How Jayson Tatum is reintegrating with Celtics

Only 43 days after his Achilles tendon surgery, Jayson Tatum met with Dr. Martin O'Malley for an evaluation of his rehab process. Despite Tatum just completing his first of a 10-month absence from basketball, O’Malley was confident that a full recovery was inevitable. 

“You’re as good as anyone has ever been,” O’Malley said to Tatum during chapter three of The Quiet Work. “So in six weeks, I’m confident you're going to go back and be Jayson Tatum the way you were before.”

Early returns on O’Malley’s sentiment have been positive for Tatum, who has received an increase in minutes since his return on March 6. After playing 27 minutes in his first three contests, Tatum’s playing time jumped to 32 minutes against the Wizards, remaining the same when he faced the Suns Monday night.

Tatum is averaging 20.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists in his first five games. He has scored at least 20 points in every contest except for his debut game, including a 24-point performance on 10-of-24 shooting at San Antonio.

“I ain’t coming back and being no role player,” Tatum replied to O’Malley.

Even with a high scoring total, Tatum’s offensive efficiency is down — especially from 3-point range — compared with his previous years. He is making 2.6 of his 9.6 3-pointers per game while shooting 5.0-of-9.0 on two-pointers per outing. It has dramatically decreased his effective field goal percentage — a stat that factors the extra value of a 3-pointer compared with a 2-pointer — to a 47.8 percent clip, the worst mark of any rotational Celtics player and of Tatum’s career.

Derrick White has been the biggest beneficiary of Tatum’s return from a pure scoring perspective, knocking down nine of his 21 shots (42.9 percent) taken after Tatum passed him the ball. Neemias Queta, who made seven of his 14 (50.0 percent) attempts from Tatum, is the only player with a better shooting percentage.

Before this season, White had never had less than 80 percent of his made 3-pointers assisted on. His mark dramatically dropped without Tatum, hovering between 60-70 percent this season. But with Tatum back, White’s 3-point assisted rate has soared to 92 percent in five games, per Cleaning the Glass.

So maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that White scored a season-high 34 points against the Spurs, the game in which Jaylen Brown was ejected in the second quarter.

That’s not to say White, who has scored at least 30 points four times this season, has played poorly with Brown. White is averaging 17.5 points on 15.2 field goals per game — both of which are career highs — this season, leading to an all-time high usage rate. 

With less than a month remaining in the regular season, Tatum and the Celtics are trending in a positive direction. Their next major test will be on March 25, when the Thunder visit Boston. Tatum and White did not play at Oklahoma City, where Brown scored 34 points in a two-point loss against the defending NBA champions.