Paul Pierce recently told the Herald that Jayson Tatum needed to be getting to the basket and the free throw line more — and that he’d be willing to help with that process.

It appears now the right people were paying attention.

“I definitely saw that,” said Tatum, who, not coincidentally, has been looking to drive more often since the story appeared in the March 31 editions. “Yeah, I need to do that. It’s the easy way to score more points, too. Related Articles Paul Pierce has an offer Jayson Tatum, Celtics can’t refuse

“I’m just trying to be more aggressive. I’m trying to get to the basket and get some easy ones, and, if not, get fouled. That’s the easy way to get in rhythm, getting free throws.”

Pierce said, “For a guy with his athleticism, his skill set and his ballhandling, his height, he should be a guy that gets to the line at least six times a night,” and Tatum still hasn’t been getting fouled enough (though he’d dispute that and say the fouls aren’t being called). But he’s been putting in the effort.

And he’d be very open to accepting Pierce’s offer to work with him.

“He’s one of the greatest players ever,” Tatum said. “I’d be a fool not to take him up on that. I mean, I’m sure he has a lot of tricks to try to make the game easier.”

Brad Stevens is on board with the idea of Professor Pierce, too.

“First of all, our guys always are working with different guys in the summers and everything else,” the coach said. “But any time Paul Pierce wants to add any bit of advice, our whole organization is all ears. I mean, obviously he’s earned that, and I’m a big Paul Pierce fan. I know even a couple of our staff members that know him have talked to him about, you know, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And especially as our guys are going through this all in the younger stages of their career, it’s invaluable to have a resource like that.”

Micah Shrewsberry, the Celtic assistant coach assigned to do personal work with Tatum, would appreciate the help.

“Oh, I think any kind of tidbits or anything Jayson could pick up from guys like that is, like, invaluable,” Shrewsberry said. “He does a lot of stuff in the summer with Drew [Hanlen, skills coach], and they kind of work on different aspects. But any time you can add little pieces to your game, I think that’s what the best players kind of do. Each summer they go back and try to add a little bit here, a little bit there. I think that would be great for Jayson.”

Looking at what Pierce could provide specifically in terms of his inside game, Shrewsberry added, “It’s all those little tricks that he can pick up; that would be great. And Jayson’s a basketball junkie. He would love it. And he’s so advanced skill-wise and mentally that he could easily pick up those things in however much time they could spend together.”

In a larger sense, any work Tatum and Pierce do would be adding to the Celtics’ chorus.

“We’ve been trying to hammer home the benefits of layups and free throws all year,” said Stevens. “And so with all of our guys that are capable of doing that, we need them to be able to do that. That doesn’t mean you’re going to do it the first time you touch it, especially early in a possession, especially against a really good team like Indiana. But you’ve got to be a threat to not only make shots from the perimeter, but get to the rim and get fouled.”

Another aspect of the Pierce story that hit home with Tatum is that a few more trips to the line a game would result in six free throw attempts — and if he hit five of those six, it would make him a 20-plus-point scorer and put him into All-Star consideration.

“That’s my most important individual goal,” said Tatum. “Besides winning a championship, it’s making that first All-Star Game and continue to make them from there.”

But, according to Pierce, it would entail making more frequent trips to the basket. And Tatum is ready to learn how.