Brad Stevens Provides Update on Jayson Tatum Achilles injury Timetable

Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens was intentional in his update on Jayson Tatum's Achilles tendon tear recovery; intentional in not getting hopes up too high, but also intentional in explaining why the team is not signing an extra player with a disabled player exception.

As Stevens noted on Wednesday, it was a conscious decision for the team not to pursue a chance for a replacement.

“We’re not putting a timeline on it, as we haven’t the whole time,” Stevens said. “I think that one of the things that everybody can see is that we didn’t apply for a [disabled player exception] this year, which was a conscious decision for a lot of reasons.

“But, the reality is that he’s not going to be back until he’s 110 percent healthy and he feels good about it. That’s a big part of it. Obviously he’s itching to play. Obviously he hates watching. But, he’s also — I don’t want to speak for him — very cognizant of the need to meet every threshold and why those things are put in place.”

Said another way: Stevens is biding his time to see if Boston is worth rocking the boat and potentially rushing Tatum back. After the Celtics lost 112-105 to the Detroit Pistons on Monday to push their losing streak to two, Stevens delved into the tough road ahead that Tatum faces to recover from the most devastating injury in sports.

“There’s strength thresholds he has to meet,” Stevens said. “Then after that, several weeks of progressions from the standpoints of scripted against small groups, scripted against bigger groups, scripted in 5-on-5, unscripted, random, all the way up through those.

“It’s a long progression and it’s almost like once you hit your strength, then you hit your thresholds of progression of play, and then you’re also re-conditioning to play real minutes -whatever that looks like. He has obviously made great strides. Right now we’re obviously still focused on the real strength game.”

Celtics Have More Eastern Conference Tests to Prove Where They Stand

The Celtics began a seven-game run in the Eastern Conference that'll let them know where they stand with a 121-113 win over the Toronto Raptors in Canada, a 116-101 loss to the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks, and the recent loss to the Pistons.

They'll have a home game against the Miami Heat on Friday night, another tussle with the Raptors in Toronto on Saturday night, then a home-and-home series against the Indiana Pacers and Monday and Friday of next week.

If they can finish this run strong, expect Stevens to switch his tone and talk more optimistically about Tatum's return.