The love affair with the Boston Celtics continues at FiveThirtyEight as the data wizards at the site who projected the Celtics the most likely winner of the 2020 NBA Championship consider All-Star swingman Jayson Tatum the best postseason player in the league.
After Boston dispatched the Philadelphia 76ers in just four games, FiveThirtyEight moved the Celtics into their slot for the most likely team to hang a banner this season.
The sweep, the first between the two teams, evidently impressed the data scientists behind the rankings.
And given no player has been more important to the Celtics’ success in the postseason to date than Tatum, it makes sense that FiveThirtyEight posits the Duke product as the best player in the league since the regular season ended.
Currently perched ahead of luminaries like Donnie Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, former Celtic Marcus Morris Sr.(now with the Los Angeles Clippers), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Toronto Raptors’ Fred Van Vleet to round out the top five in that order, Tatum is well ahead of the rest of the pack.
Celtics rise to No. 1 in FiveThirtyEight’s 2019-20 title odds https://t.co/O0TrITPa87
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 24, 2020
The St. Louis native’s overall RAPTOR and Wins Above Replacement (WAR) scores are considerably higher than his peers on this list, further cementing the third-year forward’s status as a first-tier star in the league.
His stardom will be put to the test by the league’s second-best defense when he and Boston face Toronto this Thursday.
But you have to like his odds, considering everything.
