Jayson Tatum’s polished, smooth game has him on NBA fast-track

Jayson Tatum has been a busy man over the course of the last several weeks. After playing an integral role for the United States team that won the FIBA U-19 World Championship in Greece, Tatum returned stateside to participate in the Nike Peach Jam tournament, where his team played eight games in four days. To make it all the more sweeter, Tatum committed to Duke in the midst of a run to the tournament’s championship game.

When asked by ESPN Basketball Insider Jeff Goodman how much he had left in the tank after such long stretches of time spent on the court, Tatum demonstrated his toughness by simply responding “enough.”

As it turned out, Tatum’s St. Louis Eagles did not have enough to emerge as Peach Jam champions over the Georgia Stars, their championship game foe. The Stars thrashed the Eagles 104-77 behind a strong performance from highly-touted power forward Wendell Carter Jr. But the game certainly was not lopsided because Tatum ran out of gas. Tatum shined in his own right, posting an impressive line of 24 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

Ranked second in ESPN’s class of 2016 recruiting rankings, Tatum obviously possesses a myriad of gifts that help him on the floor more than just grit. A prototypical small forward standing at 6-8 and 190 pounds, Tatum can do just about everything well offensively — with ease.

The first thing that sticks out about Tatum is his smoothness. He graces the court with his tall, sinewy body, never seeming to exert more than the minimum amount of energy necessary to get by all the while making an impact on nearly every play. The aesthetically-pleasing nature of Tatum’s game was highly evident on his first bucket against the Stars in the championship game.

Tatum seals his man off on the left wing, palms the ball on the catch, and uses his rear to bump his man back a slight step to give himself room to operate. Then, without hesitation Tatum spins baseline away from the help defender and takes a long stride while putting the ball on the floor just once before stopping on a dime to pull up and sink a midrange jumper over the outstretched arms of a back-pedalling defender.

Impeccable footwork often paired with no wasted motion is largely what makes Tatum’s game so special. It’s hard to teach a player to execute nearly every move with such precise poise.

Not the quickest basketball player, Tatum regularly relies on his high release point to get his shot off over defenders when he can’t beat them off the bounce, as he aptly demonstrated in the previous video. 3-pointers are not a major part of Tatum’s arsenal currently, but it is easy to see him developing more of a long-range game in time given his textbook shooting form and ability to convert from the free throw line (89.7 percent on 58 attempts in the Peach Jam), which is usually a good indicator of whether or not a player is capable of developing a 3-point shot.

Right now, Tatum has a leg up physically on most defenders he faces, so he doesn’t often settle for 3s. Despite his documented lack of elite quickness, he is able to utilize other tools at his disposal to beat defenders off the dribble and get to the rack.

Midway through the first half against the Stars, Tatum showed exactly what he’s capable of as a ball handler. Finding himself in a side pick and roll situation, he waits for the roll man to set a strong screen before performing a hesitation dribble towards the middle of the floor. As soon as Tatum realizes the Stars have misplayed him by switching on the ball screen, he accelerates full speed ahead towards the rim.

Upon entering the paint, a Stars’ big man awaits him. Many young players would charge ahead and turn the ball over after barreling right into the man awaiting contact. Not your average high school player, Tatum performs a eurostep at the last second, navigating around the big man and making him look silly in the process. Tatum finishes at the rim with a soft scoop layup with his weak hand.

The ridiculous thing about Tatum is that the play he made in the video above is not a rarity. He dazzles like that on a regular basis, often leaving the crowd with nothing more to do than “ooh” and “aah.”

Tatum’s smoothness is not restricted to having the ball in his hands, and it is not restricted to just one end of the court, either. There was a time midway through the first half of the Peach Jam championship game when Tatum scored several straight buckets in a row for his team.

He was at his best on both ends midway through the stretch. The play starts off with Tatum defending the pick and roll. His man, the ball handler, utilizes the screen to turn the corner and head towards the paint. Not the best at making himself small and evading screens, Tatum gets slightly stuck. He doesn’t give up on the play, though. As his man gets to the right side of the rim, Tatum sprints back into the play and breaks up a pass to the seemingly wide-open roll man under the rim.

The play is only halfway over, though. As his team recovers the ball and begins to transition to offense, Tatum sprints forward as if his legs are full of energy and not dead tired from playing two games in one day. He properly fills the front middle lane in transition, catching a lob at the rim and slamming it home to finish a great all-around play that demonstrates what Tatum could be at the college level then — dare I say — in the NBA.

Playing unselfishly is a large part of Tatum’s identity. He possesses a knack for creating opportunities for teammates as well as himself. He finished with seven assists in the Peach Jam championship game, and he would have had more if his teammates would have knocked down multiple open looks.

The ability to change pace in the pick and roll is a lethal weapon for Tatum and one that will serve him well against better defenders at the next level. On the following play, Tatum shows just how dangerous his shiftiness can be.

The play starts innocently enough on a side pick and roll. Tatum pivots several times before utilizing the ball screen. As he comes over the screen and turns the corner, the roll man’s defender sinks back to help on Tatum’s drive leaving the roll man wide open on his jaunt to the rim. Aware that the focus is on him, Tatum patiently draws the defense out of position while waiting for the roll man to get close to the rim. He then does the opposite of what the defense expects, throwing an over the head, no look dart pass that ends with the roll man dunking the ball through the hoop.

Often double-teamed and sometimes even triple-teamed, Tatum has plenty of passing opportunities in every game, and he has demonstrated a high basketball IQ by making the right play a large percentage of the time.

Given the fluidity and complexity of Tatum’s game that he’s demonstrated to this point of his high school and AAU careers, particularly on the offensive end, it’s unlikely that he will spend more than a single season playing in front of raucous crowds at Cameron Indoor Stadium before making the leap to the NBA. As if the league didn’t already have enough smoothness.