Perk TRUSTS Jayson Tatum can finish the job in the NBA Finals: He’s ready for the moment | NBA Today

Perk TRUSTS Jayson Tatum can finish the job in the NBA Finals: He’s ready for the moment | NBA Today

well the Boston Celtics are hoping that this is finally the year that they will hang banner number 18 certainly Jason Tatum he knows exactly what is at stake and how difficult it is to get back to the spa stage he spoke with reporters just moments ago I know how hard it is to get to the finals um and you know you think that you’re young and if you’ve been once that you’ll just continue to keep going um and we realized that last year we kind of took it for granted it it really is tough to get to this moment so I think right now just staying present in the moment I’m not thinking about you know what it would mean for my legacy or anything like that if you want to be one of the greats right to put on this uniform um you know every great before you won a championship um and that’s what we try to to play for every single season the expectations are obviously different here uh and you know it takes special players to to be here and to be a part of uh an environment like that so Jason Tatum clearly understands that it isn’t just every day you can’t just book a trip back to the NBA finals and certainly he has been living with thinking about that trip in 2022 where they fell short for the last couple of years for you perk how have you seen Tatum evolve and why is he ready for this do you think to be the year I mean because think about it when they lost to the Golden State Warriors right that probably was the worst sum of his basketball career and he’s right you know you cannot take take for granted getting to the NBA finals because you never know when you’re going to get back or if you’re going to get back to on the big stage but when it comes down to Jason Tatum he’s been here before and it’s almost like you’re looking at Floyd Mayweather right when the opponent is fighting him on the big stage in Vegas he wins the fight pretty much because it’s new environment for the other person so when it’s his second time I’m looking at Tatum right now I feel like he’s ready for the moment I got him picked as my finals MVP okay and I got the Celtics hanging bner number 18 but it’s not going to be easy no I I trust Jason Tatum because all the things that perk said but even he said after they after they lost in the finals everybody was saying hey good season good season he was like no we didn’t finish the job and when you talk about these opportunities don’t come very often I went to the NBA finals my first and second year I didn’t go again till year 15 so there was a 13-year Gap and I think a lot of these players understand how rare this is so for Jason Tatum I trust Jason Tatum because I trust his team and I trust his team that when he’s struggling they pick him up when other guys are struggling he picks them up I think their complete team balance is why I trust Jason Tatum and I also feel like right now Jason Tatum knows that he owes it to the organization because let’s be real when it comes down to organizations like for us putting their putting the pieces around their Superstars the Celtics have done that every single season they make sure they put the right personnel around Jason Tatum so that he have zero excuses for us completing the mission but he said he’s even said he feels like this is a better team Richard than in 2022 but it it seems like because he left something to be desired and he knows that he has talked about that in 2022 the questions like we are starting the show with do you trust Jason Tatum no matter how decorated he is they are going to come until he is not only the reason they complete the job but also not the reason that they don’t well I I I would say this understand this if we go a little history lesson when Giannis won the MVP and won the Championships we’re like Giannis is the best player in the world right fast forward a couple years joic he wins a championship and you know won the MVPs and people are like oh he’s the best player in the world I just want for Jason Tatum if he were be able to win the MV our finals MVP in Championship put some respect on his name he would be one of the few guys and I think even if Luca were to win the championship and win Finals MVP people would say oh maybe it’s Luca’s time to be the best player in the world I think that Jason Tatum if he is able to win a Finals MVP with this team we need to start putting some respect on his name next year we can start seeing MVP votes there are things that I think are missing from his resume and I think this is the top of the list yeah but everything is earned and nothing is given so he have to earn the respect not that he’s not an outstanding player but even going further back in history because I heard uh one of the you know Boston media people asked him a question earlier today they’re starting to get on my damn nerves by the way they love you but I know but what I’m saying is is like oh the the scrutiny that you’re under right the most scrutinized player in the NBA and it’s like what like but okay so what Embrace that as a good thing because