The Boston Celtics Don’t Necessarily Have To Make Major Moves This Offseason

The Boston Celtics, in what might have been the most predictable turn of events in a thoroughly unpredictable postseason, fumbled away their chances at winning Banner 18 in a wave of unforced errors in three straight losses. The Golden State Warriors took advantage of 23 Boston turnovers in order to secure victory in last Thursday’s Game 6 and they, not the Celtics, are your 2022 NBA champions. So, now what?

The first thing is obviously this: the Celtics are not breaking up the Jays any time soon. Yes, the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown pairing didn’t pay dividends in the last round of the playoffs, but that was understandable considering how much work they had to do to get to the NBA Finals, something which included playing seven game-series against both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat. They also were the underdogs against a healthy, well-rested Warriors team looking for its fourth title in ten years.

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For years, the complaint against this particular Celtics roster was that it couldn’t seem to get past the Eastern Conference Finals. Finally reaching the finals is an accomplishment and not a mark against them, no matter how brutal the ending.

And this is a young team. Tatum, who had a poor series but is still their best player, is still only 24 years old. Unless there’s an MVP caliber somehow available, the Celtics should not break up their young core that, beyond Tatum and Jaylen Brown, includes reigning defensive player of the year Marcus Smart and much-improved big man Robert Williams III (although the later still remains something of a question mark in terms of durability).

It’s also hard to imagine that this particular player will be available this offseason and even if they are, the Celtics might not have a realistic shot at making a deal for him. Assuming they keep their core four together—a fairly safe one—they won’t have much financial flexibility to take any home run swings. In fact, as Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach noted, ownership is currently set to be $7 million over the luxury tax next season, although if just missing a title doesn’t motivate it to open up the pocketbooks a little more this offseason, clearly nothing will.

Now, Al Horford’s $26.4 million deal is only partially guaranteed, but it’s likely the team will either pick it up or offer the 36-year-old an extension that could save them money in the short term. Some have suggested that the Celtics should see what trade value is out there for Derrick White—for whom they sent their first-round pick in this week’s upcoming NBA draft to the San Antonio Spurs—who could be at highest value after an impressive postseason. The more likely changes, however, will probably be lower down the depth chart to bolster a thin bench that was ultimately exposed in those final, fateful games.

The path of least resistance would be to bring back most of last season’s significant players and hope that internal improvement will be the ultimate difference maker. It’s very possible, and probably probable, that the mental mistakes the Celtics keep making, particularly when playing from ahead, have been the product of inexperience and not the result of a lineup that simply is designed to be a turnover machine. Going on a deep playoff run—which was famously the entire roster’s first trip to the NBA Finals—could certainly be the learning experience they needed before discovering their final form.

Frankly, this team has earned the benefit of the doubt. It wouldn’t be shocking to see the Celtics make minor bench moves and run back essentially the same squad next year. This team, after all, only flourished after parting ways with Kyrie Irving and then Kemba Walker: maybe the Basketball Gods have warned them about aiming for another big-name acquisition this coming off-season.