The Celtics have plenty of big questions on the horizon in the wake of the team’s $6.1 billion sale to Bill Chisholm. In the short term, none are bigger than whether ownership can afford to keep the team together beyond this season.
Team governor Wyc Grousbeck will remain in his current role through those decisions with incoming ownership, as the sale process takes effect in two parts, starting this summer and concluding in 2028.
During that time, Grousbeck is expected to collaborate with Chisholm and his group as the team navigates through a massive offseason with a skyrocketing payroll and luxury tax penalties. How will the team handle a payroll that is currently projected to land north of $233 million with nearly $300 million in luxury tax penalities? Grousbeck shed some light on the upcoming situation during an interview on Friday morning with the Greg Hill Show on WEEI.
“Let me put a pin in that balloon too,” Grousbeck said when asked about the challenges of staying in the luxury tax. “It’s not the luxury tax bill, it’s the basketball penalties. The new CBA was designed by the league to stop teams from going crazy. They decided that it’s not good enough to go after the wallets because the fans can be like, ‘Hey find someone who can afford to spend $500 million dollars a year or whatever it is, like the English Premiere League. I know seven guys who own premiere league teams in England with no spending caps and most of them don’t know what the hell is going on.”
Grousbeck went on to describe the various team building basketball penalties involved with being a second apron, something the Celtics have been above for this season and the team’s championship run. While doing so, he dropped a very big hint about Boston’s plans for the upcoming ownership as new ownership is phased in.
“The basketball penalties mean that it’s even more of a premium now to have your basketball general manager be brilliant and lucky,” Grousbeck said. “Because you have to navigate because you can’t stay in the second-apron, nobody will, I predict, for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one is going to stay in the second apron more than two years.”
The NBA second apron for next season is currently projected to be $207 million while the Celtics already have $227 million in payroll committed to 11 players for 2025-26. If the Celtics stay above the second apron next year, that would be the third straight season they do so.
To solve this issue, Grousbeck pointed to his faith in the front office to keep Boston’s contending window amid second apron concerns.
“We have Brad Stevens, the reigning Executive of The Year, and thank god we do,” Grousbeck said. “He’s the one who really brought us this championship with his brilliant moves --along with many other people -- but Brad is at the forefront. He’s looking at this and is going to extend our window and make it work. We’ll find out in June or July what we’re going to do.”
The Celtics are currently dealing with a number of restrictions as a second apron team, which will continue for next year if the team doesn’t dip under that $207 million payroll number. Here’s a list of the more notable restriction:
—Can’t acquire a player via sign-and-trade
—Can’t use mid-level or bi-annual exception in free agency
—Can’t sign a player who was making more than mid-level via buyout
—Can’t aggregate two or more player salaries in a trade
—Can’t send out cash in a trade
—A future first round pick is frozen seven years out (unable to be traded) a team is in second apron.
—Frozen first round picks could be moved to end of first round if a team stay above second apron in three of five years.
The Celtics are one of three teams that are above the second apron this season along with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns.
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