Trae Young, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, and Ja Morant have a few things in common. Not only are they regarded as among the best young players in the NBA, but all 4 of them were also voted into All-NBA teams this past season, with Booker and Tatum getting first-team honors.
Picking the best player between the four of them is not a simple task by any means, so when the question was posed by Hoop Central, NBA fans were very divided with their opinions.
“Ja Morant is a tier above the rest of these guys.”
“Can we stop disrespecting Tatum”
“Dbook- people forget how he made the finals last year, same position as Tatum. Dbook also had better stats In the finals then Tatum. Ja and Trae haven’t gotten there yet. The winner goes to the cover of Nba 2k23”
“When you consider defense is 50% of the game, the answer is pretty obvious”
“Hot take Ja is everyone else is a playoff choker”
“Stop comparing Tatum to players who are a lower tier than him”
“Booker. Last years playoffs and finals and this whole season minus the playoff collapse has been epic”
“Tatum’s the best scorer, defender, rebounder, and shooter here”
“Tatum and I personally don’t think it’s close”
“Healthy id pick ja”
“Trae does the most for his team, ja jumps the highest, book the most skilled tatum the best all around potential wise but dont show up like trae or ja. Traes the most consistent but book is “better””
“Ja Morant he’s clearly the most talented and athletic of the group”
“Tre is the best one. He can score 50 and drop 20 dimes.. and don’t give me he doesn’t play D.. cause none of these dudes play D.. well Tatum a lil bit but that’s bout it”
“Ja the best individual player but Memphis plays better without him as a team. So I say Book is the top on the list. Tatum, Ja then Trae.”
“Ja easily. If he would’ve been healthy we probably would’ve had a different champion this year”
“They’re all comparable but JT wins by default due to the size advantage. When skills are relatively close, gotta go w/ the bigger guy.”
“Booker the only one to have back to back 40 games in the finals 🤷🏿♂️”
“Tatum… Dude was statistically the 3rd best defender in the playoffs… And rebounds… He gets 0 credit for this though”
“Trae young it’s not even close”
“Yes, if Tatum starts facilitating more then he’d easily be the best”
Tatum’s run to the NBA Finals perhaps gives him the edge here for now. He was simply sensational for the Celtics until the Conference Finals and one bad series should not be held against him, even if it was on the biggest stage. He is confident they can win it all next year and expect a much better showing from him if they manage to get to the Finals.
Just as Tatum struggled in one series, the same applies to Booker and Young, as both have excelled these last two seasons with the exception of their performances against Dallas and Miami respectively. We can also only wonder what Ja Morant could have done to the Warriors this past postseason, as he averaged 38.3 points in the first 3 games of their series before going down with an injury.
There is a case to be made for all of them and the only thing to come out of all this is that the league is in very good hands moving forward!
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