Jayson Tatum appears to be inching closer to a return to the floor for the Celtics this season as he recovers from an Achilles tear. The team announced Monday that the Celtics star has been assigned to the Maine Celtics for the day to take part in portions of the team’s practice at the Auerbach Center Monday afternoon. Tatum will be immediately recalled to the Boston Celtics after the practice to continue his rehab process, according to the team.
Tatum’s teammates Hugo Gonzalez and Amari Williams will also join Tatum for the practice with the Maine Celtics.
The news comes one day after league sources confirmed to MassLive that Tatum has been taking part in 5-on-5 scrimmages with Celtics coaches amid his rehab progress.
Brad Stevens also addressed Tatum’s recovery on Friday in a press conference.
“He’s hit a lot of the thresholds,” Stevens said. “He’s doing more and more and will continue to do more and more. He’s still got a ways to go.”
Tatum underwent surgery on his Achilles last May after suffering the injury during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks.
In another sign that Tatum may be getting closer to a return, the Celtics reworked their roster at the trade deadline by trading away Anfernee Simons in exchange for more depth at center with Nikola Vucevic. Payton Pritchard has moved to the bench in the past week from the starting lineup in wake of the move, setting the stage for Tatum’s potential return to the starting five if he does come back this season.
“I would say it had very little impact on that singular decision, just because at the end of the day if you kind of look at who you have to go through, the paths you might have to take, you just can’t get worn down physically,” Stevens said of Tatum’s influence on the trade deadline. “And we were going to be much smaller. And now we at least have big options. Obviously any team with Jayson Tatum’s going to be better, so if that happens, that happens. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But we just thought that redistributing our positional needs was probably the most important thing. You hope that that doesn’t necessarily cost you a person of Anfernee’s caliber both as a person and a player. But obviously to get a guy that’s as accomplished as Vuc you have to give something.”
The Celtics will hold their own practice on Tuesday afternoon at the Auerbach Center before hosting the Chicago Bulls in their final game before the All-Star break on Wednesday night.
Story by Brian Robb, MassLive.com.
