In the aftermath of the horrifying events that took place during last season’s playoffs, the Celtics were faced with two options; stay the course, try to contend, pay massive luxury tax penalties, and hinder the roster for the future, or take a “gap year”, sell off enough assets to get under the tax, and reset the roster to make another huge run in a year or two.
But somehow, Brad Stevens and his front office have masterfully found a way to split the difference and seemingly accomplish both goals at once. Trading Xavier Tillman Sr. to the Hornets just ahead of the trade deadline buzzer was the final domino, a cost-cutting move that allowed Boston to narrowly dip below the luxury tax line.
If I told you six months ago that the team ducked the tax at the deadline, you’d probably think they were on their way to a top-five pick in the upcoming draft. Yet somehow, we’ve seen the opposite take place.
Celtics roster is arguably better than if they had brought everyone back
The Celtics sold off big money, big-name players in Kristpas Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, and let Luke Kornet and Al Horford walk in free agency. Those moves seemed like punts that were financially driven, but just a few months later, it appears that the Cs made shrewd, smart, and savvy decisions.
Horford has missed a bunch of games and struggled to make much of an impact on a Warriors team that’s fighting to stay in the play-in tournament. KP has only been on the floor for 17 games, and the Hawks have already given up and flipped him again.
Jrue has been solid, but again, he has only played in 22 games, and his contract has not aged well at all. Kornet is arguably the only departure who has been worth their new contract, but even that is probably debatable.
Conversely, the team has hit home runs on Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, who have severely outperformed KP and Al this season on minimum contracts. Adding Vooch to that mix could even bring the frontcourt to another level with a new spacing element.
All of the new minutes available have also led to Boston striking gold on Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Hugo Gonzalez, all of whom have been high-impact players this season.
Add in the great deals for Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser, and the steadiness of Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, and you could make a strong argument that, despite appearing as “sellers” in the offseason, this roster is actually better than it would have been if they paid to keep the band together.
Even with a superstar, supermax player in Jayson Tatum riding the bench with an injury, this Celtics team can legitimately go 10-deep any given night, with intriguing deep bench options to boot. It’s not a coincidence that they are currently 33-18, tied for the second-best record in the East, and shaping up to be legitimate title contenders, especially if Jayson Tatum is able to return.
Celtics set up to go all-in for next few years
And to have accomplished that unlikely feat, while also shedding all of that salary, topped off by the SImons deal on Tuesday, followed by three minimum contract salary dumps just ahead of the deadline, including Tillman, Chris Boucher, and Josh Minott, to get the team out of the tax, is nothing short of amazing.
I’m the last one to celebrate ownership saving money, but the reality is that nobody is going to pay the highest possible financial penalties forever, so be grateful that it’s happening this season, which should allow the Celtics to spend even more freely going forward.
On top of that, there are tangible roster-building penalties that the Cs now avoid by getting out of the tax. The team will now have no restrictions on trades, no restrictions on the buyout market, access to the full midlevel exception, and the bi-annual exception.
Basically, short of having cap space to sign free agents, Brad Stevens and his crew can use just about any weapon at their disposal to improve the team going forward. We’ve seen Brad turn lemons into lemonade, and now he’s actually going to have some serious artillery to work with. That should be exciting news for Celtics fans, and scary news for the rest of the league.