Jayson Tatum dropped 51 points in a Game 7 against the 76ers. He poured in 45 on the road against the Bucks in a playoff elimination game. Yet when Colin Cowherd speaks about the Celtics star, the conversation always circles back to the same point: Does Tatum close when it matters most?
That question is on fire again after Cowherd, the FS1 host, weighed in on a recent Ringer ranking that placed Tatum 13th in the NBA. Cowherd didn’t just agree — he doubled down, saying the forward lacks the killer instinct of the league’s true elite.
“Tatum’s just really talented,” Cowherd said on his show, according to a clip posted to X. “There are times he doesn’t lead, he doesn’t initiate, and way too often he doesn’t close!”
The timing of the criticism is notable. Boston is coming off a first-round playoff collapse against the Philadelphia 76ers in which they blew a 3-1 series lead. Tatum missed Game 7 of that series due to injury — he was returning from an Achilles tear sustained earlier in the season — and the Celtics have been linked to trade rumors involving Jaylen Brown ever since. Some league insiders have floated the possibility of a blockbuster deal for Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, per reports, though the team has not confirmed those discussions.
For Celtics fans, the Tatum debate is exhausting and familiar. He has played through an Achilles recovery that would sideline most players for a full season, and by the end of last year, he was starting to look like his old self again. The numbers back that up: Tatum averaged 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists per game when healthy, while shooting 47% from the field. He is one of the most complete two-way players in the league.
But the passivity critique has followed him since college. It flared up during the 2022 Finals when the Celtics offense stalled down the stretch. It reappeared during the 2023 playoffs. And now, with Boston’s championship window narrowing — especially as the New York Knicks, fresh off an NBA title, loom as the new power in the East — every game Tatum doesn’t dominate feels like fuel for the doubters.
Cowherd is not alone in his skepticism. Fans online noted that the Ringer ranking placed Tatum behind players like Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and Stephen Curry, but also behind younger stars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The implication: Tatum is great, but maybe not top-five great. That’s a dangerous label in Boston, where championships are the only metric that matters.
What happens next is up to Brad Stevens. The Celtics general manager has shown he is not afraid to make bold moves — trading Marcus Smart last summer was proof of that. If Boston swings a trade for Antetokounmpo, the Tatum dynamic changes completely. If they stand pat, the pressure on Tatum to deliver a title only intensifies.
Either way, the conversation isn’t going away. And Colin Cowherd just made sure of that.
Leave a Comment