Joe Mazzulla Explains Jayson Tatum's Unique, Specific Rehab That Prepared Him To Play

What Jayson Tatum is doing right now defies all logic.

Coming back from an Achilles tear in 10 months is already ambitious on its own. But to come back and almost instantly look like yourself again is impossible to comprehend.

Tatum’s triple-double against the Miami Heat Wednesday night is the latest in a long line of almost incomprehensible accomplishments. He has six double-doubles to go along with that triple-double, and is currently averaging 21.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists. He already only has two fewer defensive rebounds this season than Luka Garza. He’s the East Player of the Week.

He’s not supposed to be 100% yet, and he swears he’s not. But that doesn’t make sense, because that means he’s going to end up being better than what he is right now, and that's hard to comprehend, too.

“I wish I had a definitive answer,” Tatum told reporters in Miami. “It sounds cliche’, but I feel a little bit better every game. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to be back to who I was, hopefully better, but the goal is to continue to stack days.”

Okay, fine. But there still has to be more to the story. Right now, it seems like Tatum is some medical marvel who is forcing science to re-think how an athlete can recover from the most devastating injury in basketball. We knew about certain advantages that he had, like having the best surgeon in the world using an innovative procedure the morning after the injury. All of those things probably shaved weeks, if not months, off his timeline.

His youth and prior fitness level also helped. Tatum is maniacal about taking care of his body, so that gave him a great chance at recovering quickly as well. Replacing a part in a well-oiled machine is easier than fixing up a clunker.

But beyond all that stuff that was common knowledge is a recovery plan that clearly pushed Tatum further past any boundaries other players have faced. His trainer, Nick Sang, and the Celtics sports science staff had to think of everything in order to make sure Tatum could hit the ground running in his return to action.

On his weekly radio appearance, Joe Mazzulla explained just how detailed that plan was.

“I think he did a good job practicing certain things leading up to [his return],” Mazzulla said. “Like, when you’re coming back, you have to practice halftime, because you have a 15 minute [break] … what's your routine going to be like post halftime?”

These little intricate details not only explain how Tatum is navigating his return, it explains some of what seemed like erratic substitution patterns.

“Let's say you're playing well, and you play 10 minutes straight, but then you know you're going to sit for seven or eight minutes. What's that process look like?” Mazzulla said. “As opposed to, if you play every four or five minutes, it's going to be a different process. And so even to the point of, like, how do you get yourself ready coming out of halftime? Because you're going to have such a long break.”

It’s the epitome of dotting every i and crossing every t. With that kind of attention to detail, Tatum and the Celtics have been able to make sure he’s uniquely prepared for his return to action. Every minor thing they can anticipate allows Tatum to focus more on the basketball and less on the Achilles. There is some trial and error now that can enhance his play in the playoffs, but the level of anticipation and preparation everyone has shown is part of why Tatum’s return has gone as well as it has.

It’s easy to say what Tatum is doing right now doesn’t make sense, but the picture becomes clearer as we learn more about how his recovery was handled. The team around Tatum has made a tough situation easier to handle.

“It’s definitely the hardest thing I ever went through,” Tatum said. “I’ve never taken that much time off from basketball. The challenges that you face mentally, the long, dark moments and dark days over the last 46 weeks yesterday. Every Tuesday. I’m still counting. But yeah, it’s tough. But I’m proud of the fact that I made it this far.”

If that's what he’s saying now, imagine how much better he can be.