The Celtics didn’t achieve their goal this season, but the team hopes fans don’t count them out.
Boston was eliminated in the second round after the New York Knicks closed it out in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden on Friday. It was quicker end than anticipated, meaning the C’s had to look to the future Saturday.
The Celtics are expected to make big changes due to the financial implications of running it back for a second straight season. Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury is likely to keep him out for most of the 2025-26 season, but Payton Pritchard doesn’t think those factors mean Boston’s title window is closed.
“I look at it like the Spurs, right? You consider them having a dynasty,” Pritchard told reporters, per Jack Simone of Hardwood Houdini. “They never went back-to-back, but since they never went back-to-back, are all those years that they didn’t win a failure, or did those years help them win the next championship?”
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San Antonio won three championships in five years from 2003-07; it won four in nine years if you want to include the 1999 NBA title. And Pritchard is correct, the Spurs are remembered as a dynasty. It’s similar to the Patriots, who won also won three Super Bowls in five seasons. Granted New England made three straight Super Bowl games, but those teams didn’t win back-to-back titles.
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Boston’s championship window will be determined by how it retools and by the development of its players. That’s why Pritchard doesn’t entirely view this season as a failure.
“I don’t look at it as a failure. I don’t look at any situation like that as a failure,” Pritchard said, per WEEI’s Justin Turpin. “Failure is only when you stop trying to compete for something. … I will be a better player next year.”
Pritchard will have that opportunity due to Tatum’s injury, and it will benefit the Celtics well if this season’s Sixth Man of the Year can reach another level. It’s what should keep fans’ optimism high despite the sour feelings of how Game 6 and the Eastern Conference semifinals went.