It’s official: Jayson Tatum will make his long-awaited season debut Friday night at TD Garden.
Hours before their 7 p.m. tipoff, the Celtics upgraded Tatum from questionable to available for their game against the Dallas Mavericks, clearing him to return to action nearly 10 months removed from Achilles surgery.
Tatum missed Boston’s first 62 games of the season, during which the team went 41-21 while posting the NBA’s second-best net rating. By returning now, the All-NBA wing will have 20 games to ramp up and reacclimate before the postseason arrives.
It was unclear as of Friday afternoon what that reacclimation period would look like, as head coach Joe Mazzulla has not publicly discussed how he plans to use his now-healthy superstar.
What kind of minutes restriction will Tatum be under as he builds back up to his usual standard of roughly 36 minutes per game? Will he immediately rejoin the starting lineup or come off the bench for a spell? If it’s the former, who moves out of the starting five: Baylor Scheierman, who’s been an impact defender and rebounder since joining the top unit a month ago, or veteran sharpshooter Sam Hauser?
What tweaks, if any, will Mazzulla make to his system, which has featured a much heavier emphasis on offensive rebounding than in previous seasons (the Celtics are fifth in offensive rebounding rate, up from 18th in 2024-25)? And how will Tatum’s return impact Jaylen Brown, who leads the NBA in field-goal attempts per game (22.2) and trails only Luka Doncic in usage rate?
“We only have (20) games left, so it’s going to have to be a quick process whenever that happens,” Hauser said at Friday’s morning shootaround, before Tatum’s status had been confirmed. “As much as you want, like, a grace period for that, we don’t really have that luxury, so we’re all just going to have to figure it out on the fly. That’s a good thing for us to have to problem-solve whenever that comes up and figure things out on our own. But I think overall, it’s a positive.”
Indeed. Despite the potential for growing pains, the Celtics are adding an elite talent to a team that already looked like a potential championship contender without him. Tatum made first-team All-NBA and finished in the top six in NBA MVP voting in each of the last four seasons. He was Boston’s leading scorer and rebounder in each of the last three and also paced the team in assists per game in 2024-25.
The Celtics could be missing one of their depth wings Friday night. Jordan Walsh (questionable, illness) was a late addition to their injury report.
Mavericks rookie standout Cooper Flagg, who returned Thursday after missing eight games with a foot injury, was not listed on Dallas’ injury report, clearing the Newport, Maine, native to make his first professional appearance at TD Garden.
