Boston Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum is making his case for his first-ever NBA MVP award.
The 26-year-old is having an incredible start to the 2024-25 season, and the Celtics are among the best teams in the league because of them.
The Celtics have all the tools to repeat as champions, but they will only do so with the play of Tatum. Tatum has remained amongst the top in a ton of MVP chatter; however, he slipped down a bit in the NBA.com's latest MVP ladder.
Tatum slipped from No. 2 to No. 3 in this week's ranking.
Shaun Powell of NBA.com gave his reason for Tatum dropping one spot.
"His case: Until Wednesday when he missed his first game of the season, Tatum was an ironman while the Celtics saw absences from Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown and even Derrick White. He nearly took down the top-ranked Cavaliers without Brown and White, missing a bunny shot in the final minute. He still leads the defending champs in scoring, rebounds, assists, and steals.
"In addition to the Friday showdown with the rising Bucks and Giannis, Tatum has another star matchup Saturday with the equally rising Memphis Grizzlies and Ja Morant."
The two players in front of Tatum are Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets.
Tatum's latest game was fantastic. In 37 minutes, he recorded 34 points on 60 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent from three on Friday against the Bucks, along with 10 rebounds and five assists.
Tatum has done and will continue to do what he needs to stay at the top of the MVP ladder. In the season, Tatum is averaging 28.2 points per game, 8.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 45.3 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from the three in 23 games.
The Celtics will continue to play well, and there is no reason Tatum shouldn't be in the middle of the MVP race from now until the end of the season.
The five-time All-Star is in the ninth season of his career, and the best he has finished in an MVP race is fourth, which came in the 2022-23 season.
Tatum is a fine player in the league, and it will only be a matter of time before he could at least get one MVP.
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