Jayson Tatum is well on his way to being one of the greatest Celtics of all time. This year he’s on track to accomplish something no one else has.
To say Jayson Tatum has taken another leap this season would be an understatement. He was already an All-NBA caliber forward but he’s significantly increased his scoring, averaging career-bests in points, rebounds, usage rate, turnover rate and true shooting percentage.
Lay the stat line out and it’s remarkable — 30.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.1 steals per game on a 61.2 true shooting percentage. He’s also on track to become the first player in franchise history to average 30 or more points per game for a season.
Who holds the Boston Celtics single-season scoring record?
It’s actually amazing that the Celtics have never had a player average 30 or more points per game in a season before. The franchise has existed for 77 seasons, winning 17 championships and sending 41 players to the Hall-of-Fame as either players or coaches.
And among all that greatness, the previous high-scoring season for the Celtics was Larry Bird with 29.9 points per game in the 1987-88 season. Along with Bird, Isaiah Thomas (2016-17) and John Havlicek (1970-71) are the other Celtics who have averaged more than 28.0 points per game in a single season.
The Celtics are not the only franchise in NBA history that has never had a 30-point-per-game scorer — the Nets, Hornets, Nuggets, Pistons, Pacers, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Suns, Kings and Raptors also share this ignominious honor. At 29.7 points per game, Kevin Durant has an outside chance of removing the Nets from the list this season but everyone else besides them and the Celtics are likely to stay on another year.
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