Jayson Tatum surpassed all expectations during his first season with the Boston Celtics, putting forth one of the best all-around rookie performances of the 2017-18 NBA campaign. So, that got us thinking – where does his inaugural success rank among the achievements of all the great Celtics rooks that came before him? Looking back over last 70-plus seasons, Boston has seen an abundance of strong rookie campaigns, many of which helped set the table for Hall-of-Fame careers. After digging through numbers and evaluating overall impact, here’s how Tatum’s opening act stacks up among them. 5. Jayson Tatum – 2017-18 Entering the 2017-18 season, it was unclear how big of a role Jayson Tatum would have with the Celtics. Yes, he was the No. 3 pick of the 2017 Draft, but he was also joining a stacked roster. So, earning significant minutes as an inexperienced 19-year-old would be one heck of a challenge. However, a season-ending injury to star forward Gordon Hayward on Opening Night would open up the door for Tatum. And he walked right through and seized the opportunity. Tatum would wind up starting a team-high 80 games during the regular season, while tallying 13.9 points per game, 5.0 rebounds per game and 1.6 assists per game. He also connected on a franchise record 105 3-pointers on a team-leading 43.4 percent clip – the fifth-highest mark of all time by an NBA rookie. As nice as those statistics were, there may be a few eyebrows raised at the fact that Tatum made this list over the likes of Paul Pierce (16.5 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.4 APG in 1998-99) and Antoine Walker (17.5 PPG, 9.0RPG, 3.2 APG in 1996-97). But Tatum earned his ranking in the postseason – a stage that neither Pierce nor Walker had the opportunity to venture to following their respective rookie campaigns. Tatum took his game to a completely different level during the 2018 Playoffs, leading a Celtics team that was lacking Hayward and star point guard Kyrie Irving all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He averaged a team-high 18.5 PPG and came just one point shy of Kareem Abdul-Jabaar’s rookie postseason scoring record of 352 points, while also tying Abdul-Jabaar’s rookie playoff mark of 10 20-point games. Tatum's arc of development covered incredible altitude over the duration of his rookie season, as his status went from being a question mark on Day 1 to becoming a star by the end of the postseason. 4. Dave Cowens – 1970-71 There are players, like Tatum, who experience a rising arc of progression throughout the course of their rookie seasons, and then there are others who start off with an instant bang. Dave Cowens’ first-year experience fell into the latter category. Boston drafted the 6-foot-9 center fourth overall in the 1970 Draft, and he made an immediate impact during his debut performance, tallying 16 points and 17 rebounds on Opening Night against the New York Knicks. That effort offered a perfect glimpse of what Celtics fans would see out of Cowens all sea