The Boston Celtics have made several moves this summer to address salary cap issues as they will be without superstar Jayson Tatum for the 2025-26 season due to an Achilles injury. But will the Celtics be able to return to prominence when Tatum recovers? That’s the question a top NBA insider is posing.
Boston traded away Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers and Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks — two key pieces to their 2023-24 championship team — to get below the second tax apron of $207.8 million. If they stayed above that threshold, the Celtics would’ve been dealt strict penalties, including being unable to make sign-and-trades, trading away future first-round picks, and using a mid-level exception.
Holiday is owed $104.4 million over the last three seasons of his contract while Porzingis is owed $30.7 million in the final year of his deal.
The Celtics can also look to trade away Jaylen Brown (owed $236.1 million the next four seasons) and Derrick White (owed $125.8 million the next four seasons) to continue to reset their salary cap and recoup assets.
“Boston knew this day was coming; the Celtics were discussing it openly even as they were smashing Dallas in the 2024 NBA Finals,” The Athletic’s John Hollinger reports. “The repeater penalty in the 2023 CBA basically demands that Boston finish 2025-26 below the luxury-tax line, and they still have to whittle down $20 million in salary to get there.
“That said, the Celtics have taken the scalpel about as painlessly as possible so far. Dumping Holiday and receiving two seconds was a minor miracle, and Boston can likely take back significant draft capital if deals emerge for mainstays like Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Jaylen Brown.”
However, Hollinger questions if the Celtics can return to being a championship-caliber team when Tatum returns from injury.
“The real challenge, perhaps, comes next summer. Having torn so much down, how can the Celtics quickly build it back up so they can thrive again with a healthy Tatum?”
The Celtics will want to be title contenders again when Tatum returns for the 2026-27 season. If they do end up moving Brown and White for salary cap purposes, it might be tougher to get back to that mountaintop without them.
Matt Higgins worked in national and local news for 15 years. He started out as an overnight production assistant ... More about Matt Higgins