Here’s how Celtics draft selections could factor into team in 2025
Boston might be relying heavier on young talent in 2025 than it did the last few seasons.
The Celtics are entering 2025 in a very different position than they have the last few seasons.
Since Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown propped Boston’s championship window open a number of years ago, the Celtics have been quick to surround their two young stars with veterans in search of a championship. In 2024, Boston reached the mountaintop, but at the cost of a bloated payroll unsustainable for longer than a couple of seasons.
Now, with Tatum set to rehab his torn achilles for the majority of the 2025-26 season, the Celtics are hitting somewhat of a reset button on their lineup. Trading Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday brought Boston back below the second apron of the luxury tax, which theoretically can free them up to make free agency moves.
However, the Celtics are only under that second apron by approximately $4 million. And with two (literally) huge pending free agents in Al Horford and Luke Kornet, and other weaknesses in the lineup, Brad Stevens may not be done dealing away roster fixtures in order to put the Celtics in the best position to get by until Tatum’s return.
With that, the 2025 NBA Draft felt a little bit more important for Boston than it has in some time. Typically, Stevens drafts players who don’t make the Celtics’ roster right away. They spend time in the G League developing before a spot on the NBA roster becomes available for them.
But in 2025-26, Boston might be leaning more heavily on its younger players to fill out the bottom of the rotation, especially if it deals more players away this offseason.
Here’s how the Celtics roster shakes out currently
The Celtics drafted a guard/wing with high potential in Hugo Gonzalez, along with a pair of late second-round picks in seven-foot center Amari Williams and smaller guard Max Shulga. One or more of those picks could factor into Boston’s lineup sooner rather than later.
Williams could even earn depth minutes right away to start the season, given the Celtics’ current lack of bigs. As of Thursday night, Neemias Queta and Williams are the only centers on Boston’s roster. Horford was committed to playing at least one more season as of May, and would likely be brought back by the Celtics as a top priority in the offseason.
But if Boston doesn’t shift enough money lying around to also retain Kornet, Williams would be in line to compete with Queta for Boston’s backup center role. And given that Joe Mazzulla has utilized up to four centers over the course of a game in the past, Williams might get minutes either way if he performs well enough in camp.
Gonzalez, despite being the slightly higher pick, currently has a slightly murkier pathway to get minutes early this season. He’s currently one of six guards on Boston’s depth chart. Derrick White, Anfernee Simons and Payton Pritchard will likely get the most starting minutes of the group if they all remain with the team, and Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh and Gonzalez will fight for rotation spots.
Those guards will seemingly have an added opportunity off the bench, though, as the Celtics’ forward group is particularly thin to start 2025. Jaylen Brown is the only consistent starter healthy in that group. Sam Hauser could see his usage increased, and after that, Boston has Xavier Tillman, Miles Norris and Georges Niang as its depth forwards.
That’s an advantage particularly helpful for Gonzalez, whose massive 6-foot-11 wingspan can make a transition to a forward role easier if that’s where the Celtics would prefer to play him.
Gonzalez certainly has the most potential of Boston’s 2025 crop of rookies; one NBA draft evaluator even called Gonzalez “one of the steals of the draft.”
Shulga looks to be more of a developmental project. The 57th pick in the draft is 6-foot-4 with intriguing offensive upside. But he’ll need to gain a lot of physicality and pick up his game on the defensive end if he hopes to make an impact in Boston.
Still, the Celtics have three new rookies on their training camp roster as they prepare to play their first extended period of action without Tatum since he entered the league in 2017.
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