Photo: Public Domain
Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles in the fourth game of Boston's conference semifinals series against New York. The Knicks went on to win the series four games to two. Tatum will likely miss most or all of next season. He's only 27, so he might return as good as ever.
In his previous seven seasons in the NBA, Tatum and the Celtics have been to the Conference finals five times and the Finals twice, winning last year. Tatum has consistently been the fifth-best player in the league over the past few seasons, even though there have been changes among those ahead of him.
Most notably, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo have been five-time first-team all-NBA selections in that span (2020-24). Nikola Jokic earned three first-team and two second-team mentions. Joel Embiid (one first team, two second-team) battled for MVP for three seasons, winning in 2023, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (two first-teams that last two seasons) has taken his place as one of the four best players.
LeBron James has five total all-NBA selections this decade, and Steph Curry has four. Each was named to the first team once. Tatum has earned first-team honors in the past three seasons and a third-team in 2020. He missed 2021 when the Celtics fell to .500.
By the MVP Chase standard, Tatum finished (in reverse chronological order) 4th, 2nd, 5th, out of the top five, and 5th in those seasons. He finished 6th, 4th, 5th, none, and 12th in the official MVP results. I always had a higher regard for him because the MVP Chase rewards showing up and winning. Until this injury, Tatum has been durable and, except for the 2021 season, the Celtics won a lot of games.
Tatum has, however, been a notch below the best of the best in terms of Player Efficiency Rating. He's consistently in the top 15, in a group of players with similar PERs. John Hollinger, the creator of the PER, has acknowledged that it doesn't reliably measure defense, and Tatum is recognized as a strong and versatile defender.
When going through the MVP data, I remembered that I wanted to create an "all-decade" team for every ten years. I especially want to do it at the midpoints of decades. The 2025 all-NBA team hasn't been announced as of this writing, but the decade minpoints are from 2015 through 2024 (as 2024 was the fifth year of the 2020s). So I will go to the All-Decade team up through last year and do a new one in a few weeks.
I am basing the All-Decade team on All-NBA mentions over the 2015-2024 seasons. Forty-nine players were named All-NBA at least once. Here are the 17 mentioned at least four times. Following each name is the number of first, second, and third teams, the number of MVPs, and the number of Finals appearances/wins.
LeBron James 5-1-4; 4 MVPs (before the period); 5 Finals/2 wins.
Stephen Curry 4-3-2 2 MVPs, 6/4
Giannis Antetokounmpo 6-2-2; 2 MVPs 1/1
Nikola Jokic 4-2-0; 3 MVPs; 1/1
Kawhi Leonard 3-3-0; 0 MVP; 1/1
Kevin Durant 1-5-0 1 MVP (before period); 3/2
Russell Westbrook 2-2-2; 1 MVP; 0/0
Damian Lillard 1-4-1; 0 MVP; 0/0
Luka Doncic 5-0-0; 0 MVP; 1/0
James Harden 5-0-0; 1 MVP; 0/0
Anthony Davis 4-1-0; 0 MVP; 1/1
Joel Embiid 1-4-0; 1 MVP; 0/0
Chris Paul 0-4-1; 0 MVP; 1/0
Jimmy Butler 0-1-4; 0 MVP; 2/0
Jayson Tatum 3-0-1; 0 MVP; 2/1
Paul George 1-0-3; 0 MVP; 0/0
Rudy Gobert 0-1-3; 0 MVP; 0/0
Tatum is in the last group with "only" four all-NBA appearances. He gets the fifteenth spot because he made more first teams and Finals appearances.
Although players these days often play multiple positions, I'm listing first-, second-, and third-team selections for each position:
Center: 1. Jokic 2. Davis 3. Embiid
Power Forward: 1. Giannis 2. Durant 3. Tatum
Small Forward:1.Lebron 2. Kawhi 3. Butler
Point Guard: 1. Curry 2. Paul 3. Lillard
Shooting Guard: 1. Doncic, 2. Harden 3. Westbrook
Although if we are to put the five best players of the past ten years on the floor together, it would be like this:
Center: Jokic
Power Forward: Giannis
Small Forward: Kawhi
Point Guard: Curry
Shooting Guard: LeBron
When the 2025 All-NBA team is announced, we'll do this again for 2016-25. We'll see who dropped off or dropped down, who gets added, and who moved up.
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