The offseason has not been kind to Boston Celtics fans, who have seen their team gutted. They traded Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday and lost Al Horford and Luke Kornet to free agency, which has severely compromised the Celtics’ depth.
They will also be without Jayson Tatum for all of next season, meaning they will be down five players from their championship team. That roster change has led to them having a lackluster team that looks far removed from championship contention.
I think it might make more sense to start Payton Pritchard, Anfernee Simons, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown at spots 1 through 4. And I’m genuinely curious about Luka Garza with starter minutes. But…
…even with the East as bad as it is, could the Celtics miss the playoffs? https://t.co/pRftAUZ9An
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) July 22, 2025
Even while they will still have Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, they may have a hard time making the playoffs, even in the embarrassingly bad Eastern Conference. There are a few silver linings.
They did gain more flexibility to make moves in case they are better than expected. The Celtics also could use recently acquired guard Anfernee Simons as a trade chip to try and boost their roster.
Painful reality Celtics fans must accept this season
As is, the Celtics don’t have a strong enough roster to make noise in the East next season. Ownership probably knows that, but the goal was to slash their salary and luxury tax payments, and they definitely accomplished that, literally cutting those payments in half.
The tradeoff is that they will be much worse on the court next season. To be fair to them, they weren’t going to be a juggernaut with Tatum out for next season. Even so, is their core going forward really going to be Tatum, Brown, and White?
All three are outstanding players, but the Celtics’ depth was a big part of their championship run. That’s not to mention that players coming back from an Achilles injury historically are far worse than they were pre-injury.
The Celtics had no choice but to gut their roster
Boston has to hope that Tatum can beat the odds and return to his peak levels and give the Celtics a chance to eventually get back to the NBA Finals. That’s not the best option, but it’s the only real one they have.
After all, the ridiculous collective bargaining agreement was partly designed to break up teams like the Celtics, and it has clearly done a great job of doing so. They couldn’t have kept the championship core together during a season in which their best player would miss, thanks to the repeater tax.
Had Tatum not gotten injured, they might not have let those four players go, but here we are, and here the Celtics are with a questionable roster heading into next season.
