Jayson Tatum’s return to the Celtics last season looked smoother from the outside than it felt on the inside.
He came back in March after tearing his Achilles and, by eye test alone, never seemed far removed from the player Boston had before the injury. The numbers were there, too, along with an Eastern Conference Player of the Week Award. At times, it looked like he had simply rejoined the season where he left off.
But Tatum made it clear on Thursday during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show that the comeback carried a different kind of weight.
“I was nervous. I was anxious. To be honest, I was nervous every game that I played in.”
That admission fits the reality of what he was coming back from. After nine months away, the first major injury of his NBA career wasn’t just a physical test.
It was a mental one, too. He had gone through major surgery and a demanding rehab process to return ahead of schedule, and even once he was cleared, trusting the body again was always going to be part of the battle.
That showed up in the playoffs. Tatum was uneven, then left Game 6 with an injury and missed Game 7. He also said he may have been around 80% physically while dealing with the nerves and the challenge of getting comfortable again.
Now the picture changes. He has had a full offseason to keep recovering and to go through a normal summer of preparation for the NBA season. The hope is that he’s back at 100% physically and mentally, ready to open the year the way he usually does.
That version of Tatum is the one Boston has come to expect: the player who made four straight first-team All-NBA appearances and helped lead the Celtics to a championship. Last season’s comeback was never going to be simple. This season, the expectation is that he can move past that hurdle and get back to playing like himself.
In Other News...
Brad Stevens Pushes Back On Celtics Fear After Jaylen Brown Trade
Brad Stevens was back in the familiar spot of answering questions about a move that still echoes around the league, this time with the discussion centered on the Celtics decision to trade Jaylen Brown and the ripple effects it may have had beyond Boston. The framing was less about the transaction itself than about whether the Celtics were reacting to a larger chess match with Philadelphia and the rest of the NBA, a line of inquiry that has followed the team since the deal.
Stevens pushed back on the idea that Boston should be making decisions out of fear of what rivals might do next, saying the organization had to focus on its own best interests. He made clear the Brown trade was handled on its own terms, not as a response to speculation about another teams plans, even as the question of how much that move affected the 76ers ability to land LeBron James remains part of the backdrop. [Read more 🡒]
Kawhi Almost Created Another Massive Celtics Threat In The East
Kawhi Leonards move to Toronto already reshaped the Eastern Conference once, and a little more reporting has now shown just how different the lane could have looked for Boston if the trade market had broken another way. ESPNs Shams Charania reported that the Pistons were also in the mix for Leonard and were prepared to put an extension on the table, a detail that underscores how close the East came to adding yet another star-level problem for the Celtics to deal with.
Instead, Leonard chose the Raptors, and Boston eventually had to navigate the version of the conference that followed in Toronto. But the idea of him landing in Detroit still matters for Celtics fans because it speaks to how fragile the balance of power can be from one summer decision to the next, especially when a contender is waiting for a team like Boston to slip up in a playoff race that can turn fast. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Fans See Real Promise In One Early Chris Cenac Glimpse
A brief pickup-game clip can be a dangerous thing in late summer, but it has already given Celtics fans a fresh reason to look twice at Chris Cenac Jr. The 27th overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft showed up in a viral video alongside Trae Young, and the early takeaway was hard to miss: the big man looked comfortable, active and every bit like a player whose size and athleticism can translate beyond the college level.
Cenac comes to Boston after one season at Houston, where he averaged 9.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, and Brad Stevens has already weighed in on the rookies fit with the Celtics. Still, the temptation to turn a few summer possessions into a projection is strong, and this is where the patience comes in. The clip was encouraging, but it remains only a glimpse, not a verdict, on what his NBA role will look like once the games count. [Read more 🡒]