The Boston Celtics were set to go into the 2025-26 NBA season exceeding the second apron and risked facing serious penalties.
But with two trades, they got under the second apron.
While it took trading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, Bill Simmons was impressed with president of basketball operations Brad Stevens’ moves.
“This was a borderline miracle,” The Ringer founder said on a recent episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “They lopped off, miraculously, $28 million in two trades,” he said of the Holiday and Porzingis trades. “They got under the second apron, which doesn’t just save them almost $200 million in luxury tax, but also has all these other positive roster benefits.”
The moves leave the Celtics without two key players ahead of a season that will likely see Boston without Jayson Tatum for most, if not all of the year due to a ruptured Achilles. Even so, Simmons still has faith in the 2023-24 NBA champions.
“I’m not sure the Celtics are going to be that bad next year in this weird Eastern Conference,” he said. “Maybe Jaylen Brown’s like, ‘This is my time now, I can carry us.’”
The Celtics have a lot of questions surrounding them going into the 2025-26 campaign, including how Brown will bounce back from a minimally invasive procedure to clean out his knee he underwent earlier this month.