Celtics
"It was really important for us to get us out of that penalty box in a lot of ways."
Boston Celtics Brad Stevens gave an end of the season press conference at the Auerbach Center on Monday, May 19, 2025.
Brad Stevens had to shed payroll this offseason for the Celtics. Suzanne Kreiter / Globe Staff
By Conor Ryan
July 8, 2025 | 3:10 PM
3 minutes to read
In an ideal situation, the Celtics would still have Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis on the parquet floor in 2025-26.
Even with Jayson Tatum likely out for the entire season while rehabbing a ruptured Achilles tendon, Boston could still be a tough out in a diminished Eastern Conference this fall — with Holiday’s defensive talents and Porzingis’ versatile skillset making sizable impacts on a reworked roster.
Instead, two lineup regulars who played key roles in Boston’s 18th championship will be playing elsewhere — as Brad Stevens and the Celtics made the call earlier this month to trade away both Holiday and Porzingis in separate deals.
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For Stevens, the decision to part ways with two key fixtures in Boston’s most-recent contention window had little to do with the return gained from their trades with the Hawks and Trail Blazers — nor was it a calculated decision to shutter Boston’s latest opportunity to contend with Tatum on the mend.
Rather, this painful offseason was an expected consequence for the Celtics for years — with looming luxury-tax penalties and the restrictions hindering teams operating above the second apron of the league’s financial thresholds, forcing Stevens to cut salary drastically.
“I mean, the second apron is why those trades happen,” Stevens told reporters on Tuesday about the factors that led to the Holiday and Porzingis trades. “I think that those are pretty obvious, and the basketball penalties associated with those are real. We’ve all talked about that.
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“But we were fortunate because we liked the guys we got back. And I think that that’s one of the things that we are excited about.”
Even if the Celtics needed to get under that second apron in order to both free up roster flexibility and lessen a luxury-tax burden that initially had Boston assuming nearly $300 million in penalties next season (atop a projected $233 million payroll), the price of moving on from Holiday and Porzingis will still sting Boston moving forward.
“Jrue Holiday is — I think he stamped his Hall-of-Fame candidacy here, if he didn’t already have it,” Stevens said. “And we’ll look forward to watching and rooting and following him from afar. But he’s as good of a person as you could ever have in your building and as part of your team.
“And KP — he fought some of the stuff, health-wise, in the last two years, but when he played, he was awfully good, and we think he’ll be awfully good for Atlanta this year. And so again, those are not easy trades to make. Those are not easy phone calls. Obviously, those guys have been around the league a long time. They knew the CBA, they knew that there was a high likelihood that they could be part of a move, and they were communicated that before. But it’s still hard when you are [traded]. We will miss them, and we’re thankful for them.”
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As arduous as it is for Stevens and other team personnel across the NBA to navigate the new CBA and the fiscal-related restrictions in place, Stevens added that both players and agents are also aware of these same hurdles — which could lead to many more key players having short tenures with teams as trades become the easiest avenue toward manipulating a roster.
“It’s never easy,” Stevens said of calling Porzinigs and Holiday about the trades. “Well, Porzingis was asleep, and by the time he woke up, I was asleep. But he knew he was probably going to get traded, so I think he was OK. But no, we talked. I actually talked to both those guys a couple weeks before and just said, ‘Listen, there’s a chance that you’re back, but there’s also a high chance that you’re not.’
“And the agents have done a good job of understanding the challenges of the new CBA and the second aprons, and it was really important for us to get us out of that penalty box in a lot of ways, because you can feel those, and those are real things.”
Profile image for Conor Ryan
Conor Ryan
Sports Writer
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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