If you tuned in to the press conference, you heard two buzzwords from President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens and majority owner Bill Chisolm: “optionality” and “basketball reasons.” For forty-five minutes, Celtics leadership defended their trade of Jaylen Brown by talking about the future flexibility that it created. There was talk about the analytical fit and the outside noise generated by the social media echo chamber, but really, this was about situational adaptability.
No, it wasn’t about switchability on defense or being able to play different kinds of Mazzulla Ball. We’re talking about optionality when it comes to team-building, specifically on the cap sheet. In addition to the picks and the potential they come with, another potentially bigger reason for flipping Brown for Paul George was one less year on their max contracts.
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But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take a snapshot of Boston’s books as it stands right now. Consider this one tidbit first:
That nearly $4 million seems insignificant, but when you’re hard-capped at the $209 million first apron — but in reality, they’re really motivated to get under the luxury tax line of $200 million in order to reset the repeater tax — every penny matters. According to former CelticsBlogger and Spotrac’s Keith Smith, the Celtics are just $1.1 million over the tax line; that includes a slight salary bump for Ron Harper Jr. using his non-Bird rights in Year 1 and Dalano Banton’s non-guaranteed deal for next season. The roster is maxed out in all fifteen slots, but should easily be able to limbo under the tax threshold again just like they did at last season’s trade deadline.
“I don’t anticipate anything in the very near term,” Stevens said of the roster as it stands on July 6th. “I think that we do like the team we have, we might be able to add to it, but at the end of the day, we like the group we have.”
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As JB put it in his farewell post, let’s” throw the ball up” and see what happens.
Now, Brad obviously won’t rule out moves at this season’s trade deadline or in the summer of 2027. A year from now, he could make changes around the margins, but really, this is all about 2028 when presumably George’s contract expires. So much can happen between now and then, but that offseason is a target-rich environment for seismic change.
Not unlike our rival’s summer this year, the Celtics could act as a cap space team just like the Lakers did this offseason. Los Angeles underwhelmingly filled it with a grab bag of overpaid players from a week free agency class, but Stevens could have a number of options in the 2028 Summer of the Center. Think of it: Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Nikola Jokic could all be available.
Boston will also have that 2028 first round draft pick. Adding a young stud to complement a veteran squad could be like adding, well, Jaylen Brown to a team with then Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
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To his credit, Chisolm dispelled any notion that the ownership doesn’t want to spend money. “Brad’s got the green light. I know people feel like oh there must be a smoking gun somewhere, that’s just not what this is about. I can say it but I’ll also prove it to you. When we have the opportunity we’re gonna do that.”
That offseason also coincides with the end of Payton Pritchard’s team-friendly rookie extension and he’ll get paid handsomely in his next deal. The front office will also have to make a decision on Baylor Scheierman and it’s possible that by then, they would have already signed him to a similar deal that Pritchard got after his rookie contract.
If you’re a student of history, this feels eerily like when the Celtics split up the Antoine Walker-Paul Pierce duo. Despite an unexpected run to the Eastern Conference Finals, newly hired Danny Ainge recognized it as fool’s gold and split the pair up. Four disappointing seasons later — after Raef LaFrentz and Ricky Davis and Wally Szczerbiak and Al Jefferson and Antoine Walker coming back! — he put together the Big Three with Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen in the middle of their primes. They won a championship in their first season after winning just 24 games the year prior.
Hopefully, with the parity and speed that the league operates with now, it won’t take that long. Instead of four years, maybe it’s two. Hopefully, it’s two. And for all we know, the defending Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year hang Banner 19 sooner and we’re gunning for Banner 20 in 2028.
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Anything is possible, right?
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