The Boston Celtics not only lost a critical playoff series against the New York Knicks in the second round, but they also lost their best player to a torn Achilles.
Jayson Tatum went down with the injury late in Game 4 of the series. He had surgery less than 24 hours after the injury, but that is a devastating time to suffer that injury.
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Most players with that injury take a full year to recover, meaning that Tatum would be out for all of next year. Celtics president Rich Gotham talked about his status heading into next year.
While he was speaking to reporters, Gotham seemed to leave the door open for a possible Tatum return at some point next season.
“That’s a down-the-road question. That’s one you can’t really answer today,” Gotham said, per Conor Ryan of Boston.com. “But what I know about JT is, he’s gonna do everything he can to put us in a position to make a decision. He’s gonna work hard to get back as soon as he can, and we’ll see how soon that is. But for right now, we’re not really looking at timetables.”
Gotham doesn’t want to rule Tatum out right now and then be boxed in if Tatum is somehow able to rehab his injury enough to the point that he is going to be ready to go towards the end of the year.
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The Celtics are already presumed to be taking a gap year with Tatum on the sidelines. They will be replacing three starters from last year’s team, which makes things much tougher.
Boston is going to be very cautious with Tatum’s recovery. He is their best player, so the Celtics are going to make sure that he doesn’t injure himself again as he tries to rehab.
While Gotham is leaving the door open for him to return, it’s still much more likely that Tatum ends up sitting out this season, and the Celtics try to make a run at the title in the 2026-27 season.
This past season, Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and six assists per game. He shot 45.2 percent from the field and 34.3 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
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