Eight-and-a-half months removed from surgery, Jayson Tatum is no longer speaking like a player in the abstract phase of recovery.

The timelines are tighter now. The language is more specific.

And, as is often the case with Tatum, the most telling part isn’t what he says outright - it’s how deliberately he says it.

When Tatum ruptured his Achilles on May 12, the initial public timeline came not from the team, but from his father. In an interview with Marc Spears of Andscape, Justin Tatum projected an 8-9 month recovery window, putting a potential return somewhere between January and mid-February.

At the time, that range felt optimistic but plausible. Now, the calendar has caught up to it.

More importantly, Tatum’s own words have caught up to it.

Appearing on The Pivot podcast, Tatum didn’t frame his comeback around pain tolerance or physical readiness. Instead, he zeroed in on something far more revealing:

Fit, timing, and disruption - both to himself and to a team that’s been learning how to survive without him.

“If or when I do come back this season, they would have played 50 some-odd games without me,” Tatum said on the podcast. “They have an identity this year, or things that they felt has clicked for them, and it’s been successful.”

That “50” stood out immediately.

At the time of the recording, the Celtics were 29-17, 46 games into the season. That’s not a round number you casually toss out. And Tatum didn’t leave it hanging as a throwaway line, either.

“How does that look, with me integrating myself off an injury, 50-60 games into a season?” he continued. “Obviously, could be some challenges. And it’s a thought, like, ‘Damn, do I come back? Or should I wait?’ It’s something that I honestly, recently, in the last two weeks or so, kind of just contemplate every single day.”

If you’ve followed Tatum long enough, this is where the subtext becomes the text.

He’s not prone to careless phrasing. When he misspeaks, he corrects himself. When he wants to stay vague, he stays vague. Repeating a specific games-played range - twice - is intentional. It’s how he’s always operated, whether it’s setting expectations for his own growth, discussing leadership, or choosing his moments publicly.

In other words, that 50-60 game window isn’t speculation. It’s a signal.

NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg has already laid out the practical implications of that signal, narrowing potential return dates to home games only - another detail Tatum has been explicit about.

He wants his first game back to be in front of the TD Garden crowd.

Here’s what Forsberg posted on X for potential dates:

- Game 52: 2/6 vs. Heat

- Game 53: 2/8 vs. Knicks

- Game 54: 2/11 vs. Bulls

- Game 59: 2/27 vs. Nets

- Game 60: 3/1 vs. 76ers

- Game 62: 3/4 vs. Hornets

- Game 63: 3/6 vs. Mavericks

- Game 67: 3/14 vs. Wizards

- Game 68: 3/16 vs. Suns

- Game 69: 3/18 vs. Warriors

Among those dates, February 8 jumps off the page.

Nearly nine months to the day after the injury, a home matchup against the same team he was facing when he went down, and Super Bowl Sunday in a city already buzzing about the Patriots playing in their 12th title game in franchise history.

It’s cinematic. Almost too perfect.

Which is why the obvious question remains:

Is he actually ready?

Brad Stevens has been careful - almost clinical - in outlining the return-to-play process. Strength thresholds first. Then weeks of progression. Scripted work in small groups, then larger groups, then controlled 5-on-5, then unscripted action. All of it layered on top of conditioning to handle real NBA minutes.

Publicly, we’ve seen Tatum moving well in workouts.

Smooth. Confident. Comfortable.

What we haven’t seen is full-court scrimmaging, or where he stands relative to those internal benchmarks. That part is happening behind closed doors.

But here’s the thing:

Tatum doesn’t float timelines to test the waters. He doesn’t casually introduce the idea of returning if it’s not grounded in real progress. When he talks about contemplating whether to come back at all this season, that’s not doubt - it’s ownership. It’s the same mindset that’s defined his evolution from prodigy to franchise pillar. Long-term thinking, team-first calculus, and an acute awareness of how his choices ripple outward.

There’s still risk. There’s always risk with an Achilles. Setbacks are possible. Nothing is guaranteed.

But taken together - his father’s original projection, the specificity of his podcast comments, the visible uptick in on-court work - the picture is becoming clearer.

Jayson Tatum is no longer talking like someone months away.

He’s talking like someone who knows the door is opening, and is deciding exactly when to walk through it.

Remember to join our CELTICS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Celtics fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.