HOUSTON — The Celtics have consistently insisted that they do not expect injured forward Gordon Hayward to return this season. But on Saturday, when asked about the Players’ Tribune video posted Friday that showed Hayward taking jump shots, coach Brad Stevens issued perhaps the first definitive statement on the issue.
“He’s not playing this year,’’ Stevens said. “I don’t know what else to say.’’
Stevens went on to say that Hayward is progressing. He said that on Saturday morning he did a workout on an anti-gravity treadmill that was set at 60 percent of his body weight. And he said it is important to document these steps, however small they may be.
“It’s great, and I think the videos are great, too,’’ Stevens said, “because it continues to show the progress, because sometimes when you’re in the midst of that long rehab you don’t feel the progress of the day-to-day the way now we all might see a video, or someone who hasn’t seen him may see a video and say, ‘Man, he is really getting better.’ But he’s a super long way away from even being in a 1-on-0 workout where he’s cutting.’’
Hayward suffered a gruesome dislocation-fracture of his left ankle in the first quarter of the Celtics’ Oct. 17 season opener against the Cavaliers.
Green believes in Thomas
Former Celtics forward Gerald Green said that it has been a difficult year for his friend and former teammate, Isaiah Thomas, but he is confident Thomas will emerge upright.
“I really think he missed Boston a lot,’’ said Green, who is now averaging 11.5 points per game for the Rockets. “I think he wanted a chance to try one more time with that team and see what they could really do because of how good we were last year.’’
Thomas was traded to the Cavaliers last August in the deal that brought Kyrie Irving to Boston.
He missed the first three months of the season with a lingering hip injury, and when he returned he appeared to be a shell of his former self, and the Cavaliers were struggling mightily.
In February, Thomas was traded to the Lakers, and he has begun to show signs of snapping out of his funk. In seven games he is averaging 15.4 points while shooting 43.2 percent from the field.
“I wish him all the best in LA, man,’’ Green said. “I really think he’s going to blossom well in LA. I think he has the type of support he’d need. Cleveland, I felt like he didn’t have the support he’d really need. That’s just my opinion. But IT is a great player, man. I think once he gets healthy, gets comfortable whatever situation he’s at, you’re going to see the same All-Star Isaiah that you’d seen in Boston.’’
Tatum is teenager no more
The Celtics’ youth movement has come to an end. Well, not really, but forward Jayson Tatum turned 20 years old on Saturday, so the team no longer has a teenager on its active roster.
“It feels good to be older,’’ said Tatum, who remains a man of few words at 20.
The rookie said several family members made the trip to Houston and he planned to spend part of the day with them. Stevens said it is easy to forget how young Tatum still is.
“I was walking out of there and I was saying, ‘He’s 20? That’s it?’ ’’ Stevens said. “It’s pretty incredible when you think about how young he is relative to the competition he goes up against every night and how much that takes to prepare and catch up from a preparation standpoint. He’s done a really good job of that all year. I guess it is nice, when you’re in the NBA, not to have any teenagers in your lineup.’’
Theis is back
Celtics center Daniel Theis was available Saturday after missing Wednesday’s game against the Hornets with a sore hamstring but did not play. Theis said he was initially only able to do standstill shooting, but that he was able to complete a full workout Friday without pain.
“So, I had a chance to watch my first NBA game,’’ the 25-year-old rookie from Germany said with a smile.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.
