Celtics
“I’m not sure the Celtics are going to be that bad next year in this weird Eastern Conference.”
If he’s a barometer for Celtics fans’ reactions to the team’s recent pair of high-profile trades, Bill Simmons sounded a note of approval as Boston plunges into an eventful offseason.
Celtics management answered a need to shed salary in order to avoid the league’s secondary luxury tax, reportedly trading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis in back-to-back deals earlier this week. Speaking on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” the lifelong Boston fan (and founder of The Ringer) began with a blunt description of the state of the Celtics.
“The 2024 Celtics funeral is here,” Simmons declared in his intro, speaking to guest (and Sports Illustrated reporter) Chris Mannix. Yet despite the tough news — coming alongside the lengthy timeline Jayson Tatum will have to navigate in order to return from his recently ruptured Achilles tendon in the playoff defeat vs. the Knicks — Simmons sounded upbeat about the tough choices being made.
“They lopped off, miraculously, $28 million in two trades,” he said of the Holiday and Porzingis trades. “They got under the second apron, which doesn’t just save them almost $200 million in luxury tax, but also has all these other positive roster benefits.”
“There still might be another trade,” he teased, naming Boston role player Sam Hauser as a potential inclusion in a future deal (and listing the Celtics’ possible desire to bring back both Luke Kornet and Al Horford).
On the topic of the two trades the team has reportedly already made, however, Simmons was enthusiastic in the circumstances. Specifically, he was impressed with Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens accomplishing the requisite payroll-shrinking maneuver with just a pair of deals.
“This was a borderline miracle,” Simmons declared of the trades.
Despite now being without Holiday and Porzingis, as well as the possibility of playing at least part of the next season without Tatum, (and Jaylen Brown also returning following recent knee surgery), Simmons was upbeat.
“I’m not sure the Celtics are going to be that bad next year in this weird Eastern Conference,” he maintained, though the former columnist acknowledged it could be “the Celtics fan side of me just kicking in.”
“I was looking at the roster and I’m like, Holiday in the playoffs and the Knicks series I thought looked pretty rough,” Simmons said, citing the championship guard’s potential decline at age 35. But having traded him for a possibly valuable player in Anfernee Simons, Boston could still compete in a diminished conference.
“Maybe Jaylen Brown’s like, ‘This is my time now, I can carry us,’” Simmons theorized. His conclusion: It could be a wildly unpredictable time for a team normally predicated on tradition and stability.
“I think all bets are off with the 2025-26 Celtics, including more trades and them just gutting s***.”
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