What Brad Stevens said about Jayson Tatum’s potential return this season

"The most important thing is a fully healthy Jayson Tatum.”

Jayson Tatum suffered a torn Achilles four months ago. Barry Chin/The Boston Globe

September 25, 2025

2 minutes to read

Jayson Tatum was staring at a long road back to the hardwood in May after he ruptured his Achilles tendon during the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks.

Suffering such a devastating injury so late in the year — coupled with the arduous recovery timeline prescribed — seemingly made a potential return in 2025-26 unlikely for Boston’s best player.

But, speaking to People magazine earlier this week, Tatum said that he’s not ruling out a return at some point during this upcoming season.

“I’m doing everything in my power to get back as healthy as I can, as fast as I can,” Tatum told People. “Nobody’s putting any pressure on me to come back at a certain point. But I’m also not ruling out that I’m not playing this season. The first most important thing is making a full recovery, being back 100% before I step on the floor, not compromising anything, I’m still only 27, I got a lot of basketball left. I’m not rushing it.”

On Thursday, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens was asked if he shared Tatum’s optimism about playing on the parquet before the start of the 2026-27 campaign.

“I’ve said this from Day 1, and I’ll continue to say it: no timelines on Jayson from my perspective,” Stevens said. “My No. 1 goal, my No. 2 goal, 3 goal, 4 goal is Jayson Tatum fully healthy, full recovery. And he’s well on his way. He has been incredibly diligent. He has been a great leader by example to people in this building when no players were around in the middle of the summer and when a lot of the young guys have been around in the last month-and-a-half.

“We appreciate that, and we know that he’s going to be itching to get back, and he will be the biggest decision-maker in that. But there will be a lot of people in that room when that ultimately gets decided, including people that are working with him every day and people that are really important to him. So we’re on a good path, and we just need — the most important thing is a fully healthy Jayson Tatum.”

As tempting as it might be for Tatum to return as much-needed reinforcements later this season, Boston has to weigh the risk of rushing its best player back too soon — especially during a season that could be chalked up as a bridge year given both his injury and the team’s offseason roster teardown.

Even if Tatum believes he has a shot at helping this team in the spring, he added on NBC’s “TODAY with Jenna & Friends” that he also doesn’t want to open the door for a setback if he tries to rush himself back too soon.

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Tatum said. “I think for me, and my team, the doctor, the organization, the most important thing is making a full recovery. Being back 100 percent, not rushing it. But, I haven’t said, like, ‘yo, I’m not playing this season’ or anything like that.”

Tatum added during his interview on “TODAY” that he has a return date in mind, but declined to get into specifics.

“What I will say is: I’m not working out and rehabbing six days a week for no reason,” Tatum said.