Even after a convincing win in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Boston Celtics are set to make some major changes this offseason. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, teams across the league believe the Boston Celtics will have to break up their current roster to relieve their financial burden.
“Right now, Boston is fully focused on winning a championship. That is the No. 1 focus: repeating. I can tell you that the rest of the league is bracing for some level of change to come to the Celtics from their roster this offseason. Sources have been telling me for weeks now that the Celtics will be exploring trade options in the offseason,” said Shams Charania on the Pat McAfee Show. “This iteration is just not gonna be sustainable for this team, and no one around the organization would be surprised if changes there are coming to this roster. When you think about the collective bargaining agreement, there are restrictions that come with changes, restrictions that come with freezing draft picks. That’s all the stuff they’re dealing with right now… the Celtics knew when they traded for Jrue Holiday that they’d be staring at this in the face this summer.”
The NBA’s new CBA has changed the way that GMs are allowed to build their team. Before, any team willing to pay the luxury tax could operate with almost full impunity, and it allowed some organizations to construct wildly overpowered rosters.
The new CBA, however, introduced a second tax apron that is set $17.5 million above the traditional luxury tax line. Any team under this second apron faces massive penalties, including restrictions on trades, free agency signings, and the use of mid-level exceptions. It essentially negates a team’s financial flexibility while also costing the owners a fortune.
The Celtics are a relatively prosperous franchise, but their leadership is changing hands after a group led by Bill Chisholm made a bid to purchase the team for $6.1 billion. While it will be a few years before they take control, the new owners have made it clear that they are unable to sustain their historic payroll, even if it has gotten great results.
On paper, the Boston Celtics have one of the best teams in the league. Fresh off a championship run in 2024, the Celtics won 61 games this season to secure the second seed in the East. In the regular season, they were second in offense and fifth in defense with the second-best net rating in the league.
Unfortunately for the Cs, they also had the third-highest payroll in the league for the 2024-25 campaign with a total of $195.6 million. Between Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday, it’s costing the Celtics a fortune to keep the team together, and the expenses will only rise next season with a projected cap hit of $263.9 million.
The only way for the Celtics to lower that number and get out of the luxury tax is to make some serious roster changes. Assuming that Tatum and Brown are untouchable, the Celtics will likely shop guys like Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Sam Hauser to try and ease their financial burden.
The question is, what kind of players could they get back in return? With so much star power, the Celtics will be competitive for the foreseeable future, but if they go overboard with the changes this summer, it could set them back by years.
