BOSTON — With every workout video Jayson Tatum posts publicly, Celtics fans are clamoring to know when their superstar could be back on the court. There’s plenty of speculation at this point, though Boston president Brad Stevens reiterated Wednesday there is still no timeline for his return.
But Stevens did point out a notable detail when it comes to a Tatum return.
“One of the things that everybody can see is we didn’t apply for a (displayed player exception) this year, which was a conscious decision for a lot of reasons,” Stevens said. “But the reality is he’s not going to be back until he’s 110% healthy and he feels good about it, and that’s a big part of it.”
A displayed player exception, or DPE, is granted to teams when an NBA-designated physician determines that a player is “substantially more likely than not” to be sidelined through June 15 of next season. In Tatum’s case, if the Celtics had filed for the DPE, it allows a club to sign a replacement player up to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception at roughly $14 million. So there also wouldn’t have been a huge benefit for the C’s compared to Tatum potentially coming back this year.
Stevens shed some more light on exactly where Tatum is at when it comes to returning to the court. The workout videos have impressed. He’s also gotten in workouts after some Celtics practices, when media is allowed to view the session. But it sounds like there are still several benchmarks ahead for him in the coming weeks.
“There’s a strength threshold he has to meet,” Stevens said. “And then after that, several weeks of progressions, right, from the standpoint of scripted against small groups, scripted against bigger groups, scripted in 5-on-5, unscripted random. All the way up through those. But it’s a long progression, and it’s almost like, once you hit the strength, then you do your thresholds of a progression of play, and then you’re also reconditioning to play real minutes. Whatever that looks like. He’s obviously made great strides. Right now, we’re still focused on the full-strength band.”
The big question for the Celtics is naturally when Tatum will be back at full strength and on the court. Even when he is back, it’ll likely take some time for him to get back to his perennial first-team All-NBA self considering his lengthy layoff. But if there is one certainty it’s that Tatum has worked tirelessly behind the scenes in his rehab.
The C’s are also in an interesting spot in what looks like a weak East. The Celtics are currently 15-11 and fourth in the conference. Considering it’s a wide-open East, a Tatum addition in the next few months could set up the team for a potential deep playoff run. But before fans dream about the possibilities, Tatum has to get back to playing first.
“Obviously, he’s itching to play,” Stevens said. “Obviously he hates watching. But he’s also very cognizant of the need to meet every threshold and why there are those things that are put in place. We’ve had a lot of great talks about it. One of the things that we love about this whole group, and I think the guys that have been here the longest lead the charge, is they love the play.”