Forsberg: Where Tatum, Brown rank among East's Top 10
Ten games into the 2020-21 season, the Boston Celtics have already played against most of the Eastern Conference’s top squads and best players. With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown off to a blistering start to the new campaign, it got us thinking about where they rank among the stars of the East.Here’s our ranking of the top 10 players in the East based on the early returns:
The reigning two-time MVP is so good that he scored 30 points before halftime this week against the Pistons and we hardly blinked. He’s a dominant two-way force and we just sorta expect him to be a wrecking ball. The trouble for Antetokounmpo is that he’s been so darn good the past few years that ultimately he will only be judged on his postseason performance and how far he can take the Bucks. It’s time for him to prove he’s the best player in the East on the biggest stage.
It’s absurd how quickly Durant looks like his old self after the injuries he endured and the time he missed. He was unstoppable in the second half of the Nets’ Christmas Day shellacking of the Celtics. He’s averaging 28.2 points per game in six appearances, all while flirting with 50/40/90 splits (he’s at 51.4 FG%, 45.5 3PT%, 88.5 FT%) and he should only get better as the season goes along.
Even with teams making him the focus of their defensive game plans — this while Kemba Walker is sidelined to start the year — Tatum is averaging a robust 26.9 points per game. Ten games into the season, he’s already got a pair of game-winners in his pocket. His true shooting percentage is at a career high (58.8), he’s improved his playmaking, and he’s been extra active on the glass. A healthy Walker could give him even more space to operate.
Report: Tatum to quarantine, miss next 10-14 days
Embiid has been super efficient early in the 2020-21 season, shooting a career-best 52.5 percent from the floor while averaging 24.6 points per game. Before Thursday’s loss in Brooklyn, the Sixers hadn’t been beat this season when Embiid was on the floor. The talent is undeniable. The ability to dominate consistently and save his best basketball for the postseason remains the question for Embiid.
When he’s on the floor, Irving has been spectacular. His numbers right now are even better than his All-NBA season in Boston two years ago. The Nets have a team-best net rating of plus-18.0 in his 231 minutes of court time and it dips to a team-worst minus-3.6 without him. For all his defensive warts, Brooklyn is holding teams to 102.8 points per 100 possessions when Irving is on the court. Boston got a harsh reminder of how good Irving can be with his 37-point outing on Christmas.
Call it a homer take if you’ve ventured here from outside New England but Brown has been spectacular to start the season. He’s sixth in the East in scoring while shooting 42.1 percent beyond the 3-point arc and 65.1 percent from the mid-range. Is it sustainable? Nothing about the way Brown is operating suggests it isn’t.
We are interested to see how the return of Walker impacts him — will another All-Star presence loosen up the defense and create more opportunities, or take away shots from a player that has thrived with an increased responsibility? Brown’s two-way talents simply set him apart from many of the empty-calorie scorers on this list, which is why we’ve given him such lofty placement.
Forsberg: Brown, Tatum pushing each other to new heights
It’s not fair to pin all of Washington’s defensive woes on Beal but it’s impossible to ignore that, even as he puts up absurd scoring numbers, the team has a negative net rating in Beal’s floor time. Now, that net rating plummets from minus-1.3 to minus-7.0 without Beal, so the Wizards would really be in trouble without him. We can’t rank him in the top half of this list, though, because the Wizards are a 2-win team. Still, Beal is leading the league in scoring by nearly 5 points and making it look way too easy to put the ball in the basket.
Sabonis is quietly putting up Embiid-like numbers in scoring/rebounds and has been a monster reason for Indiana’s scorching start. More impressive is that his assist rate is way up (25.6 percent, up from 21.5 last year) and he’s in the top 10 in assists per game in the East.
We initially wanted to put Ben Simmons here but Harris has been excellent as the Sixers have feasted on inferior competition and deserves the early season nod. Most notable: The Sixers have a defensive rating of 99.8 in Harris’ 295 minutes of floor time and a net rating of plus-14.2 overall. Harris somehow edged Brown for a Player of the Week nod last week but he's averaging 19 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1 block over 32.8 minutes per game this season.
First off, it feels criminal not to have any players from the Heat on this list. Maybe it’s just a Finals hangover but no one on that roster has quite made a strong case for inclusion yet (though we suspect Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler could be here on our next check in).
For now, we’re giving the nod to Hayward, who has been really good since the start of the 2021 calendar year. Over his last five games, Hayward is averaging 24.4 points while shooting 50.6 percent from the floor, 44.8 percent beyond the 3-point arc, and 92 percent at the line. That includes a 44-point night in a win over the Hawks. Hayward is getting his wish to be a more prominent focus of his team’s offense, alas the Hornets entered Saturday with a sub-.500 record.
