“In the aggregate, Tatum is averaging 1.15 points per iso touch—a mind-bending mark when you consider Dončić and Kevin Durant are the lone players who have burned through more of these possessions,” he adds.
'I'm not doing enough' to win a title, says Boston's Jayson Tatum https://t.co/QMkgSGcL4u pic.twitter.com/sUrC09d7wc
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 12, 2023
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that we want JT taking the ball up the court at a relaxed pace and then trying to break an opponent down every Boston possession.
But there are plenty of moments in a game where a play breaks down and there’s no time to start another that ISO play can get you a bucket your team absolutely has to get in order to keep the team in the game.
Even more so in the halfcourt-heavy style of play in the postseason, where the St. Louis native and Co. hope to spend a fair amount of games playing this summer.
The Celtics have retired 23 jersey numbers (and one name) – these are the players so honored https://t.co/k6UGhPHSEx pic.twitter.com/GFESBDav0v
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 10, 2023
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