Maybe the Celtics just wanted to duck the tax for one season. Maybe this offseason, they are going to reload, go all in, and climb right back into the aprons with a bunch of aggressive, win-now moves. But it seems much more likely that, unless something too good to be true falls into their lap, they are content to stay under the tax for another season and reset the repeater tax.
That may sound disappointing to fans who will view that as a gap year following what was already a gap year in disguise, but this is a logical approach from the front office. And more importantly, just because they may not spend above the tax, that doesn’t mean they won’t be setting up the roster to win.
For starters, the Celtics have a plethora of tools at their disposal this offseason, and they can take advantage of almost all of them without overspending. It may take some cap gymnastics, but Brad and company have proven they’re more than capable in that department. The last thing they can afford to do is squander assets of any kind.
Celtics have rare free agency spending power
For starters, being under the tax by about $20 million, the Celtics will have some free agency tools to work with, most notably the midlevel exception (roughly $15 million) and the bi-annual exception (closer to $6 million). That’s over $20 million they can use in free agency, and they can use those weapons on single players or split them up.
Even if there isn’t a player on the market that they love, they must use the assets and create the salary slots so that they have tradeable salary down the road. But hopefully, they can attract free agents with better offers than most contenders can give.
Celtics loaded with TPEs
Celtics fans know all about traded player exceptions, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the team has several. They make up almost $45 million in total, with the big one being $27.7 million from the Anfernee Simons trade. They have a year before each one expires, so again, even if they don’t find an ideal target, they need to utilize these to roll over the asset and either add talent, tradeable salary, or create new TPEs for down the road.
They can also use the TPEs in restricted free agency as a key cog in a sign-and-trade, and they can use the MLE as a trade exception as well. While these tools can’t be aggregated, they give the Celtics a lot of possibilities to add middling contracts and players on more than minimum deals.
They can also cash in several of these exceptions to bring in players with tradeable salaries who can then be aggregated together to reach a higher number and go shopping for a true superstar on the trade market.
Celtics have two top-40 draft picks
Finally, the Celtics have two attractive draft picks at 27th and 40th overall. They’ve proven they can add meaningful talent that late in the draft, so these could be two more valuable rookies. The Cs could also dangle them in trade talks with some of their other players and assets to find a tangible upgrade.
They could also try to package the picks together, possibly with something else, and try to jump into the top 20 or even the lottery. If there’s a player that the scouting department really likes, it may be worth sacrificing some depth pieces to try to target a young difference-maker.
Stevens and his team have earned the benefit of the doubt, and almost everything they’ve touched has turned to gold. This feels like one of the most difficult and volatile offseasons the team has faced during his tenure at the helm. The pressure and urgency aren’t necessarily there to do it all this summer, but the gun is fully loaded, and the Celtics need to fire every bullet.
Add us as a preferred source on Google