Less than one year after raising Banner 18 into the TD Garden rafters, the Boston Celtics enter an offseason filled with uncertainty.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has several issues to address after watching the New York Knicks upset his team in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Most are related to Boston's complicated financial situation, as it's already committed to $228 million in contracts next season and is nearly $20 million over the second apron.
Given those financial constraints, running it back with the championship core will be next to impossible. Stevens must now make a pivotal decision: shed costs and embrace a bumpy 2025-26 campaign, or maintain as much of the group as he can to remain a top title contender.
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Addressing the media on Monday, Stevens opened his press conference with a brief statement on what lies ahead.
"I think that will all be driven by the same thing that's always driven us," he said. "And that is, ‘How do we get ourselves in the mix to compete for championships best?’"
Later in the session, Stevens spoke about the financial challenges he'll face in the coming months.
"We've been talking about this for years," Stevens said. "The CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) has been well-known for years, and so there are penalties associated with being at certain levels, and we know that. And you just weigh that, you weigh where we are, you weigh everything else, and you make those decisions.
"You have to have the clarity of a full season and the full playoffs and a couple good nights of sleep, and everybody gets in a room and put your heads together and figure out what's next."
The $228 million on the Celtics' payroll doesn't include big men Al Horford and Luke Kornet, who are about to hit the free-agent market. Jayson Tatum’s maximum-salary extension will kick in next season as he sits out much -- if not all -- of the campaign with a ruptured Achilles. Jaylen Brown will make $53.1 million in the second year of his max deal. Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis are set to earn $32.4 million and $30.7 million, respectively. Derrick White’s salary will jump up to $28.1 million.
"The North Star is to have a championship contender," Stevens continued. "You have to do what's best to give yourself the best opportunity to do that, when you can do that. We just have to look at it all and decide how feasible that is on any given year, and then make sure we are making the decisions accordingly.
"But the reality is, like I said, we have a lot of good players. We're in a unique situation. They're all under contract, and obviously there are several basketball penalties that will come with that amount of salary. So we just have to weigh it all and make those decisions."
The work will begin the day after the NBA Finals, when teams can start negotiations with their own free agents. Free agency officially begins on July 6.
Watch Stevens' end-of-season press conference below, or on YouTube: