As Jayson Tatum debates whether to return this season, he continues to make steady progress in his Achilles rehab, according to head coach Joe Mazzulla.

“The most important thing is making sure he continues to get better in his rehab process,” Mazzulla said before Friday’s Celtics-Kings game at TD Garden. “He’s doing a great job of hitting his marks in the weight room, doing a great job of hitting his marks in strength of conditioning and his physical therapy, and that’s the biggest thing. He’s been with us the whole year. He’s been on the road, been on the bench, been in film sessions, been at practices.

“The most important thing is he just continues to chip away at that and gets as healthy as he can.”

NBA on Prime insider Chris Haynes reported earlier this week that Tatum, who is roughly 8 1/2 months removed from his surgery, was “reevaluating his situation” and reconsidering his original plan to rejoin the Celtics before the end of the season.

“Tatum even told me personally, months back, that he was returning at some point,” Haynes said. “He was getting ready to return, and it was getting close. I was hearing it was getting close. And then league sources informed me that the situation has changed, and now it is up in the air if he’s going to return or not.”

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That report came after an interview with “The Pivot” podcast in which Tatum admitted his reintegration could cause “challenges” for a Celtics team that’s performed like one of the NBA’s best in his absence (No. 2 in net rating entering Friday).

“If or when I do come back this season, they would have played 50-some-odd games without me,” the six-time All-Star said. “So they have an identity this year, or things that they’ve felt that have clicked for them, and it’s been successful — second (seed) in the East up to this point. So there is a thought in my head of, like, how does that work? How does that look with me integrating myself off an injury and 50, 60 games into a season?

“(There) obviously could be some challenges, and it is a thought, like, ‘Damn, do I come back, or should I wait?’ It’s honestly something that recently, in the last two weeks or so, I just kind of contemplate every single day.”

Mazzulla said Thursday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak & Bertrand” that Tatum has suffered “zero setback” in his recovery, and that any disruption his return might cause would be “positive.”

“We’re always having conversations every day about where he’s at physically, mentally,” Mazzulla said in his pregame news conference. “I think you do that with all the players. I think that’s an important thing over the course of the season. The challenges of 82 (games) are just not physical. They could be mental, they could be emotional, they could be on the court, could be off the court. It really doesn’t matter. The challenge of that is building a relationship with guys to have conversations, whether it’s about basketball or whether it’s not.”