Recently, United States media HoopsHype released the top 15 small forwards in the new season, and the top five players in this list are Tatum, Durant, James, Leonard and Paul George. No. 6 through No. 15 are Butler, Scottie Barnes, DeRozan, Ingram, Wagner Jr., Bridges, Anunoby, Brandon Miller, Porter Jr. and Jalen Johnson.

The biggest controversy in this list is that many people think that Tatum's position at No. 1 is unreasonable. Especially after this year's Olympic journey, many people think that Tatum's ability looks overrated. Including many fans, Tatum thinks that even in the NBA, his scoring efficiency is not high. He shouldn't be number one.

Many fans believe that Durant should be the ultimate owner of the first place. Because Durant is more stable on the offensive end than Tatum, and his individual singles ability and key ball finishing ability are also stronger. Although he is very old at present, Tatum still can't compare with Durant on the offensive end. And James' third place is also incomprehensible to many fans, at least many fans think that James should be second only to Durant.

Through this year's Olympic journey, we can clearly feel that although James is close to 40 years old, he can still play very efficiently with a reasonable distribution of physical energy. In other words, James' age may not be enough for him to play 35 minutes efficiently, but if he compresses his playing time to about 30 minutes, he can play near his peak efficiency in a game.

Tatum has clearly received a lot of skepticism after his Olympic journey this offseason, and next season is a great opportunity for him to break through it. He needs to play a very high-quality performance against James and Durant to prove his ability, after all, in the Olympic journey of the United States men's basketball team, James and Durant are the first and second choices in the small forward position, and it is precisely because of the abundance of talent in the small forward that Tatum has not got too many opportunities, and he needs to prove himself in front of these two seniors.

Similarly, Tatum will have to prove himself in front of Kerr next season, and may play harder against the Warriors. Tatum is now facing many doubts from fans, and it comes down to his ability to play key games that doesn't seem to be strong, and his individual offensive efficiency is not particularly good. Even compared to his teammate Brown, his offensive efficiency is not outstanding. So Tatum needs to continue to improve next season. He needs to be an inexplicable player to conquer all the fans.