Don’t let recent reporting get you down when it comes to speculation as to whether or not Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum will return to action this season.
For fans of the NBA’s most winningest franchise, there’s plenty of reason to believe Tatum will.
For those who don’t know, NBA reporter Jay King published a piece in The Athletic last week. There, he made the case — based on recent public comments from Tatum himself — that the 27-year-old is considering sitting out the entire 2025-26 season. For many fans, King’s conclusion came as a shock. It stood in stark contrast to earlier reports that Tatum appeared well ahead of pace as he rehabs from a ruptured Achilles suffered last May.
“That’s something I contemplate every day,” Tatum said on “The Pivot Podcast” when asked how much he thinks about his eventual return to the Celtics. “More so about the team. If or when I do come back this season, they will have played 50 some-odd games without me, so they have an identity this year or things that they’ve felt have clicked for them. And it’s been successful. They’re the (second) team in the East up to this point.
“So, there is a thought in my head, like, how does that work? Or how does that look with me integrating myself off the injury … 50, 60 games into a season? There obviously could be some challenges. And it is a thought: Do I come back? Should I wait?”
Tatum’s comments are certainly justified, and honestly, exactly what you’d want the focal point of the Celtics franchise to say when asked about a potential return. Especially, as the six-time All Star noted, when you consider his team is a stone’s throw away from the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Anything different would likely be labeled selfish by a national media contingency that loves to undervalue the New England sports market.
One who reads between the lines, however, could argue that Tatum was merely offering his willingness to slowly reacclimate onto a team that’s firing on most — if not all — cylinders. He talks about “how it works” coming back to a team that has already established an “identity.” Tatum could simply be suggesting a desire to come off the bench and play on a minutes restriction that limits the impact on an already proven rotation.
At least one teammate, last year’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year, appeared to pick up on that underlying message. Celtics guard Payton Pritchard made sure to remind Tatum of the value he’d bring to the team.
“I know JT’s going to do what’s best for him,” Pritchard told reporters last week. “We definitely want him back because we know what type of player he is and it will definitely put us over the top with him back in the lineup. But obviously he’s got to feel good and at 100 percent.”
When pressed on whether he and his teammates would experience growing pains with Tatum being reinserted into the lineup, Pritchard didn’t mince words.
“No, because we’ve played with him before,” he said. “It’s not like some player who got hurt we’ve never played with before. We know what he likes and how he plays.”
The saying goes, “We didn’t get this far just to get this far.” For Tatum, it’s hard to believe that months of grueling rehab — shown to the masses in all-inspiring social media posts — could result in anything less than a return this season.
If Boston were on the outside of playoff contention looking in, or a low seed facing a tall task in the first round, maybe that changes things. The way the state of the East stands currently though suggests otherwise. An untested Detroit Pistons squad leads the way, so maybe the road to the NBA Finals will go through Boston after all.
With Tatum back in the mix, there’s no reason it shouldn’t.
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