The way the Celtics’ great 2025-26 season ended was embarrassing, blowing a 3-1 lead to the Sixers, and bowing out in the first round of the playoffs. Fans were upset, and rightfully so. It was a pitiful collapse that had many dreaming of big changes in the offseason.
Brad Stevens’ year-end press conference didn’t exactly change that sentiment as he basically agreed the team wasn’t good enough, and insisted that changes across the board were in play. At this point, thoughts of summer fireworks seemed realistic, with rumors of Giannis, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and other stars on the table more than ever.
But fast forward a few weeks, and now that we’ve had time to digest the loss and look around the landscape of the NBA, I can’t shake the feeling that the best path is, more or less, running it back next season. I know that’s not going to be a popular opinion among the fanbase, but unless something too good to resist falls into their laps, it makes the most sense.
Most of what the Celtics accomplished this season was without their best player, and then trying to reintegrate Jayson Tatum on the fly. It largely worked, but obviously, things fell apart at the worst time. That doesn’t mean the Celtics should blow this up. They have the best and most reliable superstar duo in the league.Â
The Jays are still the best duo in the NBA
Jaylen Brown took a massive leap, and JT should be fully healthy to start the season. There’s no real reason to mess with a proven top two that we know can play together and have already won one title and experienced loads of success. All of the big potential superstar trades out there involve parting with JB for older, injury-prone players who come with risk and red flags.
So then, as we start to look further down the roster, and while this team is far from perfect, it’s hard to get much better return on investment than what Boston is looking at. Everyone is talking about the bigs after a tough playoff showing, but let’s remember, this was basically the first year logging rotation minutes for Neemias Queta and Luka Garza.
Neemy popped off as a legit two-way starting center and one of the most improved players in the entire league. He has to learn some playoff tricks, but this was a good experience for him. He should only keep getting better, and the Cs can either pick up his minimum option or extend him on a team-friendly deal, both of which would be great uses of resources.
The same is true for Garza, who proved to be a solid backup stretch big man on a minimum deal. You simply can’t get better bang for your buck at the position. Sure, in a perfect world, they’d find a stretch big man who can also defend the rim and switch on defense, but those guys don’t grow on trees. Short of bringing Al Horford back to town, it’s hard to pinpoint a meaningful upgrade that solves any issues without creating others and costing significantly more money.
The guards have become underrated
The other potential position of weakness is guard. Boston could use another ballhandler and scorer, but again, looking at who they have, they aren’t going to find better players on better deals than Derrick White and Payton Pritchard. D-White had a down shooting year, but still does everything else brilliantly, and may be the best guard defender in the league.
Pritchard’s contract is an absolute steal, and if anything, his role should be expanded, and he should become a true focal point on offense who can push the pace, set the table, and get his own buckets. Boston is blessed with two great two-way guards on bargain contracts. Hunting for a big-money scoring guard who needs the ball in his hands to thrive does nothing for the team.
Going through the rest of the list, the same theme remains true. They’ve got a plethora of young two-way wings in Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, and Ron Harper Jr. All of these guys are on scam contracts; they should all keep getting better, and they should all play more.
Resetting the repeater tax a worthy endeavor
Could the Celtics go out and splurge on a slight upgrade? Perhaps, but it’s hard to imagine finding better value than just investing in what they already have. With Nikola Vucevic leaving in free agency, the Cs have some money to play with under the tax. They can use the midlevel exception and some of their trade exceptions. They can make some tweaks here and there and add guys who fit on the margins.
But overall, the team is very good and should keep getting better. Let’s see what this actually looks like with both Jays fully healthy to start the season, with Pritchard becoming a true lead guard, with all of the young wings impacting winning, and with year two of Neemy/Garza center combo.
The biggest changes needed are arguably from Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff. He has all of the tools at his disposal, but needs to keep pressing the right buttons, especially when the playoffs start. Otherwise, running it back and staying under the tax to reset the repeater tax makes an awful lot of sense. They can reassess next season, and then, if things don’t go well, they’ll have the ability to go out and break the bank next offseason.
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