Celtics Core May Not Survive With Potential Sale Looming

Will the Boston Celtics' pricey championship core be able to endure beyond the Grousbeck family's impending sale of the franchise?

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Per Brian Robb of MassLive, NBA rivals expect that the team's eventual new owner will likely have as much of an aversion to paying the team's record-breaking luxury tax bill as the current crop.

"Boston is currently on the hook for $513 million in combined salary and tax penalties for next season alone," Robb writes. "Paying that type of bill would be record breaking for any owner in the NBA history so needless to say, there’s some skepticism across the league that the Celtics new boss will come in willing to foot that bill. Just how much the Celtics will need to trim is the bigger question."

Boston's cheapest starter is two-time All-Defensive Team guard Derrick White, who'll make $28.1 million in 2025-26. White may also be the club's easiest non-All-Star to trade, given that he himself is a borderline All-Star making half the max and is significantly younger than Jrue Holiday and more durable than Kristaps Porzingis.

Center Kristaps Porzingis, who'll be 30 next year, will earn $30.7 million. If he were able to stay healthy, that would be a fair price to pay for a 7-foot-2 big man who can defend the rim and make 3-pointers at an efficient clip (he's connecting on an elite 40.5 percent of his 6.0 triple tries this season).

But he can't.

Porzingis has only played more 57 games in a season once since 2017-18. He missed most of the Boston's playoff run to its 18th championship last spring and summer, and has only suited up for 29 of the team's 55 games this year. He may be tough to move — and he also provides a ton of value that would be missed immeasurably if he were flipped.

"Trading away one big salary may not be enough with a deal that big," Robb notes. "The good news for Boston is that pretty much all their contracts right now are good values outside of perhaps Jrue Holiday so they should be able to field a solid return in the event of cost cutting."

BREAKING: After arriving in a blockbuster offseason trade, Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday has agreed on a four-year, $135 million contract extension, his agent Jason Glushon of @GlushonSM tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/Llln2yczSI
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 10, 2024

Holiday, 34, has shown signs of slippage on both ends of the floor in 2024-25 — hardly ideal given that his four-season, $135 million contract extension doesn't kick in until next year. He'll make $32.4 million in his first season of the deal.

Sixth man Payton Pritchard, inked to a four-year, $30 million contract extension in the summer of 2023, is on an insanely reasonable deal and could draw plenty of trade interest. He's the kind of underpaid talent that Boston may have to attach if it wants to offload Holiday's deal down the road.

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Celtics All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are both locked in to long-term, maximum contract extensions. Given that neither is yet 29, it would behoove the club to retain both forwards long into the future.

Jayson Tatum agrees on a five-year, $315M supermax extension with the Celtics, per B/R's @ChrisBHaynes

LARGEST CONTRACT IN NBA HISTORY 💰🤑 pic.twitter.com/b9PJyqVsbX
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 1, 2024

But as Robb notes, keeping this dynamic duo could dictate other roster changes in the name of saving on overhead. This second season of Boston's championship starting five — White, Holiday, Brown, Tatum and Porzingis — may also be its last.

"Needless to say, that’s why this current season is so crucial," Robb writes. "The hard questions comes this summer as new ownerships takes control but for now, the team has everything it needs to make one last run at full strength."

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