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After weeks of drama, President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens seemed pretty satisfied with the makeup of the Celtics roster heading into this weekend’s Summer League and training camp in September.
“I don’t anticipate anything in the very near term,” Stevens said of the roster
as it stands on July 6th. “I think that we do like the team we have, we might be able to add to it, but at the end of the day, we like the group we have.”
The significant change is obviously Paul George replacing Jaylen Brown. The front office also added Mike Conley Jr. to shore up their ball handing in the second unit and Mitchell Robinson to add even more depth to their center room focused on offensive rebounding and rim protection.
Despite knee jerk reactions on social media and the talking heads, analytic prognosticators like Sporting News’ Steph Noh predict Boston to win 50-plus games and continue to compete at the top of the Eastern Conference.
The ingredients have been bought. Now, it’s time for Joe Mazzulla to cook.
There are some givens. You can pretty much set in stone that Jayson Tatum and Derrick White will be starters. After that, things get interesting.
When Tatum returned last season, Mazzulla opted to move Payton Pritchard back to the bench to reprise his 6th Man of the Year role after starting 50 games in the regular season. The added minutes and responsibilities didn’t seem to affect his efficiency, so he could be permanently promoted for 2026-2027.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that George will slot in as a starter, but the 36-year-old could benefit from the Al Horford Plan. He played just 41 and 37 games in consecutive seasons in Philadelphia. On one hand, that could suggest that he’s ready for a heavier load in Year 17, not unlike the 28 games that Horford played in his sabbatical year with the Thunder. On the other hand, Boston could slow boat George just like they did with Big Al and play him in only 60ish games and hold him out in back-to-backs.
Finally, what happens at center? Despite a rocky performance against Joel Embiid in Boston’s first round exit, Neemias Queta proved that he’s a quality starter in this league. The Celtics rewarded him with a four-year, $56 million contract. And they also signed Mitchell Robinson. There’s also Luka Garza who also had a revelatory year last season. Considering Robinson’s ability to defend opposing starting centers and inability to shoot (free throws), it makes sense to make him a starter with Queta and Garza shifting the energy with the second unit.
What do you think happens to start next season?
