Twenty young men will wake up Wednesday morning, pull on official Celtics practice gear, and hit the floor at the Auerbach Center to officially begin the 2024-25 season. A 21st, the largest of them all, will be mostly observing or working on a side basket, hoping to join them in a couple of months.
Or sooner, if he can.
“The energy I'm feeling from the doctor, the surgeon, the medical staff is not to rush anything,” Kristaps Porzings said at media day. “For myself, obviously, if you ask me and I had to do my own protocol, I would probably go quicker.”
Porzingis suffered a rare injury in his left ankle during the NBA Finals, sending everyone to Google to search for “torn retinaculum and dislocated posterior tibialis tendon.” Essentially, it was the Curt Schilling injury on the inside of his ankle. And just like Schilling, he gutted it out long enough to make a positive impact on a Boston championship before heading off for a long rehab.
But how long is up for some debate. The initial expectation for his return was around Christmas, but the Celtics seem to be backing off that … at least a little.
"(He) seems to be recovering well. He's very optimistic,” Brad Stevens told reporters. “I don't know that we're interested in putting a timeline on him because the injury is unique. But as far as how he feels and the progress that he's made, I'd say we're very, very pleased with where he is, and maybe a little surprised."
That's a lot coming from Stevens, who always plays his cards close to the vest. But Porzingis’ own social media feed seems to tell the story of a rehab that is, at worst, right on target. It’s hard to be coy about something everyone can see. And with Porzingis walking normally, coffee in hand and with his signature points and winks on his way to the podium, it’s hard not to believe that things are going well.
And then Porzingis revealed he’s already back on the court.
“I’m running, I’m on the court, shooting normal,” Porzingis said. “I'm doing a lot of stuff, honestly. I was already, kind of, with some light contact, doing some stuff also, and it felt really good afterwards. I think it's a really good sign that we had from the other day, and again, I'm optimistic as always.”
Porzingis was given a five-to-six-month timeline after his surgery in late June. The five-month mark is around Thanksgiving. Considering the optimism and circumstances, it’s not out of the question to start wondering about an earlier return. But no matter when he steps onto the court for an actual game, it won’t be on opening night. The Celtics will still very likely need to fill that hole at center for at least a month, even in a best-case scenario.
“Once Kristaps went out last year, we all knew we had to stop up a little more and play different ways,” Al Horford, who will start while Porzingis is out, said on Tuesday. “There will be opportunities for different guys to come in and contribute. That’s how we’re doing it and that’s how I’m preparing to be ready to go.”
Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta are the candidates to pick up the Porzingis slack. The Celtics won most of the games without Porzingis last season, so there doesn’t seem to be a lot of worry around the Auerbach Center about how Boston will get by.
Or maybe it’s because there is confidence Porzingis will miss less time than originally anticipated. How well guys play in Porzingis’ absence might be the determining factor in how quickly he gets back in the lineup. If the reserves are holding it down and the Celtics are comfortable with where they are in the standings, then Porzingis can take a little extra ramp-up time.
If, for some reason, the mix just isn’t right this season, then Porzingis might have made enough progress to step back into his role stretching opposing defenses a little earlier than anyone expected.
The team would like to tread as lightly as possible with Porzingis. The number one priority is having him healthy for a full playoff run, which Porzingis himself acknowledged on Tuesday.
But a player is ready when he’s ready. And Porzingis feels like he can be ready when we expect him, and maybe a bit sooner.
“My ankle's feeling really, really good,” he said. “The sooner I can get the green light to do more and more stuff, I'll be happy and I'm sure I'm gonna be more than 100% ready for each stage that's coming up.”