Has Jayson Tatum Surpassed Kevin Durant In NBA Player Rankings?

Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, NBA Trade Rumors
NBA Analysis Network

According to the Wikipedia page, recency bias is defined as: “a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historic ones.” If an example is needed, NBA Twitter is a place bountiful with hot takes and analysts eager to be the first to plant their flag into an idea, leading to a whole lot of opinions that are heavily swayed by current status.

Paul Pierce fell victim to this phenomenon after his former Boston Celtics swept Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets.

Of course, this could just be an extreme case of homer-ism from Pierce, bleeding green all over the Twitterverse. He’s not exactly a stranger to oddball takes. Despite the initial cringe at this tweet, it was surprising to find that there are plenty of fans who agree with him.

There’s little doubt that Jayson Tatum is already an NBA great and will continue to climb the ranks as he progresses and those above him age out. But it’ll prove prudent to wait until that time before snatching crowns off the heads of all-time greats for a premature coronation.

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After all, it was only last season when Kevin Durant bounced Jayson Tatum out of the playoffs in the first round in a gentleman’s sweep. In their 2020-21 playoff bouts, Durant averaged 32.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, and three assists while stroking 55 percent of his looks from the field and a staggering 50 percent of his three-balls.

In comparison, Tatum put up an impressive 30.6 points but was clearly bothered with being the focal point of an opposing defense, shooting only 42 percent for the series.

The Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets were two teams headed in opposite directions before they met in the first round this year. The Cs had started putting everything together at just the right time and rode an impressive second half of the year to a second-seed finish.

Brooklyn, on the other hand, dealt with Kyrie Irving’s part-time availability all season before having to handle James Harden’s trade request. Ultimately, off-court reasons dragged them down into the Play-In Tournament and the seventh-seed.

Tatum and Boston took advantage of Brooklyn’s disparaged roster and offensive imbalance, loading up their defense with the sole purpose of slowing down Durant. To their credit, it worked beautifully, as the usually lethal Durant was hampered down to a middling 26.3 points per game on 39/33/90 shooting marks.

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Keep in mind that this season, Tatum averaged a career-high 26.9 points per game. Durant has eight seasons in which he either matched that offensive output or surpassed it and almost did so in a playoff series where he was highly scrutinized for underperforming.

Sure, Tatum could lead the Boston Celtics to an NBA championship this postseason and continue his ascension next season. But, he and the Cs could also flame out in the Finals or beforehand, and Kevin Durant could go right back to dominating defenses in the way only the “Slim Reaper” could.

If someone wants to risk the chance of looking like a fool and ending up on @OldTakesExposed then that’s their prerogative. For me, I’ll wait until I see it.

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