Brad Stevens' offseason advice to Jayson Tatum: "Go on vacation"
BOSTON -- An important offseason lies ahead for Jayson Tatum. Fresh off his first trip to the NBA Finals, Tatum has a lot to think about after he and the Celtics came up short in their quest for a championship.
But his bosses are hoping that Tatum spends plenty of time away from the court this offseason, time he can spend recharging after a grueling run to the Finals.
"I told him to go on vacation," Celtics president of basketball ops. Brad Stevens said Tuesday morning. "Go get some rest."
Tatum played in 100 games between the regular season and playoffs. That included a pair of seven-game series and six physical games against the Warriors in the NBA Finals.
After averaging nearly 36 minutes a night during the regular season, Tatum averaged 41 minutes over 24 playoff games.
"This guy gave us everything he had. When you look at the minutes, the games played; I said it several times that he's a superstar that doesn't want to sit," Stevens said of Tatum's postseason output. "He wants to play all the time."
It was an interesting postseason for Tatum. He obviously scored a ton of points for the Celtics, and he led everyone in both points and assists during the playoffs. But he also led the way in turnovers, and set a new NBA postseason record with 100 turnovers during Boston's run.
He struggled for much of the Finals against the Golden State Warriors, and hit just 37 percent of his two-point attempts during the series. Stevens hopes that Tatum sees how the Warriors played him in the Finals, and uses it to advance his game next season.
"In the Finals, he would be the first to say that he wants some of those moments back. But there were other contributing factors," said Stevens. "We had several guys who struggled in the Finals. [Golden State's] defense was excellent and our offense got stagnant. The challenge of a long year adds up, but that's part of the learning experience. You get a great idea of what it takes to get all the way through."
Tatum is only 24 but he has already been to the Eastern Conference Finals four times in his young career. Now he'll look to build off his first trip to the NBA Finals to get over the next hump and become a champion.
"When you look at it objectively and, more so, historically, what Jayson and Jaylen [Brown] have done in the playoffs historically at their ages is rarified air," noted Stevens. "I think we're very cognizant that while Jayson would admit he didn't play his best series [in the Finals], we aren't there without him."
Stevens said that Tatum's 46-point explosion against the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semis was the best individual game that he's seen during his time with the Celtics.
"Without that performance, we'd be having this conversation a month ago," said Stevens.
