Jayson Tatum Is Already Dunking And According To Shams Has Officially Told The Celtics That He Wants To Return This Season

Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.

While 99.9% of last night's Celts preseason debut was awesome, one part that I didn't particularly love was all the shots during the broadcast of Tatum on the bench. Not in the sense that I didn't like that Tatum traveled with the team despite being out, I love that, I just mean I didn't need the constant reminder that their best player and franchise cornerstone was out injured. I've spent the last 5 months trying to bury that pain down in places we don't talk about, and every time he was on the screen it was another kick right to the dick.

Ever since Tatum finally dropped the footage of his first on the court workout last week, the collective brains of the entire fanbase went to the same place

I still can't believe that's how good he looks already, and you're lying if you say you didn't allow your brain to entertain the idea of a potential return this season. Personally, I tried my best to trick my brain into thinking about what this could mean for 2026-27, but even I couldn't stop myself from going to dangerous places when it comes to 2025-26.

It was notable that after Tatum had his surgery, the team didn't immediately rule him out for 2025-26. Dame punted his season after his injury, the Pacers shut down Haliburton well before the season began as he rehabs, yet with Tatum things remained open. Part of that could be the fact that the Celts have until mid January to apply for the Designated Injury Exception, part of that could be given how much of the season is unknown they wanted to see how things look before making a formal decision, part of it could be the fact that Tatum had a very unique situation with the timing of the surgery and the procedure and we're in uncharted waters in terms of what could mean for a recovery timetable.

My guess, is it's all of the above.

One thing we do know is that Tatum himself refuses to declare he's not playing this season. He made that clear on his media tour before training camp, he reinforced it at Media Day, and given he's a basketball psycho who is clearly putting in the work to bounce back better than ever, that wasn't surprising. Then we saw that workout clip and had a little more understanding as to why Tatum may feel this way.

Which brings us to the latest update from Shams

In some ways, this is a bit of an "uhhhhhhhh no duh" situation if you've been listening to Tatum these last few weeks. But when you add everything up between the team not declaring him out, the workout video, and now this from Shams, it does feel like this is something that is becoming more and more real by the day.

When I think of a potential return, I have very little worry healthwise. The team is not going to clear Tatum for a return if he is anything less than 100000000000% healthy. I imagine there are dozens of boxes that need to be checked in order for that to happen, but if all the testing. If he's cleared, that means he's physically ready, so I have little concerns there. I wouldn't see it as "rushing back", because again, he's the franchise player. Even if it's 99.9% healthy, they are going to hold him out. He's too important, and the injury is too serious to fuck around with.

My concern is more around what a return could mean in the context of their season, and it's what makes this topic so hard to form a conclusion on. This is basically the Celts only shot to obtain a Lottery asset in the Jays Era. As long as Tatum is healthy, the Celtics will not be sniffing the Lottery. Given the CBA and how expensive their roster is, it's crucial that Brad Stevens injects some elite, young cheap talent. You get that by picking as high as possible. In the event you don't use that pick, you can then flip it for a more proven NBA player that fits your age timeline for the next iteration for the roster in 2026-27. The point is, I want Brad to have the best possible ammo heading into the summer of 2026 as he retools the roster. 

If we get to around the time Tatum may be ready to return, and the Celts find themselves in the Play In bubble, I think it does more harm than good to bring him back. Once you do, you're going to play your way into the playoffs with a roster that, let's be honest, is most likely not winning the title even with Tatum in the mix. To me, that would blow their one shot at obtaining what could be a very valuable asset moving forward, whether to keep or flip.

If the Celts somehow overachieve and are comfortably in the top 6 at that date and a Lottery pick is out of the equation? Hell yeah, bring him back so he can get reps in before the playoffs, and use that run to get your young guys some playoff reps. Similar to what the team did in 2014-15 when they traded for Isaiah Thomas and made a push for the playoffs. They got crushed, but those early reps were good for young guys like Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley.

So really, when I think of Tatum's return, I think it has everything to do with where the team is at that point of the season than where Tatum is in his rehab/recovery. We know he's going to be 100% if he's cleared, but it's up to Brad & Co to decide what the better path is if they find themselves in the mix for the Lottery. On October 9th, that's a question that is impossible to answer. 

The good news is that everything we see and hear tells us that Tatum's recovery is going about as well as humanly possible, which is the most important thing. Whether he comes back in 2025-26 would just be icing on the cake. But if it turns out to be 2026-27 instead? That's fine by me too.