Kobe was scrutinized when Shaq left right to go and win one on his own right LeBron was scrutinized when he went down to Miami and didn’t complete the mission the first year so like all the great players go through this this is that that you should be should brece one only players that have expectations that get get that type of scrutiny but Luka donic and and Jason Tatum they have something in common in all of this back in 2022 both of those teams were eliminated by the by Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors and so Luca donic he has played at high levels in Europe he has been in finals in Europe but he has never been on this stage before and earlier today he spoke about exactly what that means um amazing uh first time here uh hopefully it’s not the last time uh but never take it for granted uh you never know if you’re going to come back uh so just enjoy the experience he’s one of the smartest players in this league and and and that’s why again we’re playing in the finals because of his IQ and his uh willingness to step up on that stage and not be afraid to fail how do you expect the reception to be here and how’s this crowd compare with crowds that you’ve faced around the NBA and in Europe yeah I think it’s very uh loud crowd uh everybody knows that you know they’ve been known for that uh it’s hard to play in this place uh the crowd is is is amazing for their team and uh all I got to say is we got to you know stay together it’s us against them so uh we got to stay together but it’s going to be really hard to play In This Crowd we have seen Luca dominate through these playoffs Jason Tatum it still feels like at times we’re waiting to see the best version of him who do you expect out the gate to to give the first punch to dominate I don’t know that’s the funniest thing I I think when you’re talking about the best players on the other team but the best team is the Boston Celtics it would take it to LeBron James to some of those Warriors teams LeBron James was the best player but those Warrior teams by far had the best team a lot of those years so when I look at this I don’t know I’m always curious to see who’s going to go out there and kind of feel it out is Kyrie going to go defer in the first half and then pick it up in the second half is Luca going to come out and just try and dominate like he did in that game six elimination or game uh game six elimination five was the five no game six oh oh you’re talking yeah so when I say that as like game six there he came out and set the tone for the first quarter was it game six we’ve had so many games I’m so tired we had so many games no I expect LCA to come out I I expect Luca to come out and be Luka make right who’s going to stop him he’s been doing it all postseason long he’s been doing it on the big stage his entire career as a teenager this like I understand we’re sitting up here talking about the history of the B Boston Celtics the fan base but Luca don’t know no better and he don’t give a damn about the fan base this is another game and another opportunity for Luca to come on somebody else home court and do what he do best think about this the Dallas Mavericks throughout the playoffs have they started the series with home court absolutely not they’ve been the visiting team right they’ve been on the road to started the playoffs every single time I expect Luca to be Luca the Boston Celtics have the best most intense fan base in the NBA but do you know what they don’t have the best most intense fan base in the world for guys like Luca and yage if you’ve played in Serbia if you’ve played in Croatia their crowds are so intense you’re talking about flares you’re talking about complete chaos so yes this is going to be an intense environment here in the NBA but I don’t think that this environment is going to be something that Luca will shy away from not only that have you seen the way that Luca interacts with fans when they choose when they dare to Heckle him when they choose to take on that battle it is almost like he absorbs it uses it as fuel tosses some over to Kyrie Irving and says hey bro let’s show these guys what we got that’s what we’ve been missing though that’s what we’ve been missing like Luca is the guy that we’ve been wanting to see for I mean that we’ve been wanting and missing for the last what 10 years a guy that actually embraced that he’s calling the the fans and the opponents everything but a child of God and serious I’m Ser I’m not lying so I mean again it’s going to come down to the others obviously and I’m not talking about Kyrie Irving I’m talking about guys like Daniel Gafford PJ Washington Derek Lely because this is their first time on the big stage and being in the NBA Finals you can get caught up in a moment all the media all the attention the game starting at midnight you know what I mean get starting that late you all eyes are on you and you can get caught up in but you know so Chris DS porzingis says the plan is to play in game one of the NBA finals tomorrow he’s had five weeks to recover from the calf strain that he suffered in the first round and it got me thinking what are the comparisons what players have missed this much time well