To say that expectations were low for Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics heading into the 2025-26 NBA regular season is something of an understatement. Both have exceeded those predictions of the Celtics hovering around play-in range to worse in a synergistic fashion since Tatum returned to play from the Achilles tendon injury that ended his season vs. the New York Knicks in the 2025 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals.Asked if his quick return and sustained success this season with Boston was ever a surprise to him, the St. Louis native said that the "short answer would be yes" after a recent Celtics practice."But with that, there's a quick turnover of obviously you want more," added Tatum.

And when you're not 100% yourself yet, obviously it's only been -- I played 16 games."Even so, the return to play has been a seamless one even in the shadow of an Most Valuable Player-level season from his costar on the wing, Jaylen Brown. The fact that Tatum has been able to impact winning with Boston at a high level with a team that found an identity without him is nothing short of impressive give how often it doesn't work elsewhere."It can be frustrating at times, but you've got to just take a step back and be proud of the fact of what you were able to accomplish with just coming back and then everything on top of that (is) icing on the cake," suggested the Duke alum.Listen to "Havlicek Stole the Pod" on:Blue Wire: https://tiny.ee/CdKpiTunes: https://tiny.ee/RK47YouTube: https://tiny.ee/cOW3This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Tatum sees everything he's done with Celtics since return as icing on the cake