{"id":445564,"date":"2026-01-29T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445564\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T17:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:21:11","slug":"jayson-tatum-mulling-sitting-out-rest-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445564\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum Mulling Sitting Out Rest Of Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 29: Tatum told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN<\/a> on Wednesday night that he remains undecided about whether or not he\u2019ll return this season.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201c(I want) to get it right the first time, so it\u2019s just a lot to think about,\u201d Tatum said.<\/p>\n

January 28: The prospect of Jayson Tatum<\/a> returning this season from the Achilles rupture that has sidelined him since last spring\u2019s playoffs grew murkier on Wednesday night, as NBA insider Chris Haynes reported that Tatum is reevaluating the idea and considering sitting out the rest of the Celtics\u2018 season (Twitter video link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

While it appeared Tatum was getting closer to being able to make his anticipated season debut, Haynes says the star wing\u2019s return is now considered \u201cup in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Haynes, Tatum previously told him that he had planned on coming back this season, but league sources say the situation has changed for \u201ca couple\u201d reasons, though Haynes didn\u2019t elaborate on what those reasons were.<\/p>\n

As Brian Robb of MassLive<\/a> writes, in a recent podcast appearance, Tatum discussed the Celtics\u2019 success without him this season and addressed how that delicate chemistry could impact his decision to suit up this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have an identity this year or things that they felt has clicked for them and has been successful,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cThere is a thought in my head, \u2018How does that work?\u2019 or \u2018How does that look with me integrating myself off with injury and 50, 60 games into a season?\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n

Boston holds a 29-18 record after Wednesday night\u2019s loss to the Hawks, and is tied for the second seed in the East while being led by Jaylen Brown<\/a>, who is averaging career highs in points (29.6), rebounds (6.8), assists (4.9), field goal attempts (22.5), and free throw attempts (7.3) per game. Tatum expressed some concern that his presence could change the dynamic of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there could be some challenges,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a thought like, \u2018Damn, do I come back? Or should I wait?\u2019 It\u2019s something that, recently, in the last two weeks or so [I] just kind of contemplate every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Haynes\u2019 report certainly doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility of Tatum coming back this season if he feels physically and mentally ready to do so. It\u2019s unclear how Tatum\u2019s status might impact the Celtics\u2019 approach to the trade deadline, as there have been reports<\/a> that the team\u2019s somewhat unexpected success could lead to them being buyers at the deadline, with ducking the luxury tax no longer considered a top priority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"January 29: Tatum told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN on Wednesday night that he remains undecided about whether or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,7230,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-445564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-jayson-tatum","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}