Happy Jayson Tatum Day to all those who celebrate. The Celtics star forward is making his season debut tonight, just 10 months after he tore his Achilles in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks. He’s been rehabbing diligently since then and going through 5-on-5 workouts in the last few weeks, and tonight at home against the Mavs, he’ll make his long-awaited return to the court.
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In a surprise to many, the Celtics have put together a dream season without him. Jaylen Brown has put up MVP-like numbers, and head coach Joe Mazzulla is getting contributions from everyone on the roster. Boston currently sits second in the East, 4.5 games back of the Pistons, and if Tatum can look anything close to the guy who has made four straight All-NBA First Teams, they’re going to be extremely dangerous.
There are 20 games left in the regular season, which gives Tatum a decent ramp-up period to get re-acclimated and ready for the playoffs. On Get Up this morning, former Nuggets coach Michael Malone shared the advice he’d give Tatum if he was his coach.
“I’m telling him to relax and enjoy this,” he said. “You’ve done all the hard work. I think the hardest part about this 10-month stretch that Tatum’s gone through is the mental [side]. The dark days, the rehab, doubting yourself. Can I get back? And I’m sure the Celtics and Joe Mazzulla and Brad Stevens have surrounded Tatum, they’ve loved him, and there was no pressure for him to come back.”
“They wanted him to come back when he felt ready,” he continued. “So if I’m Joe Mazzulla, I’m putting my arm around him, I’m telling him how much I love him, how much I believe in him, and how much I have his back.”
Tatum will undoubtedly put a lot of pressure on himself to play well right away, but Malone said that the organization and the fans should give him time to find his way.
“We’re not looking to see him go out there and get 25 points tonight,” he said. “We want him to come along slowly, build his minutes up … I want to see how he’s moving. Is he aggressive, is he tentative, is he playing downhill in attack mode? And those things are only going to get better as he approaches these last 20 games.”
There’s been a lot of noise about how Tatum needs to fit in and not rock the boat, basically implying that there could be chemistry issues between him and Brown as the power dynamic of their relationship has shifted. Malone believes that’s all been overblown given that they’ve worked so well together throughout their careers and even won a ring together.
“They know each other,” he said, “and more important for me, they know that they need each other to accomplish their goal. If they want to win another championship, they need each other because they both bring so many things to the table.”
It’s difficult to see how getting a player of Tatum’s caliber back could possibly be a bad thing for the Celtics. It may take a little time for him to fit in with the new team dynamic, but the rest of the league has to be worried that his talents will take an already good team and make them great. For anyone wanting to see his return to action, tonight’s game against the Mavs is on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.
