BOSTON — The Boston Celtics have a new roster. A new offense. A new defense. Everything about the way the Celtics are going to play this year is new. And that’s because of the team they have. Jayson Tatum is dealing with an Achilles injury, and they lost four other key rotation pieces over the summer: Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, and Luke Kornet.
For the past few seasons, the Celtics have sat atop the NBA standings projected. Year in and year out, they’ve been predicted to win the championship, or at least get there. That’s not the case anymore. For the first time in years, they may be underdogs in most of the games they play.
But that doesn’t matter to Joe Mazzulla. He still thinks they have a chance to win every time they step foot on the court.
“I don’t think that should change,” he said before the Celtics’ Opening Night game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The changes Boston has made to its play style are necessary. They can’t play the same way that has worked because the very core of why it worked is gone. Tatum isn’t healthy. Porzingis, Horford, Holiday, and Kornet are all gone. In their place are new faces. And those new faces don’t play the same.
“Every year is going to be different because of the type of team that you have, the opportunity that you have, the system that you play,” Mazzulla said at practice on Tuesday. “I think at the end of the day, what I've learned most is, by the time the game starts, you have to be ready to go to something that you may not even have talked about.
“There's a plan, and most games go the opposite way halfway through the game.”
Instead of a slow, methodical offense, they’re going to run in transition and set a flurry of screens. Instead of safe, foul-avoidance defense, they’re going to take more risks.
But those changes don’t change the ultimate goal: Win.
Mazzulla-led teams are going to hustle. They’re going to leave it all on the floor. But more importantly, they’re going to stick to their principles.
For the last two seasons, those principles have been based on ultra-talented rosters capable of playing a very high-level, safe brand of basketball. That’s not what the 2025-26 Celtics are built for.
These Celtics will have at least 82 games to prove themselves. But they believe they have the same chance to win as any other Celtics team that has ever stepped on the floor.
And that’s a great place to start.