8 things to know as Celtics begin offseason full of questions
Boston is projected to have a potential record-setting payroll for the 2025-26 season.
Unlike last June, the Celtics won’t enter the offseason wiping confetti and champagne off their championship merch as they ride duck boats through the streets of Boston.
Instead, the Celtics and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens will have to work to find a way to get the organization back on a championship stage again this offseason. Their 2024-25 season came to a disappointing end Friday night, when they were blown out by the Knicks in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series.
Boston’s hopes of repeating might have ended four days before that, though. Jayson Tatum suffered an Achilles tear in the team’s Game 4 loss to New York, ending his season and adding a massive wrinkle to the 2025-26 season.
The loss of Tatum is just one of the many things that the Celtics will have to navigate in the coming months. As the Celtics begin the offseason, here are eight things to know.
When will the sale of the team go through?
Bill Chisholm’s $6.1 billion purchase of the Celtics has been fully financed and is expected to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors sometime in June or July, The Boston Globe‘s Adam Himmelsbach reported Thursday. The deal is reportedly expected to be approved.
Current Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain in control of the organization through the end of the 2027-28 season.
What’s the Celtics’ salary situation?
Boston’s payroll will be at the forefront this offseason. Even before the offseason begins, the Celtics are slated to have one of the most expensive rosters ever across all sports. They have $464 million committed in payroll next season in salaries and repeat luxury tax penalties, ESPN’s Bobby Marks previously reported. If the Celtics keep their draft picks, don’t trade anyone, and sign players to veteran minimum deals to round the roster, that number will exceed $500 million, according to Marks.
In terms of salaries, the Celtics already have $227.8 million committed to next season’s roster, per Spotrac. That’s $73 million above the projected $154 million salary cap. It’s also nearly $32 million north of the first luxury tax apron and roughly $20 million north of the second luxury tax apron. The Celtics are projected to have a luxury tax bill of roughly $238 million for the 2025-26 season.
Who is set to become a free agent?
Al Horford and Luke Kornet headline the list of the Celtics’ pending free agents. Both big men’s contracts will expire on June 30.
Both players were also essential to Boston’s big man rotation over the last few seasons. The 38-year-old Horford averaged nine points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 27.7 minutes per game, starting 42 of the 60 regular-season games he played in due to Kristaps Porzingis’s health woes. He also stepped up big defensively in several games throughout the year, with Boston going 31-11 in the games Horford started.
As for Kornet, the 29-year-old arguably had a career year in 2024-25. He averaged six points, 5.3 rebounds, and one block in 18.6 minutes per game. He started in 16 of the 73 games he played in, with his plus-14.9 net rating ranking fourth among players who appeared in at least 50 games during the regular season.
Forward Torrey Craig is the only other unrestricted free agent on the Celtics’ roster. He appeared in 17 games for the Celtics after the team signed him in February, mostly playing non-impactful minutes.
Guard JD Davision has a team option while forward Drew Peterson is a restricted free agent.
What draft picks do the Celtics have in the 2025 NBA Draft and beyond?
The Celtics will have a first-round pick again in 2025, holding the 28th overall pick. They made a first-round pick for the first time in Stevens’s tenure as the head of basketball operations in 2024 after trading their first-round pick in the 2021, 2022, and 2023 drafts.
Boston will also pick early in the second round, with the 32nd overall pick. That pick was originally the Wizards’ selection, but the Celtics received it as part of a draft night trade in 2023.
Beyond the 2025 draft, the Celtics are in possession of all but one of their first-round picks for the foreseeable future. They owe their 2029 first-round pick to either the Trail Blazers or Wizards, which they gave up in the trade to land Jrue Holiday in 2023. That pick is unprotected. It should also be noted that the Spurs also hold pick-swap rights to the Celtics’ first-round pick in 2028, top-one protected.
In terms of trading first-round picks, Boston can’t move its 2032 selection because it went over the second luxury tax apron this past season. They’re also only allowed to trade one future first-round pick this offseason due to league rules.
The Celtics also hold four second-round picks beyond the 2025 draft.
The 2025 NBA Draft will take place on June 25-26.
What moves are the Celtics limited to making entering the offseason?
As the Celtics are above the second luxury tax apron, they’re limited in what they can do to improve the roster for the 2025-26 season. They can only sign free agents via the veteran’s minimum. In terms of players who were bought out, they can only sign players who were scheduled to earn less than $14.1 million in the 2025-26 season.
Boston will also be hamstrung in its ability to make trades. It can’t aggregate salaries to send out in a trade for a player with a larger salary. Its 2032 first-round pick is frozen and its 2033 first-round pick will become frozen if it remains above the second luxury tax apron. They also can’t send any cash in trades.
