Celtics Offseason Hinges on Brad Stevens Making Tough Calls

Brad Stevens has some brutally tough decisions to make this summer.

Feb 28, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens before their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images | Winslow Townson-Imagn Images

The Boston Celtics had about as disappointing to the end of a season as a franchise can have. Not only were they eliminated in the second round by the New York Knicks, but they also lost Jayson Tatum to a torn Achilles.

That injury throws the entire franchise into disarray. They are already up against a big-time cap crunch, and this injury just makes things worse.

Ultimately, how Bill Chisholm wants to handle that massive tax bill will determine how many of the guys on the current roster return for next season.

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Brad Stevens is put in the unenviable spot of having to make these tough decisions after getting an edict from Chisholm. What he's able to do with the big-money guys is going to determine how much longer they might be contenders to make a deep playoff run.

Jure Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis have been mentioned as trade candidates because of their cap figures over the next couple of seasons. They are the most obvious guys that the Celtics would like to get rid of.

The problem is finding suitors for those players. They aren't coming off the best postseason performances, so it might just have to be a situation in which the Celtics give up draft picks for teams to take their contracts.

If they do have to go this route, it was worth it because the team won a title last year. While they thought the title window was going to be open longer than it was, trading for both of those guys was still the right now.

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The one thing the Celtics have going for them next season is that the Eastern Conference is going to be relatively weak. There's a good chance they can still make the playoffs next season.

Whether or not that would be advantageous for the future of the franchise remains to be seen. Stevens made all of the right moves last year to win a title.

How well he can pivot into a new space that the team is moving into could determine how quickly they get back to being title contenders.

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