As the Boston Celtics navigate the NBA's punishing collective bargaining agreement and work to regain flexibility, Paul Pierce offered a cautionary message.
"I still think their window is open. I hope they don't trade JB, though. As long as you got Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, you can figure out the other pieces," voiced Pierce on Podcast P with host Paul George. "So you could say for the next six years, let's see what's up with these two... This is the year coming up to where you [are] like, alright, this is a transition year, let's evaluate everything. Let's see how far or how close we are when Tatum comes back."
The 2008 NBA Finals MVP also acknowledged the restrictions that the Celtics are dealing with after going over the second apron in consecutive seasons.
"Man, you don't like it because you looked at a team when they won last year. You like, man, this team could be a dynasty. They were all relatively young still," said Pierce. "They didn't already been through their growing pains and stuff, but you start to understand the business of it now."
The Celtics have already done the heavy lifting
Boston got the most challenging tasks out of the way before the NBA Draft. Painful as it was, they parted with Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.
After the second round concluded, the organization's vice president of basketball operations and team counsel, Mike Zarren, voiced, "There's a bit of wistfulness always when guys move on, but at the same time, the rules are the same rules for everyone."
Those moves are the driving force behind the Celtics' effort to regain flexibility. The 18-time NBA champions are now $7.3 million under the second apron. They're $4.6 million over the first. They're also $12.6 million over the luxury tax threshold.
If they can stay under the latter in consecutive campaigns, it would allow them to reset the repeater tax.
Their new financial outlook means it would take that much more spectacular of an offer to pry Brown [or Derrick White] from Boston. It's a notion that Zarren laughed off when speaking with the media after the draft.
"There hasn't been anything close to serious about trading them," said Zarren. "I'm not sure where all this reporting came from, but those guys are key parts of our team, and we're lucky to have them here."
At the moment, it looks like Pierce will get his wish and that Brown will be in Boston to help lead the Celtics through a challenging season without Tatum. The two could then have a chance to bring the other part of Pierce's message to fruition, leading the franchise back to title contention.