During a recent chat with Rachel Nichols for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix speculated that the Boston Celtics still have one more trade to make this summer, but the format he suggested is close to impossible. He noted that Boston should look to duck under the first apron, avoid paying the tax, and that trading Anfernee Simons could be the best way to do so:
“If they make one more move, it wouldn't surprise me,” Mannix said. “Right now, they're under the first apron. They're almost under the tax. If they make one more move, if they can find anybody who will take the contract of Anfernee Simons...that will set them up for success in 2026 and beyond.”
However, based on the way the summer played out, there doesn’t seem to be a huge trade market for Simons. And without trading him, there’s really no realistic way for the Celtics to get below the first apron.
Why can’t Celtics get below first apron?
In the Celtics roster’s current state, they have 14 players on standard contracts. They sit just over $4 million above the first apron (and roughly $7.8 million below the second apron, which was a major goal heading into the offseason).
For a lot of teams around the league, ditching $4 million wouldn’t be a huge struggle, especially not in the offseason. Unfortunately for the Celtics, they don’t have many contracts that could get them there in one fell swoop.
Simons makes around $27.7 million next season, so finding a way to gett off of most of his salary would certainly achieve the goal Mannix set for Boston before the start of next season.
In fact, the only players the Celtics have on the roster who make more than $4 million are Simons, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser. Trading any of those guys in a salary dump just isn’t in the cards for the Celtics.
And even if they decided that dumping Simons’ salary was the best pathway forward, it doesn’t seem like many teams are chomping at the bit to take his contract on board.
Tatum and Brown aren’t getting traded, White seems very safe, and Pritchard’s contract is too valuable to move. Perhaps Hauser could be moved in the right deal, but it certainly wouldn’t be with the goal of dumping salary.
Plus, in order to reset the repeater tax, which the Celtics are currently paying since they have been above the second apron for multiple years, they wouldn’t just have to duck the first apron for a single season: They would have to do it twice in a row.
By the time the 2026-27 campaign rolls around, in an ideal world, Tatum will be healthy, so why should the Celtics hesitate to spend?
In theory, getting under the first apron this season could be a good idea, but there just isn’t an easy enough way to execute it without losing significant value on Simons’ contract (if any team even wanted to trade for him).