The Early Results Of Jayson Tatum's Return From His Achilles Injury Continue To Be Extremely Encouraging

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I don't know about anyone else, but it still feels absolutely surreal to sit down to watch the Celts play and see Jayson Tatum on the court. Maybe that's because it's only been 3 games, but I'm not sure that feeling is going to go away at any point this year. The fact that we are getting ANY sort of Jayson Tatum minutes this season is already a gigantic win, and even though we're only in the early stages of his return as he shakes off the rust and gets into basketball shape, every part about the experience has been as close to ideal as I could have wanted as a fan.

On a minutes restriction of 27 a game, which is what Tatum has played in all 3 of his games since returning, he's been vocal about how much he hates it, which lets us know that our psycho is truly back. While some guys may want to take things slow and take baby steps after returning to the court, this is a guy that clearly wants to play every second and it's a big part of why we love him. 

When you watch Tatum's performances through the first three games, it's an interesting experience. For starters, as hard as it may be, collectively we have to just throw the efficiency out the window at this stage. This is essentially his preseason, he hasn't played competitive basketball in nearly a year, so naturally his touch and shot are going to be off. Personally, I don't give a single fuck what he shoots from the floor right now, and probably won't for the next few weeks. I want him taking any and every shot imaginable in his arsenal, just so his body can have the reps. For example, this one legged 3PA he tried last night?

Some may say this is a terrible shot. I say, this is a shot I've seen Tatum make before, so I have no problem with him letting it fly as it's part of his offensive arsenal. 

Let's just take this game by game

Game 1: 15/12/7

Game 2: 20/3/2

Game 3: 24/5/2

Giphy Images.

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While the overall production continues to trend in the right direction, it's more about how Tatum is doing it that I find to be the most encouraging. I remember what it was like to watch Gordon Hayward come back from his injury. He was tentative as hell. You could tell he didn't trust his body the same way he did pre-injury, and it really impacted his overall play.

Tatum? I see rust, but I don't see self-doubt. I don't see a player who isn't willing to play the same way or make the same moves post-injury. I mean, this is the same shit we've always seen Jayson Tatum do

Even when he's not scoring, we're seeing the benefit of Tatum just being on the court in the first place. Opposing teams are defending him as if nothing ever happened. His gravity is real and impactful, even while his jumper is struggling. So even if you don't want to agree that he's showing signs of his old self, opposing teams are telling you they are treating him as if he is. 

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Defensively, he's already holding his own. The Cavs challenged him repeatedly on Sunday, and he responded every single time

Last night against the Spurs, he held Julian Champagnie scoreless on 18 possessions, Devin Vassell scoreless on 7 possessions, Keldon Johnson to just 2 points on 6 possessions, Carter Bryant to 3 points on 6 possessions and hell, even Wemby to 0 points on their 3 possessions against each other.

The point is, we're not just seeing encouraging signs from his offensive approach, we're seeing encouraging production defensively as well. This was the end I was a little more nervous about there being regression, and through 3 games I don't have a single reason to be worried about Tatum's defense. That, feels insane. 

If there's one area that is taking some time to get a feel for, it's clearly his pull up 3PA. The C&Ss look great, we've seen him make huge late game 3s in both the Cavs and Spurs game, but the pull up shot is still very clearly a work in progress. It's arguably the most important shot Tatum can take within the Celtics offense, and what I've noticed is that at this point in his return, there's still way too much movement of his body when going into that jumper. He's still a little rusty when it comes to figuring out the timing/approach, because that's a shot that is extremely reliant on feel. Just look at his body on some of these

We're even seeing that sort of momentum lean on the pull ups he makes

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and in my opinion, this is where a lot of the inconsistency early has been when it comes to his jumper. This is why it's extremely important that Tatum just spam the shit out of whatever shots he wants. He needs to get this out of his system and get back into rhythm, which is especially tough playing under his minutes restriction. As we saw last night, he had it going in the 4th, but had to come out. Given what we'll need from Tatum in about a month, even if the misses look ugly now, they're important misses. Each miss gets us closer to the shooter we know and love.

If you were to look at Tatum's per 36s last season, you'd see a player who averaged 26.5/8.5/5.9/1.0. Pretty good!

If you were to look at Tatum's per 36s so far this season, you'll see a player who is averaging 26.2/8.9/4.9/1.3

The eye test and the production are telling us the same thing. With each passing game, Jayson Tatum is getting back to looking and playing like Jayson Tatum, the perennial All NBA 1st team caliber player. Yes, the efficiency is dogshit, but that's also kind of on brand for Tatum, so in a weird way that makes me feel good about his return as well.

I don't know what I expected when we got the announcement that Tatum was in fact returning this season, but I'm pretty sure I didn't expect him to look this much like himself so early in the process. Not only that, he's already played 3 games in 5 days, and if he plays against OKC tomorrow night, that's 4 in 6. That tells me his body is responding well to playing live NBA basketball, which might be the best news of all. Remember, playoff scheduling is MUCH better, with 2-3 days between games at certain points of a series. If his body is already showing us he can handle a more aggressive schedule, I have no doubts he'll be just fine when things relax a little bit in a month.

Given the Celts' remaining schedule that includes some back-to-backs and then the finale where I can't imagine anyone would play, there are around 13-14 more games for Tatum to continue to get reps in. He probably doesn't play in all of those, and honestly, given how good he looks already, I think that's perfectly fine. Another month of reps, another handful of games, and we have no reason to believe there won't be more forward progress, which is very exciting to think about.

Tatum himself will tell you he still has a long way to go, but for my money, he's off to about as close to as good a start as you could have asked for coming off this injury. Not perfect, not flawless, but very, very encouraging. Sometimes, that's all you need.