Jayson Tatum embraces early MV...

DETROIT — He wasn’t making some emotional, “I dare you to defy this” statement, but Jayson Tatum didn’t back down from the notion of being the NBA’s Most Valuable Player to this early point of the season. “I mean, I think I am,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports late Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena. “It’s a long season. Every time I step on the floor, I feel like I’m the best player. But it’s a lot of talented guys in this league. “You want to play at an MVP level. Usually if you play at an MVP level, [you’re on] one of the best teams playing efficiently. The team is winning, and on the right path to go back to the Finals.” Check, check and check. He’s tantalizingly close to 50-40-90 territory (50-39-87), averaging 32.3 points (third in the league), 7.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.3 blocks (double his career mark). He’s tied for third in win shares, and his win shares per 48 minutes is seventh. The night after Tatum put up 43 with 10 rebounds on 28 shots to help the Boston Celtics pull away from a young but game Detroit Pistons team, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid assaulted the record books with a 59-point, 11-rebound, eight-assist and seven-block performance on the Utah Jazz. So Tatum isn’t wrong. Stephen Curry has had his moments in keeping the champions from capsizing early, Luka Doncic is carrying Dallas and Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to be the most irresistible force in the game, with the Milwaukee Bucks being a half-game ahead of the Celtics in the East at 102.

The continuity between Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart helped prevent the slow start the Celtics had to rebound from last season. Tatum, steady and quiet-ish, is perhaps the top reason, and admits the thought of winning MVP was “subconsciously” in his head coming into the season. “It’s [MVP] measured by team success. We have 69 games left,” Tatum said. “The key is staying healthy, keep playing the way we’re playing and see what happens. “I say it all the time, getting to the Finals and losing really, you know, f***ed up my whole summer. It was like, how hard you work to get to that point individually and as a team. And to not get over that hump, it was tough.” He knows it’s a cliche thing to say, the loser of the Finals coming into the next season being more focused and determined to get over the heartbreak. But then his late summer was impacted when head coach Ime Udoka was suspended for multiple team violations following an investigation from an outside law firm. “Obviously, the head coach situation, it’s definitely not the start how we envisioned coming back from the Finals,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports. “I told the team, ‘Nobody’s gonna feel bad for us.’ We have that target on our back, we went to the championship, that we're gonna get everybody’s best shot.”Tatum took a moment to reflect, realizing he’s five years removed from the “he’s only 19” joke that seemed to permeate for a long while. On Saturday, he had Pistons rookie Jaden Ivey coming at him aggressively and scored a career-high 26 points, helping keep the underdogs within reasonable distance. Ivey’s mother, Niele, coaches Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team, and shares Tatum’s hometown, St. Louis. Tatum is still making a bigger name for himself, reaching All-NBA first-team status for the first time and winning the inaugural Eastern Conference finals MVP in their seven-game triumph over Miami. Winning the regular season MVP would seem to be the natural next step. “As a kid, was one of my dreams winning MVP? Sure,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports. “If it happened, it would be a dream come true. But it wasn’t, like, ‘Come back, win MVP.’ It’s like, ‘Come back, get to the championship.’ ”The expectations for Tatum entering the NBA were sky high. Funny enough, it’s fair to wonder if he’s exceeded them already, with still more room left to grow.