What moves can the Celtics make to get under the second luxury tax apron?
Arguably, the easiest way for the Celtics to get under the second luxury tax apron would be to offload Porzingis in a trade while bringing make $0 in salary. That’s a lot easier said than done, though.
Porzingis has a $30.7 million salary for the 2025-26 season, which is the final year of a two-year extension he signed when he joined the Celtics in 2023. But very few teams will have the cap space to take on that salary without having to send money back to the Celtics. As of Sunday, the Nets and Pistons are the only teams projected to have more than $20 million in practical cap space this offseason.
Porzingis also had a poor showing in the postseason as he battled an unknown illness, which likely hurt his trade value. The Celtics would likely have to add some draft capital in order to move Porzingis in such a deal.
If the Celtics can’t or don’t want to offload Porzingis in that fashion, there are several other ways they can shed the over $20 million needed to get below the second tax apron. Jrue Holiday has a $32.4 million cap hit as part of a four-year, $134.4 million extension he signed in 2024. Derrick White has a $30.4 million cap hit for next season as he enters the second year of a four-year, $118 million deal.
Boston could also trade one of its top stars to help clear salary. Jaylen Brown has a $53.1 million cap hit for the 2025-26 season as he enters the second year of a $285.4 million deal.
Trading Brown would be a major move and it wouldn’t be ideal for the Celtics to give away one of their top stars, but moving him would be one of the easier ways for Boston to shed salary. If the Celtics traded any combination of Brown, Holiday, White, or Porzingis and took at least less than $20 million back in salary, they would likely get below the second tax apron.
The Celtics could also move Sam Hauser or Payton Pritchard to help facilitate a trade that would get them under the second tax apron. However, neither player has a salary large enough (Hauser at $10.04 million, Pritchard at $7.2 million) that trading them alone would get the Celtics under the second luxury tax apron. But trading either of them could lead to major savings against the tax. If Boston moved Hauser, it would save $80 million in luxury tax penalties, according to Marks.
How will Tatum’s Achilles injury impact the Celtics’ roster in 2025-26?
Beyond the payroll situation, Tatum’s Achilles injury will likely be the other key motivation surrounding every move the Celtics make this offseason. Boston’s top star is set to miss at least a good portion of the 2025-26 season after tearing his Achilles in its Game 4 loss to New York. While Tatum quickly underwent surgery to repair the injury, the Celtics didn’t announce a timetable for his return.
Tatum is entering the first year of a five-year, $313.9 million deal (the richest contract in NBA history) in 2025-26. His projected $54.1 million salary for next season will still count against the cap.
There is a way the Celtics can recuperate at least some of the value lost through Tatum’s injury, though. Boston has until Jan. 15, 2026, to file for a disabled player exception for Tatum. If a league-approved doctor determines that it’s “substantially more likely than not” that Tatum will be sidelined through June 15, 2026, the Celtics will receive the $14.1 million exception that it can use to sign a free agent or in a trade.
While the exception wouldn’t count against the salary cap, it would count against the Celtics’ luxury tax. So, using it without shedding salary would significantly add to the tax bill next season.
What are the latest rumors surrounding the team?
- Al Horford didn’t say if he would play in the 2025-26 season when he was asked on Saturday. That’s a change from a previous comment he made and what reporters indicated in recent weeks, as the expectation was that he would play in 2025-26. He turns 39 in early June.
- Jayson Tatum’s father told ESPN’s Marc Spears that he expects his son to be out eight to nine months from the Achilles injury. That would be a more optimistic timeline for that injury, as most players are sidelined for a whole calendar year after an Achilles tear.
- Jaylen Brown also battled an injury during the postseason. He partially tore the meniscus in his right knee, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported Saturday. A determination will be made in the next week on whether he’ll need surgery or not. If Brown undergoes surgery, the timeline for recovery from most meniscus operations would likely have him back by the first game of the regular season.
- It was reported on multiple occasions before the 2024-25 season ended that the Celtics were likely to shed salary this offseason. NBA executives are “monitoring” Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday as the likely players Boston would move in such a deal, The Stein Line’s Jake Fischer reported in March.
- Luke Kornet could’ve boosted his value in free agency with his solid performance in 2024-25 and his heroics in Game 5 against the Knicks. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps noted on a recent episode of the “Hoop Collective” that Kornet turned down larger offers and opportunities to play more last offseason when he re-signed with the Celtics on the veteran’s minimum. Bontemps added that he suspects Kornet “will continue to re-sign with the Celtics on the contract he’s on for some time.
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