Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) shoots for three points during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Jayson Tatum has had one of the best summers imaginable from a basketball standpoint. From winning his first NBA title to signing a record-breaking contract extension to getting selected to Team USA’s Olympic roster, Tatum’s offseason, at least on the surface, seems to be going as smooth as can be. But if you dig in deeper, you’ll notice that Tatum has been struggling with his shooting, primarily from three-point range.
Through 19 games of the 2024 NBA playoffs, Tatum shot a putrid 28.3% from downtown. For reference, that mark is well below the league average last season of 36.6%, and it’s even worse considering Tatum’s career average 3P%, which stands at 37.5%. In 5 games of the 2024 Finals against the Mavericks, Tatum attempted 38 threes and made only 10, good for 26.3%.
What’s more, not only has Tatum’s three-point accuracy gone down, but also his average attempts from beyond the arc. In the 2024 Playoffs, Tatum attempted an average of 7.3 three-pointers per game, connecting on 2.1 of them. In the 2023-2024 regular season, however, he took 8.2 threes on average, and the ball went through the net an average of 3.1 times. Generally, if the number of three-pointers a player attempts decreases, their efficiency and three-point percentage should increase. With Jayson Tatum, this seems not to be the case. Despite taking less threes in the playoffs than in the regular season, Tatum still managed to register a much worse success rate. Collectively throughout the 2024 playoffs, Team USA exhibition games, and the Olympics, Tatum has made three pointers at a 24.1% clip. On top of this, the lone shot beyond the arc that Tatum attempted in the Olympics was a wide-open, corner three pointer that ended up hitting the edge of the backboard, nowhere close to the rim.
It’s not unusual for a superstar to be in a slump; it happens all the time. However, their shot always comes back to them in a few weeks, or a month at most. Yet Tatum’s struggles and inaccuracy from three-point territory have been plaguing him for nearly four months. This begs the question: Is Tatum merely in some sort of long-term slump, or is there more to it?