If you’re getting tired of hearing about salary cap minutiae as a Celtics fan, I can’t say I blame you. Aprons, luxury taxes, frozen picks, and other vocabulary words have become commonplace when trying to follow your favorite basketball team. And while the CBA has made this an extremely important part of team-building in the modern NBA, it’s still not the most exciting thing in the world for the average fan.
Well, if that sounds like you, don’t worry, because the long, painful road to resetting the tax penalties appears to finally be ending. The Celtics have just about finished building out their roster and seem destined to stay where they are: just under the luxury tax line for the 2026-27 season.
Celtics on track to finally reset the repeater tax
This will be the second straight season that the team is out of the tax and will reset the repeater tax and clear them of all apron-related penalties from the very expensive teams of a few years ago. It has certainly been painful to see them cut costs and ship out so many good players, but that’s the price of competing in this day and age, and for them to go on another run and sustain their high level, it was essentially a requirement.
Assuming that’s the plan and the Celtics don’t add salary between now and the end of the year, they’ll go into next summer with a clean slate and a green light to spend. They’ll have no restrictions and should be able to build the roster however Brad Stevens and his team see fit.
And that’s good news because the team is set to get a lot more expensive next year, with extensions kicking in for Neemias Queta and Jordan Walsh, plus raises for most of the other key players on the squad. They’ll also have a massive Paul George player option to navigate, and by then, we’ll have clarity on a new deal for Payton Pritchard and possibly even Derrick White.
Celtics almost guaranteed to be over the tax next season
Even without adding new talent, the roster is set to cost just over $219 million for 2027-28, and even with a recent higher cap projection than previously expected, that should put Boston’s roster about $6 million over the tax line with only 12 players.
Obviously, a lot can change between now and then, but the good news is that the money shouldn’t matter as much, and Stevens and the front office won’t have to pinch pennies and find loopholes to keep the team under the tax again next season or any time soon.
Then again, for all we know, the Celtics will make another move this season. Maybe they’ll use some of their traded player exception from Anfernee Simons and dip back over the tax. And maybe we’ll all be playing this game again next year. For the record, I highly doubt it. But you never know.
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