Report: What left scout 'shocked' about Jayson Tatum's Achilles rehab
So well, in fact, that he impressed a scout who was in attendance at Chris Paul's CP3 Elite Camp in Las Vegas where the Boston Celtics star was seen.
'He was moving really well,' the scout told Heavy's Steve Bulpett in a phone conversation. 'There might have been a slight limp or something, but the surprising thing to me is that he didn't have a boot for any of it. I'm no doctor, but I've seen guys coming back from Achilles' tears, and he looked way ahead. I was kind of shocked to see how well he was moving.'
Tatum suffered a ruptured Achilles in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks in May. He had surgery shortly after, and was recently rehabbing in a pool.
In July, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens provided an update on Tatum's progress.
'He's a competitor,' Stevens said. 'He's going to be competitive in everything he does, including his rehab. So I'm really encouraged. I've been basically seeing him every day in Boston over the last 50 days or whatever. Usually he goes away at the end of the season and comes back, but he's just stayed there and has been doing his rehab. It's been fun to spend time with him every day and just try to catch up and see how he's doing as we watch him make the strides he needs to make.'
While there's no timeline for Tatum's return, it's likely he will miss the entire 2025-26 season. The recovery is lengthy and the Celtics will look like a different team by the time he returns.
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