There has been plenty of speculation about how much Jayson Tatum will play this season, his first full one back since tearing his Achilles. On the one hand, JT has always been an iron man, and we know the Celtics’ staff has basically had to convince him to take games off and sit out for even a single day.
On the other hand, he’s now 28 years old, he tore his Achilles about a year and a half ago, and he hasn’t made it through either of the last two playoff runs healthy. I think fans want to assume and expect that we’ll be back to business as usual.
Still, there has been no definitive indication that that will be the case, and we’ve certainly seen major injuries derail the course of careers in the past. It’s not crazy to think his minutes could be managed and he could enter a different phase as a player. That would be fairly devastating. But it’s not crazy.
Luckily, at least according to Tatum, it doesn’t sound like that’s the plan at all. JT has given off nothing but confidence this offseason, talking about how good he feels, how he’s excited to be back to 100%, and how he cleared physical and mental hurdles by coming back last season.
Tatum very confident he'll play back-to-backs
And this week, we got even more good news as Tatum did an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub and was asked directly about playing in back-to-back games this season. He seemed like he almost couldn’t believe the question: “Yes. I can, and yes…”
He stopped short of making any definitive declarations, as I’m sure there are still things to figure out with the coaching staff and medical team, but this is yet another indication that Tatum feels 100% and is ready to go out and prove that he’s every bit the player he was before the injury, and hopefully, even better.
He seems extremely motivated; the team is set up around him like never before, and there’s a real path to this team coming in with a chip on its shoulder, led by Tatum, going out and having the best season of his career and reestablishing himself as one of the clear best players alive.
Tatum, for his part, appears to have all the confidence in the world. He has shown great leadership and maturity this offseason, bringing the team together and getting them ready for the season. All the signs have been positive, and Tatum has been sending all the right messages. Now, it’s time to go out and back it up on the court.
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