How the Celtics Are Failing the Offseason
It’s no secret by now that the Celtics are in quite the pickle following Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tendon tear during their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Knicks. With an injury of this magnitude, Tatum is expected to miss potentially all of next season, with the chance that he may never return as the player we all remember. With their superstar on the sidelines for an extended period, eyes are on the Boston Celtics management, wondering what exactly they would do with their squad, if anything, this offseason. Well, the verdict is out, and it seems the Celtics are going all in on blowing up their roster.
Jrue Holiday, the Celtics guard, was the first piece to move as the Celtics traded the All-Defensive player to the Portland Trailblazers for Anfernee Simons and two second-round picks. This comes as a massive blow for the Celtics, as Holiday has been their most experienced veteran over the last few years. He is a two-time champion, multiple-time All-Star, and one of the best defensive players of the modern era. With him gone, a major component of the Celtics’ defensive identity and team leadership will be missing, leaving quite a big hole in the roster that Simons and two second-round picks are unlikely to fill. The next big domino to fall was Kristaps Porzingis, whom the Celtics traded away as part of a three-team deal that sent Porzingis to the Hawks and Georges Niang and a second-round pick to Boston. Porzingis, a 20-point-per-game scorer, served as the Celtics' big man, and it was widely believed that, while the Celtics were a good team with him on and off the court, he made them unstoppable. This is a scenario we saw in 2024 when the Celtics captured the title.
It is moves like these that make me question what exactly the Celtics are doing. Even with Tatum out next year, the Celtics still have one of the best rosters in all of basketball with Jaylen Brown, Porzingis, Holiday, and Derrick White, all four All-Star caliber players. With this collection of talent, the Celtics for sure can still make the playoffs, potentially even getting home-court advantage in the relatively weak Eastern Conference. Then, if Tatum returns sooner than expected, there is an outside shot of the Celtics being fully loaded entering the tail end of next year to push for another title. This is why it’s so baffling to trade not only Holiday away but Porzingis too, while not receiving much in return for players of this caliber. To make matters worse, rumors are now circling that Brown is being traded as well.
With the Tatum injury, it seems the Celtics are treating this offseason as a time to start rebuilding for the future, but you didn’t need to rebuild for the future. Sure, Holiday might have been getting up there in age, but Porzingis and Brown surely aren’t. Not to mention, only acquiring second-round picks isn’t exactly giving a bona fide lottery pick to play alongside Tatum. Simons is a good player, but he’s not Porzingis, and he doesn’t have the experience of Holiday. These are strange times indeed for the Celtics. Just months ago, they had a potential dynasty in the making, and yet now the team is starting to look unrecognizable, a mere shell of its former self.
