Jayson Tatum Went On TV And Would Not Completely Close The Door On A Potential Return This Season

Julio Aguilar. Getty Images.

Thankfully, the NBA season is upon us. For some of the teams playing in preseason games overseas, Media Day began today (Nets, Knicks) with more to come over the next few days. Their training camp opens tomorrow, and then the rest of the league will get things rolling on the 29th.

The point is, it's time to start mentally preparing for the 2025-26 NBA season, and for Celtics fans around the world, while that may mean a few things, high on that list is the rehab and recovery status of Jayson Tatum. While we haven't gotten the coveted social media clip of him getting up some stationary shots yet like we've seen with Dame and Haliburton as they make their way back from their own achilles tears, we have gotten reports like this

Frankly, it's impossible to ignore the "will he, won't he?" dance when thinking about Jayson Tatum's plans for the 2025-26 and what that could mean for a potential return. For the most part, he's stayed pretty quiet and not added any fuel to the fire outside of being spotted at different events where all of us fans look at how he's moving/walking and immediately become doctors. 

That was of course, until today

"That is the million-dollar question. I think for me and my team, the doctors, the organization, the most important thing is making a full recovery, [and] being back 100%. Not rushing it. But I haven't said like, 'Yo, I'm not playing this season,' or anything like that." "Do you have a goal in your mind?" "I have a goal in my mind…I'm not working out, rehabbing six days a week for no reason."

My immediate reaction upon watching that clip

While there is a whole lot of uncertainty around this potential return, there are a few things that are set in stone that I do believe are important when it comes to trying to figure out what the team is going to do with Tatum.

The first is the Disabled Player Exception Deadline. The Celts have until around January 15th to apply for this, which would arm them with a decent chunk of cash to use on additional talent come the trade deadline (if they want to use it by March 10th). There's no harm in applying for it, it doesn't mean the player is ruled out for the year, it just gives the Celts a tool to use should that be their reality come January. In fact, you can technically use the DPE and if the injured player recovers sooner, there is no penalty. He's allowed to come back and play.

If they truly know he's out for the year, they should absolutely apply for it, so that January date is important.

Outside of that, the tough part is we as fans just have to wait and see what happens. This is where things get tricky.

The biggest question is naturally, if Tatum should even come back in the first place. Normal logic would tell you that the second he's cleared, he should play right? 

Unfortunately, it's not that simple when you factor in the context of the 2025-26 Celtics season. This is most likely the only shot the Celtics will have during the Jays Era to obtain a mid/high Lottery pick. As of now, the highest pick Brad Stevens has ever made is #28, and in this new CBA world where the aprons are real and the Celts have an expensive roster, it is IMPERATIVE that Brad Stevens finds cheap, impactful young talent to infuse into the next iteration of the Celts roster. That is pretty much non-negotiable. 

There are really only two ways to do that. You can take a flyer on a young player in free agency for the minimum and hope they develop in your system, or you can draft them. To draft it, you need to pick as high as possible. In order to be able to pick as high as possible, you have to lose. Now I do not think the Celts will lose enough to be in the top 3-5 unless we see another season-ending injury, but they can absolutely lose enough to be in the 8-13 range, which is still high enough to find an immediate impact player. In my opinion, Brad Stevens knows this and that's why he built the roster the way he has for this "gap year".

This is where issue #1 with a potential Tatum return arises. The second he steps on the floor, you are better. I don't care what version of himself he may look like, Tatum playing in basketball leads to wins. We have 8 years of evidence to support that. So, if we get to later in the season and the Celts are floating around the Play In, and then Tatum comes back and that vaults them to a top 6 or potentially helps them win their Play In game, that would in a way, do more harm than good. Even with Tatum back, the roster as constructed isn't exactly a title favorite, so banking some meaningless regular season wins, which could potentially push you out of the Lottery, is not something any fan should want knowing how important that asset is for their future. That could be used on a prospect, it could be flipped for a more established player, the point is the asset is what's valuable.

That's the basketball-side of the argument. If this goal is about setting the team up for 2026-27 and beyond, then they need todo everything in their power to put themselves in as good a position as possible to maximize their ability to re-tool the roster.

There's also the injury side to consider. I get that if he plays, it means he's 100% recovered and medically cleared. I also am not completely sure I give a shit. This isn't a high ankle sprain or even an ACL tear. This is an Achilles tear. Arguably, the worst injury a basketball player can have. Not only that, it happened to the franchise player. Their ENTIRE future depends on Tatum being as close to the player he was pre-injury as possible, and with an injury like this, I tend to lean more to the "wait even longer" approach. All these positive updates are great, but I view them as reasons to believe he'll be that same player in 2026-27 as opposed to it meaning he'll be ready to come back sooner. 

Where this gets complicated is the fact that, as a fan, few things in life bring me more joy than watching Jayson Tatum play basketball. It's incredible

Not only is he the best American-born player in the NBA, he's a top 5 player on the planet (fact, not opinion). Life is better when Jayson Tatum is on a basketball court, so I don't fault anyone who may want him to come back as soon as possible. It's bullshit that the Basketball Gods did this to us, and just like everyone else, I am counting down the days until we see 

JAYSON TATUM - Available

on the Celts' injury report. That's going to hit like crack the second I see it on my timeline.

So while Tatum went on TV and sure sounded like a guy who could very well be back at some point this season, when you add up the context around the season with how serious an injury this is, I think that outweighs my desire to see him play at some point in 2025-26. I think we all just have to bite the bullet and take this one on the chin and be ready for 2026-27. The problem with that is the fact that Tatum is a psycho and cannot live without playing basketball, so at this point, it's really anyone's guess how things shake out.