Is star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum a top-five player in today's NBA? If you ask the folks at CBS Sports, not quite yet, despite his 2024 NBA title and Olympic gold. The St. Louis native has been flirting with breaking through to the inner echelon of the league's elite players, but is still knocking on the door, according to this recent ranking exercise of the top 100 players in the Association for the looming 2024-25 regular season.

What does Tatum need to do to get to such rarefied air? Perhaps by picking up a bit more hardware on the way to similar achievements in the future.

"Tatum didn't win the Eastern Conference finals or Finals MVP awards, but he was the driving force for Boston's league-leading 18th championship," writes CBS Sports' Jack Maloney.

"Few players, if any, are as well-rounded as the Celtics star, who is one of just three players to make All-NBA First Team in each of the last three seasons," he adds.

Will Tatum level up by the end of the season? Quite possibly -- but nothing in this league is given, and he has learned that lesson perhaps as well as anyone. Repeating as champs is even tougher (it has not been done by Boston for decades), but the tools are there if the will is as well.

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