With the Jaylen Brown trade to the Philadelphia 76ers becoming official, the Boston Celtics will play their first season without the 2024 NBA Finals MVP for the first time in a decade. President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens and majority owner Bill Chisholm held a press conference at the Auerbach Center to discuss everything pertaining the trade with one of a million questions on the mind of many Celtics fans: what is the next move now?
One word that Brad Stevens used throughout to describe
the roster was “optionality.” When asked if this newfound flexibility could mean flipping the draft picks they received in the Brown trade to possibly get another player, Stevens didn’t seem to have his heart set on making another move. He said: “I don’t anticipate anything in the very near term. 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…we’re cognizant that we have a lot of work to do.”
This is a very interesting response from Stevens given the fact that a lot of people were of the mindset this trade was to build up assets to move for a guy like Trey Murphy III later in the offseason. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Celtics won’t make more moves this summer, but if we take what Stevens says at face value, the roster is all but complete going into the 2026-2027 season. With them being seemingly set in stone, I think we should breakdown the team currently constructed to see if we can get a glimpse into the future of next season.
Starting 5 Options
The biggest thing about the Boston Celtics moving forward this season is the play of Jayson Tatum. He is going to be the engine that makes this team go and Stevens has a similar thought to that sentiment, saying, “it will be on Jayson to continue to grow individually and accentuate the people that are around him now.”
Tatum is going into his first full season coming off of a torn Achilles. In the limited time he played last season, he looked similar to the All-NBA version of himself. There is certainly risk of injury with Tatum, but he has never been one to willingly sit out games. He will be in charge of the bulk of the scoring for the team and it wouldn’t surprise me if he is able to break his own Celtics record of points in a season with over 30.1 points per game and compete for the MVP this season.
The rest of the starting lineup mainstays will most likely be made up of Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, and the newly acquired Paul George. Reports have said the Celtics think that Pritchard will make a “Jalen Brunson” type leap with the new opportunities given to him with Brown traded. I think it will be interesting to see if Pritchard becomes that legitimate number 2 option behind Tatum and if he can take the leap to being the main ball handler on the roster, it will make the Celtics a dangerous offensive team. Although we did see him play well coming off the bench at the end of last season, it feels like Pritchard will be the starting point guard as of now.
Derrick White had an abysmal shooting season last year, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to bounce back from it. He was a 39% three-point shooter in the prior three seasons with the Celtics and it feels like he will be more comfortable being next to Jayson Tatum again. With George and Pritchard in the mix, he won’t necessarily be tasked to be the second option for the Celtics like he was last season which should lead to more efficient production.
When it comes to Paul George, I don’t think Boston will be expecting him to play like his younger years in Indiana, his MVP-level play in Oklahoma City, or even his second option play in Los Angeles. I see him fitting in well as another shooter for Boston, seemingly filling the Sam Hauser role in the starting lineup, with the potential to turn the clock back once in a whle. He will most likely finish with similar numbers to his last year in Philadelphia at around 17 points per game with the opportunity for more.
The only real question mark about the starting lineup is the starting center position. This is a two-man race between Neemias Queta and Mitchell Robinson. Queta was the starting center last season for Boston and just signed a 4-year, $56 million contract extension while Robinson is coming off a championship with the New York Knicks and signed a 3-year, $47.4 million contract. Both players have similar games on the court, so we could see Joe Mazzulla interchanging them throughout the season depending on the matchup, but I think Queta will get the edge early, just due to experience in the system.
Bench Chaos
One thing about Boston’s bench is that they will not be short on heart and hustle. The Celtics have a mix of veterans like Sam Hauser and the newly signed Robinson and Mike Conley Jr. along with a ton of young guys looking to make a name for themselves in Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr., and Chris Cenac Jr.
It will be interesting to see how Sam Hauser continues to fit into the roster. Last season was the first year he didn’t shoot 40% from three in his career, but even in a “down year,” he shot 39%. He seems more suited for a bench role to provide shooting versus being in the starting lineup like he was last season. Robinson (if he is coming off the bench) will provide defense and rebounding that the Celtics were desperately lacking season while Conley should provide some guard depth behind Pritchard and a mentor presence to the young guys.
Out of the group of young players the Celtics have on their roster I think the one that is going to get the biggest run this season is Baylor Scheierman. Scheierman played some really great basketball in his second season in Boston, shooting 40% from three and provided some solid defense.
Hugo Gonzalez is another guy who it looks to take another leap after an exhilarating rookie year where we saw hustle and defense at times that mimicked Marcus Smart. The offense will be a big question for Gonzalez in Year 2, but with the way he has been playing for Spain in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, it looks like the Celtics could have another gem on their hands.
The rest of the pieces on the bench seemed to be a mixed bag of question marks. Jordan Walsh had a breakout season where he was in the starting lineup for a big stretch of the year but towards the end of the year fell out of the rotation. Similar to Gonzalez, his defense is no doubt elite but will he be able to crack the rotation with a crowded wing group in front of him? Luka Garza was a solid backup center for the Celtics who was able to provide good minutes for Boston who is most likely going to be a good third center option. Ron Harper Jr. is another guy broke out in limited minutes for the Celtics on a two-way contract before signing a 4 year, $13.7 million contract to return to Boston this offseason. He will be another solid addition to the guard depth the Celtics have built. Boston’s 2026 first round pick Chris Cenac Jr. could also see a little bit of time with the big club as well but I feel like he will spend most of his season in the Maine Celtics developmental machine.
Identity
Boston is going to have to establish a new identity with Jaylen Brown no longer on the team, but I can see them being a similar team to the one we saw last season. The Celtics will be built on the back of their defense with Jayson Tatum being main source of offense. Boston’s defense will no doubt be insane in the starting lineup alone with Pritchard/White/George/Tatum/Queta all being good to great defenders while the bench will come in and cause chaos with their defensive energy. On offense, we will most likely see the Celtics continue their style of a barrage of three pointers will potentially focusing on shooting a high percentage at the rim.
It will certainly be a new reality for the Celtics without Brown but this team is still talented on both sides of the ball with a top 5-10 player in the NBA in Tatum. If I had to make a projection for this next season it would be 50+ wins with a top 3-4 record in the Eastern Conference. To quote Bill Chisholm from today’s press conference: “the mandate is to win” and with this roster, there is a great chance we see Boston win a lot of games in the 2026-2027 season.
