The 2025-26 Boston Celtics will look very different compared to this time a year ago.
Last year’s Celtics retained many of the key players who brought banner 18 to Boston. Due to salary cap and luxury tax restrictions, the C’s will have to find new guys to rely on following the departure of key pieces like Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet.
Celtics brass met with media today at the Auerbach Center. New majority governor Bill Chisholm was joined by alternate governor/CEO Wyc Grousbeck, alternater governor Aditya Mittal, team president Rich Gotham, and president of basketball ops Brad Stevens. Stevens was asked if there was a goal to get under the luxury tax ahead of the 2025-26 season.
“Obviously, if you looked at this summer and you looked as we moved forward, the summer demanded a reset under the second apron. if you go back to the Derrick White trades, the Porzingis or Holiday trades when they came here, those wouldn’t be able to happen if you’re over the second apron because you can’t aggregate contracts and you can’t take more money back than you send out. You have to give yourself the flexibility and opportunity to jump at the right deals. You don’t always know when those are going to present themselves. So, the second apron was the key.”
The Celtics went into the off-season with a projected team salary of around $230 million. Trading Porzingis ($30.7 million cap hit) and Holiday ($32.4 million cap hit), plus not retaining Kornet and Horford dropped the salary to about $200 million for this year. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White will account for over $130 million this year.
“There’s no tax goal,” said Stevens. “There’s nothing that’s set in stone that we have to get to a certain level.”
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Chisholm was asked point-blank if getting under the luxury tax was a goal for the organization.
“My goal and my high-level direction for Brad and the team is let’s do whatever we can to win championships and raise banners and raise as many as we can, both in the near term but also in the medium and long term as well,” Chisholm said. “The flexibility that Brad talks about, I think that’s paramount to doing that. Ultimately, we’re going to do everything we can to win. That is job No. 1. Not just win games, win championships.”
“I don’t mean to be glib, but there are three things I would say,” Chisholm continued. “First is Derrick White, second is Jrue Holiday, third is Kristaps Porziņģis. We couldn’t have gotten those guys on the team. We’re playing for the flexibility to do that kind of thing and when the moment is right to do that, we’re going to do it.”
For the Celtics, the next step is to replace Holiday and Porzingis with future impact pieces. For now, Chisholm is promising the team will accomplish that.
Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.