Jayson Tatum is moving on up.
In his first MVP ladder of the season, NBA.com’s Shaun Powell ranked the Boston Celtics star fifth behind Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Maxey.
Now, Tatum sits third, trailing only Doncic and Wembanyama.
“It was a satisfying week for Tatum, made possible by beating the Sixers and ex-teammate Jaylen Brown to assume a top spot in the East,” wrote Powell. “Tatum went for 34-9-8 three games prior against the Hornets. And that’s just a snippet of his season, his first full tour of duty after recovering from Achilles surgery.
“Tatum is once again the star the Celtics need, this time going solo. And as for his injury, he’s erasing most of those concerns, as evidenced by his soaring dunk over LeBron James in the Sixers’ game.”
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Tatum is averaging 26.3 points, 7.5 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game this season. He’s shooting 41.3 percent from the field and 30.6 percent from 3-point range, but there’s reason to believe those numbers will improve in the days, weeks and months to come.
The Celtics are riding high after completing a perfect four-game road trip to improve to 10-2 and take over first place in the Eastern Conference.
Tatum also ranks third in Basketball Reference’s MVP tracker, which ranks candidates using a model built from previous voting results. Once again, he trails only Doncic and Wembanyama.
There’s still a long way to go in the MVP race, but Tatum has put himself firmly in the conversation.
