Question from Mark S.: Am I right to think this is a high-risk, low-reward decision for Jayson Tatum to return?
Do you think Tatum would return this far ahead of the playoffs if this was a real risk? There is a month and a half left in the regular season. That is a pretty big ramp-up period considering how well the Celtics have been playing this year.
It’s not like Tatum has to come back to give the Celtics confidence they can make it out of the first round of the playoffs. Even him coming back and being rusty probably makes them the favorites in the East. If he comes back and looks like himself, it probably makes them the favorite to win the title.
We have no idea how healthy Tatum’s Achilles is but you don’t often see players come back so early from a major injury that they re-injure the same body part early on. Usually, the risk of re-injury comes from the mobility or stability of the injured joint isn’t the same as before. More often, a second injury comes from compensating for the original issue somewhere else in the body. But Tatum has taken such great care of his body for so long, and has been meticulous about his training methods. He isn’t the kind of player to return haphazardly.
This simply doesn’t strike me as a scenario where he and the Celtics — who don’t have to clear him to play — are taking a major risk. There have been some former Celtics players who struggled to play through injuries or returned quickly from them, like Isaiah Thomas and Robert Williams III. But the staff has changed over the years, there’s a new general manager in place since those examples and sports science has evolved a lot even in the past few years.
If you’re seeing Tatum in the game, it’s not because he forced his way out there against the team’s will.