For the first time in what feels like a decade, the Boston Celtics are entering the season without being legitimate championship contenders. Sure, they haven’t been juggernauts in some recent years, but they’ve been amongst the league’s elite for the most part.
Fans saw the front office have to swing cash-cutting trades this summer, which sent Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers and Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks. It also doesn’t help that Jayson Tatum is expected to miss the upcoming campaign as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
One constant for Boston will be All-Defensive guard Derrick White, who will be playing his fifth season with the Celtics. White discussed how #DifferentHere it’ll be for the Cs in the 2025-26 season during a recent episode of his “[White Noise](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuhnFJm8EqY)” podcast.
“It’s definitely going to be different. It has to be,” he explained. “We lost KP, Jrue, Luke, and obviously JT being out. So, you lose three out of five starters. And even Al. So it’s definitely going to change. We’re a younger team.”
This offseason has certainly had the most significant turnover since White became a Celtic in February of 2022.
“Kind of ever since I’ve been in Boston, we’ve had the same core,” he continued. “We’ve had the same group. Obviously, we still have a lot of people from (those teams) — me, JB (Jaylen Brown), Sam (Hauser), Payton (Pritchard) — people that know how we do things. But I think that’ll be probably the biggest adjustment — just getting everybody accustomed to how we do things in Boston and how we like to play, how we operate. So I think that will be the biggest adjustment, just getting the new guys on board as quickly as possible.”
**New faces aren't lowering the standard for the Celtics**
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Anfernee Simons, Josh Minott, Luka Garza, Chris Boucher, and a class of four rookies, including RJ Luis Jr., who joined the Cs via trade last month, will all have to get comfortable playing in Joe Mazzulla’s system.
According to White, many of the new faces are already in Boston, putting in work at the Auerbach Center.
“Obviously, we’ve got training camp and everything, and I’ve heard everybody is already out there (in Boston) pretty much, so they’re already probably getting a start. But then we’re just hooping. We’ve got a bunch of competitors.”
Though there may not be championship-level aspirations around the Cs this season, that doesn’t mean that the players aren’t going to go out there and compete every night. Every player who’s commented on the upcoming year this summer has conveyed the same message: they won’t be tanking.
If there's one thing fans can count on from the Celtics, it's that they're going to carry the franchise's high standards with them each night.