How Does Jayson Tatum Stack Up With NBA Stars Still In Playoffs?

Past MVPs like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Kevin Durant no longer are in the NBA playoffs, but the conference finals aren’t lacking in star power.

A handful of the league’s best still were competing for a championship as of Monday afternoon. Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic have their respective teams within one win of the NBA Finals, while Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton are hoping their clubs can claw back and extend their best-of-seven series.

Those four all are players worthy of building a franchise around, but how do they stack up with one another?

NESN’s Travis Thomas and Ountae Campbell provided their assessments of the quartet on the latest episode of the “Hold My Banner” podcast. The duo was tasked with assigning one of four actions to the aforementioned group: start, bench, trade or cut.

Thomas and Campbell agreed on two of the four categories. While Haliburton deserves immense credit for how far he’s led the Pacers this season, the point guard simply isn’t in the same tier as the rest of the group. Edwards, meanwhile, very well might be an MVP in the making, but he’s still approaching his prime while Tatum and Doncic probably are amid their premier years.

The Tatum vs. Doncic debate was where this segment really got interesting. You can find out which side the “Hold My Banner” hosts took by watching the YouTube video embedded above.