Change is coming to the Boston Celtics this offseason.
That’s the sobering reality for a team that fell to the New York Knicks in the second round of the NBA playoffs and lost Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles that could sideline him most (if not all) of the 2025-26 season.
The Celtics are deep into the luxury tax and need to shed at least $20 million in salary this summer to get out of the second apron and avoid punitive penalties that would hamstring them from a roster-building and financial perspective.
Tatum’s injury, while devastating in the short term, could serve as an impetus for president of basketball operations Brad Stevens to make changes to a core that’s not getting any younger while better positioning the Celtics for success whenever Tatum returns to the court.
What might those changes look like? This week, our Celtics Insider Chris Forsberg laid out three potential paths that Boston could take this offseason, complete with hypothetical trades and objectives for each scenario. We then asked you to vote on which path you’d prefer, and the results were instructive for how Boston fans view this team’s short- and long-term future.
Below are brief recaps of Forsberg’s three paths, followed by the voting results.
Objectives:
- Get below the second apron by trimming $20-plus million in salary.
- Remain a tax-paying team, but limit the total spend.
- Keep much of the core intact … for now.
- Remain competitive in the East, even with Tatum out indefinitely.
- Identify and develop young, low-cost talent for rotation roles.
Road map:
- Trade Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser with limited financial return.
- Build a frontcourt with limited funds.
- Use draft assets to acquire young, low-cost talent.
Objectives:
- Get out of the luxury tax by trimming $40+ million in salary this summer.
- Complete the first of two years outside the luxury tax, with a goal of resetting restrictive repeater penalties.
- Dismantle the current core in favor of younger players and draft assets.
- Endure short-term pains for long-term rewards.
Road map:
- Trade Jaylen Brown and/or Derrick White, along with other core pieces.
- Fill out the roster with low-cost, high-upside talent.
- Allow Jayson Tatum to rehab for the entirety of the 2025-26 season.
- Embrace lottery status over playoff contention.
Objectives:
- Maintain much of the core, but understand the bumps ahead.
- Use interest in veteran pieces to generate future assets.
Road map:
- Maintain a core of Tatum, Brown and Derrick White.
- Load manage the stars over the next two seasons and lean into youth.
- Focus on returning to title contention for 2027-28 season.
Now let’s get to the voting results.
- ‘Golden State Bridge’: 42 percent
- Threading the Needle: 40 percent
- Full Reboot: 18 percent
- Threading the Needle: 62 percent
- ‘Golden State Bridge’: 23 percent
- Full Reboot: 16 percent
Not surprisingly, the “full reboot” path — which would involve trading Jaylen Brown and/or Derrick White — was the least popular among fans. Brown is a franchise cornerstone and 2024 NBA Finals MVP who is deeply involved in the Boston community, so it makes sense why fans wouldn’t want to part with him or White (a fan favorite in his own right), even if there’s the potential for long-term gain.
Opinions were somewhat split on the other two paths, but “threading the needle” seemed to be the overall favorite, with the Celtics dealing Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser to get under the second apron while managing to keep the rest of the core intact.
Which path the C’s choose ultimately may come down to the offers they receive on the trade market. But this exercise reinforces the idea that it would be very painful for Boston to completely blow it up this offseason.
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