One injury can change the course of history for a franchise. A playoff run cut short leads to a lifetime of questioning.
The injury bug was ever present in the 2024-25 playoffs. We saw three different star-caliber players go down after tearing their Achilles with all facing a potentially career-altering injury, and widely expected to miss the entirety of the upcoming season.
First, it was Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks in their first-round matchup with the Indiana Pacers, a series they would go on to lose. In the second round, Jayson Tatum went down in the Boston Celtics matchup against the New York Knicks, with New York going on to defeat Boston.
Maybe the most poorly timed of them all, Tyrese Haliburton suffered the same injury early in Game 7 of the NBA Finals as the Indiana Pacers faced the Oklahoma City Thunder. It felt like all air was taken out of an extremely exciting matchup, and the Thunder went on to finish the job, earning the title of NBA champions.
Not only did each of these injuries extinguish the championship aspirations of last year, but they derailed the 2025-26 season as well. Boston, Milwaukee, and Indiana were all at different stages of the contender timeline.
The Pacers were on the climb, just one game away from securing their first championship in franchise history. The Celtics already reached the top just two seasons ago, and were looking to repeat for the first time since the Bill Russell era. Milwaukee had once seen the peak, but were slowly slipping back down the mountain. Now each team faces a similar challenge, but have widely different paths ahead.
Boston and Indiana can both afford a gap year in this upcoming season before they get back to competing, though the Celtics have less of a say in the matter. They were well over the second apron in the past two seasons, and another season over the apron would bring on some harsh penalties, crippling their ability to put together a competitive roster now and in the future.
As such, they were essentially forced into parting ways with several core players from their championship roster in an effort to shed enough salary to get under the second apron. They traded out Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, bringing in Anfernee Simons and Georges Niang in return. Niang was recently flipped for Utah Jazz rookie RJ Luis Jr. who is currently on a two-way contract, a salary-shedding move that also freed up another standard roster spot.
In free agency, they were unable to match the offer which the San Antonio Spurs gave Luke Kornet, who was coming off of a stellar season in Boston. Though not official yet, the same is likely true for veteran Al Horford, who is expected to sign with the Golden State Warriors. In one fell swoop, the Celtics lost arguably five starting-caliber players, four of them coming from their big man rotation.
Without JT next year the frontcourt is looking especially thin. Until yesterday, Luka Garza, Neemias Queta, and Xavier Tillman were the only centers on the roster, and Georges Niang, who is listed at 6’7”, was the only PF on the roster. The three centers averaged a combined 26.5 MPG last season across 134 total games. Queta makes up for a big chunk of both of those too, averaging 13.9 MPG across 62 games.
By flipping Niang for a two-way contract, Brad Stevens managed to save the Celtics quite a bit off of their tax bill, created an extra $8M in room below the second apron, and opened the door for Boston to sign Chris Boucher to a one-year $3.3M contract. This signing adds some much-needed size to the frontcourt in the form of a solid, experienced vet. While he’s never been a starter, Boucher averages 17.7 MPG across his eight-year career, and he shot 49.2% from the field, 36.3% from three last year in Toronto.
There’s still a lot of room for improvement in Boston’s frontcourt, but few avenues to do so. Notably, one of Boston’s second round picks in this year’s draft, Amari Williams, has not been signed to the team yet. He could potentially take the last roster spot to further build up the frontcourt, but adding another rookie to the mix may not improve things much. The guys are getting thrown into the fire right off the bat, and they’re each going to have to step up in a big way.
That’s the story for the whole roster, really. The Celtics will have Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser to lead their core, while also adding a couple solid players in Chris Boucher and Anfernee Simons, though it’s possible that Simons will be flipped in a later trade like Niang was. Outside of Anfernee, every one of these guys is going to be in an expanded role. The team will also lean heavily on players who are unproven at this point, such as Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Josh Minott, Hugo Gonzales, and the previously mentioned big-man rotation.
If all goes well, Boston has a chance to be a playoff team (at least in the East), and if Jayson Tatum somehow manages to fast track his recovery, he could potentially make his debut at the end of the season. The odds aren’t looking great on either of those fronts as of now, though. The silver lining is that Boston owns both of their picks next year, so they at least get to reap the benefits of having a bad season in the draft if that’s the case.
Now the question for the Celtics is how easily will they be able to bounce back from a down year after gutting the roster? Championship windows don’t last forever, and with just under 70% of their cap space tied up between Jayson and Jaylen, they may have to make some tough decisions to make the most of the current window. It is in their best interest to return back to competitiveness as quickly as possible.
Unlike Boston, Indiana hasn’t had nearly as much churn on their roster. Obviously, they will be without Haliburton next season, and have already received a Disabled Player Exception (DPE) which they can use to improve the roster if they wish to do so. The only other notable changes are the departures of Myles Turner and Thomas Bryant, both key big men in Indy’s rotation.
In hopes of replacing Turner’s production at a fraction of the cost, they acquired Jay Huff in free agency, a sharpshooting 7-footer who got lost on the Memphis Grizzlies bench last year. Additionally, though they aren’t technically new additions, Indiana will also have James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson back in their frontcourt next year, two guys who, ironically enough, both suffered torn Achilles tendons at the start of last season.
Haliburton is certainly a big loss, but for the most part, Indy has a lot of continuity going into the upcoming season. By not resigning Myles Turner, they’ve also left themselves well under the first apron, and they only have one expiring contract – Benedict Mathurin’s. Without an extension, Mathurin will be a restricted free agent in the 26-27 season. This leaves the stakes quite low for the Pacers next year.
There’s no doubt that they’d be able to make a deep playoff push, but championship aspirations may be a bit too high without their star point guard. They’re in the prime position to retool their roster to be in the best possible position to win when Haliburton returns. If they make it back to the Finals, great. If they don’t, they should at least have a better idea of what their team needs to get over the hump, and will have the cap flexibility to bring those changes on along with their own first-round pick in next year’s draft.
Milwaukee managed to create even more cap space than Indiana, but their stakes are also much higher next season. Over the next three seasons, they don’t own a single one of their first-round picks outright – each of them being part of a least favorable swap. More than that, their star player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, is rumored to be “assessing his options” in regards to whether he will request a trade or not.
His goal is ultimately to win another championship, and if he doesn’t think he’ll be able to do that with the Bucks, it’s likely that he’ll try to find a new team to accomplish that goal with. After Dame’s injury, Milwaukee moved quickly to salvage the situation, opting to waive and stretch Lillard’s contract, which leaves $22.5M in dead money on their books for the next five years.
The shocking move was made to setup an even more shocking acquisition – Myles Turner. Turner, was coming off of a Finals appearance, and was part of the team which eliminated the Bucks from the first round of the playoffs in back-to-back years. It seemed as though the decision fell more on Indy, who chose not to offer anything close to the 4-year $107M contract which Milwaukee did.
For the Bucks, Turner fills in nicely since they are also facing the departure of their starting center, Brook Lopez, who chose to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency. Like Brook, Myles is a great interior defender, and can stretch the floor for Giannis as well.
The Bucks then replaced Dame with Cole Anthony, shipped out Pat Connaughton to the Hornets, and signed Gary Harris to replace him on the cheap. All-in-all, with the exception of losing Lillard, the team looks very similar to how it did last year. Granted injuries played a part, last year’s team never felt like a real contender.
Milwaukee did manage to find cheap ways to upgrade their roster, but they do not have the luxury of time like Indiana does, and filling the hole left behind by Dame is going to be incredibly difficult. This team has to work, and it has to work quickly. Otherwise, they have to face the reality of losing their franchise cornerstone, and they may be in for a long, rough rebuild based on the return. Having to do so without owning the rights to their own picks is a position no team wants to be in.
Three of the NBA’s top players all suffering the same major injury in the same playoff run is unprecedented to begin with, but with all three of them being in the same conference, it had some major consequences. Boston and Milwaukee have been perennial contenders for some time now, but those days may be over. Indiana was on the rise, but they hit a major bump in the road which could cut their championship window short.
One thing is for certain, though – the East is wide open next year.
