Long gone is the idea that this would be a “gap year” for the Celtics. They quickly put those thoughts to bed and flipped the script to the point where they’re now considered title contenders despite Jayson Tatum’s injury and the other offseason departures. The idea that they would duck the luxury tax and tank for a high draft pick while Tatum took the year off was clearly a misguided premise.
In recent weeks, reporting had picked up that the Celtics would be buyers, not sellers, at the deadline, and the team was linked to big-name, big-money players like Jaren Jackson Jr. and Rudy Gobert.
Ultimately, the Celtics don’t appear to be going in that direction as they made a cost-cutting move to shed Anfernee Simons’ contract for Nikola Vucevic, even though they had to pay the price of a strong 2nd round pick to do so.
But in the process, the Celtics dipped under the first apron, they preserved all of their 1st round picks, added another big, expiring contract (Vooch’s $21.5 million), and opened up a massive Traded Player Exception, worth the amount of Simons’ $27+ million salary.
Celtics can load up in the summer
Whether they take the final step and get all the way under the tax remains to be seen, but it looks like the team is going to wait to “all-in” again until the offseason. This team has performed incredibly, and they have a real chance to make noise in the playoffs this season, especially if Tatum is able to come back.
But even if this season doesn’t end with champagne showers, it will have been a massive success as they’ll be set up to reload for another title run next season. They have now created full flexibility with no trade restrictions, they have a TPE worth almost $30 million to absorb a player, and Brad will still have access to more than enough 1st and 2nd round picks to get in the mix for just about any player(s) he wants.
It’s not to say the Celtics are definitely going to go star hunting this summer, but if the right star shakes free, or perhaps a pair of slightly lower-tier stars - a la Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis a few years ago - that’s completely in play.
The only guaranteed contracts on the books for next season belong to Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and minimums and rookie deals. So, while Boston is clearly toeing the line a bit between buyers and sellers at the moment, make no mistake about it, they’ll be full-on hunters again a few months from now.