this type of return it really is unprecedented no 20po scorer has ever made a return from a 10 plus game absence in the NBA Finals here is porzingis earlier today feeling good feeling good um it was a long road to get to this point for me um feeling good looking forward to today’s practice moving around a little bit more and then being ready to go tomorrow game one here at the Garden you’ve talked about the crowd what’s going to be going through your mind and what the emotions like for you it’s going to be Goosebumps for sure especially not playing for for a while and and then uh coming back in uh you know in this kind of environment is going to be it’s going to be special it’s going to be Goosebumps for sure since I got here my message was clear I’m just here to to help the team win and and unfortunately I haven’t had the the minutes on the floor with the with the guys but but now I get the chance and and and it’s all about it’s all about winning another Banner it’s time now for Big Man Ballin brought to you by ESPN bet the official sports book of ESPN so perk how will the Celtics big man affect this series well he was talking about Goosebumps he’s going to have more than Goosebumps if he don’t help deliver a championship this is why he’s the most important player in this series his ability to be able to switch one through five be 73 use his length get a great contest on Luca now they out and running this is what he also brings to the table stretching the floor before the injury he was one of the best shooting bigs in the game for us at the three-point percentage he provides spacing for jayen Brown and Jason Tatum he has unlimited range he does not even see Kyrie Irving in that shot this is what Christoper zingas bring this is what the Celtics need and order them for to complete the mission he has to be the best version of him right because during the regular season he was the most effective defender in the NBA contesting shots in the paint and then on the other end he was the most efficient postup player in the last 10 seasons but we started the segment by saying this is unprecedented to miss this much time to be coming back in the NBA finals and expecting to have the impact that Chris STS poring we we really haven’t seen that before Richard what are you going to be watching that’ll let you know okay he’s good to go well for for in my own experience I miss 40 games and came back for the first round of the postseason this was 2005 2005 and we got swept but ultimately it took me about two or three make a difference it didn’t make a difference it didn’t make but it took about two or three games for me to kind of get my rhythm back and it’s different I had a left ri wrist injury he has a lower leg injury so those to me he’s going to be in a ton of pick and rolls they do have backup but I was just sitting here with this crew and we were looking at They just added a 20 point a game score they’re the best team in the league they dominated their conference they should win this series if he can come out there and i’ be and I’m being very all he has to do is give him 15 20 minutes if they can get if he can get 15 20 minutes and then if the game goes six if it goes seven the series does now you’re saying like Okay can he raise his level but perk make great points he’s going to be in a ton of pick and rolls but that’s not foreign from him he’s a very good Defender he’s a very good shot blocker if you do get by him so he is a key in this series but I look for him to get better every game if he comes out and he’s one for six that’s fine next game he’ll be two for eight the next game he’ll be five for nine it’ll get better he might come out and just go crazy we don’t know because of the way we haven’t seen him in 10 games but what you’re saying is this is such a deep team that it doesn’t necessarily need to be him that comes out he is key okay yeah he is key and look he’s going to he’s just going to have to be him 73 clogging up the paint and the three look I went to five NBA finals three of them I actually played a part in not from the sideline okay and all three of the NBA Finals that I played a part in I was injured right obviously with the ACL injury but when you go back to my days with Oklahoma City I was I was dealing with a whole C don’t you laugh abdominal St and look you just it’s those moments that you fight through it in 2008 I was playing with a dislocated shoulder like I had to have surgery after the season slapped on it wrong no slapped on it wrong your abdominals feel okay now huh your abdominals feel okay now yeah yeah I got to I got don’t say it [Music]

Perk TRUSTS Jayson Tatum can finish the job in the NBA Finals: He’s ready for the moment | NBA Today
On NBA Today, Malika Andrews, Richard Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins debate whether they trust Jayson Tatum to finish the job in the NBA Finals, expectations for Luka Doncic in his 1st Finals appearance and more.
#nbatoday #nba #espn

0:00 How has Jayson Tatum evolved as a player?
6:20 Expectations for Luka Doncic in 1st NBA Finals?
10:00 How can Kristaps Porzingis impact Celtics in Finals?

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