Whether or not you name subsequent season a rebuild yr, a spot yr, a retool yr, or an analysis yr, subsequent season would be the first season since 2021 that successful a title shouldn’t be a sensible expectation for the Celtics.
Whereas competing for championships is all the time the objective, that doesn’t imply that subsequent season can’t nonetheless be enjoyable night time in and night time out and supply the inspiration for the subsequent group that brings a title to Boston. The burden of expectations can take its toll on not solely the gamers and coaches, however the followers as effectively. The playoffs all the time sound enjoyable till the Celtics lose Sport 4 of the 2022 Finals or go down 3-0 within the Jap Convention Finals to the Miami Warmth. A season of low expectations may very well be a welcome sabbatical from that postseason stress, particularly with a wholesome Jayson Tatum and a brand new competition window on the horizon.
Brad Stevens has approached this upcoming season accurately. He may have leaned into extra veteran assist, bringing in gamers with confirmed monitor data and expertise; as a substitute, he’s leaning into youth and improvement. It will have been a travesty for the Celtics to finish up because the eighth seed, and their high minutes earner off the bench on the wing spot be Georges Niang.
Now, if the Celtics find yourself because the eighth seed, their high minutes earner off the bench on the wing spot will probably be whichever younger man amongst Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, and Josh Minott wins the battle for these minutes — guys who will help the subsequent iteration of the Celtics as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown transfer into their 30s. It’s a win-win.
For this reason the Chris Boucher commerce was so vital. It helped the roster fall into place in a method that may assist the long run Celtics. Boucher may very well be the beginning energy ahead for the Celtics on Opening Night time; nevertheless, he’ll play an enormous portion of his minutes on the 5 spot, opening minutes for the plethora of younger, unproven expertise on the Celtics bench.
At the moment, we gained’t spend lengthy deliberating how good the Celtics will really be within the 2025-2026 season. As a result of that’s the purpose. If the Celtics are a top-six seed, they are going to have exceeded expectations, and they’re going to have exceeded expectations in a method that may help their quest for Banner 19. However, if the Celtics slip out of the playoffs, as many anticipate them to, the group will get the possibility to inject some much-needed youthful expertise into the roster by the use of the 2026 NBA Draft.
I’m conscious that there’s a big faction of Celtics followers who would love the group to lean right into a tank subsequent season. I’ve discovered myself in that camp as a rule this offseason. Nonetheless, there are a number of situations during which the Celtics push their method right into a top-six seed. The most certainly consequence, in a Celtics playoff push, is that a minimum of one in all Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, or Payton Pritchard takes significant steps of their improvement.
Let’s begin with the reigning Sixth Man of the Yr: Payton Pritchard. Out of the Jaylen-Derrick-Pritchard group, Pritchard is the very best candidate to take a legit leap subsequent season. Payton Pritchard goes into his age-28 season. Whereas it’s uncommon for gamers to interrupt out at this age, Pritchard has an opportunity to be an outlier.
The apparent case for a late 20s breakout is Pritchard’s utilization thus far of his profession. Exterior of his rookie season, Pritchard has needed to cope with deep, proficient, and veteran guard rooms. Within the 2025 season, Pritchard performed a career-high 28.4 minutes per sport, considerably up from his earlier excessive of twenty-two.3 minutes within the 2024 season. What did Pritchard do together with his alternative? He turned in the very best season of his profession.
By any metric, Payton Pritchard put up an outrageous scoring season. There have been 102 gamers who scored a minimum of 14 factors per sport final season. Pritchard ranked eleventh in true taking pictures effectivity. And if you filter out bigs who solely shoot near the rim like Ivica Zubac, Jakob Poeltl, and Mark Williams, Pritchard strikes into eighth on that listing.
I do know what you’re pondering. Pritchard performed an enormous chunk of his minutes with Jayson Tatum final season. It’s not sensible to assume he can thrive to this extent with out Tatum’s gravity. Now let me let you know what Payton Pritchard did in his minutes with Jayson Tatum on the bench final season. The next numbers are per 75 possessions. In 1,033 minutes with out Tatum, Pritchard put up 22.1 factors, 5.7 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 1.6 turnovers on 65.1% true taking pictures. Examine that to Pritchard’s numbers within the 1,233 minutes he shared the court docket with Tatum — 16.8 factors, 3.9 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 turnovers on 61.5% true taking pictures. That’s nutty manufacturing from Pritchard within the non-Tatum minutes.
In fact, we’ve got to caveat this by highlighting that Pritchard would have been sharing the court docket with Al Horford, Jrue Vacation, Luke Kornet, and Kristaps Porzingis within the overwhelming majority of those minutes. Alas, I feel it’s nonetheless notable that Pritchard not solely maintained his manufacturing with Tatum on the bench, however he supercharged it. The dream situation is for Payton Pritchard to take a Jalen Brunson-esque leap. Realistically, a leap right into a top-12 participant shouldn’t be on the playing cards. That being stated, if we’ve got learnt something about Payton Pritchard in his five-year NBA profession, it’s that he’s going to squeeze each drop of potential out of himself.
There’s one other participant on the Celtics roster who I’d not wish to guess towards taking a step ahead subsequent season: Jaylen Brown. I don’t assume Jaylen has the identical developmental upside as Pritchard at this level in his profession. Nonetheless, I stated the identical factor after the 2023 season ended with Jaylen melting right into a puddle of his personal turnovers towards the Miami Warmth. Then, Jaylen got here again and performed the very best season of his profession on the best way to a Finals MVP.
Jaylen has expressed his perception that he is usually a true primary on this league. I’m skeptical. The playmaking and ball dealing with are key differentiators between him and the highest choices on contenders on this league. Secondarily, Jaylen’s rebounding and protection have by no means reached the affect of Tatum’s, however he’s additionally by no means been requested to hold this kind of load. I imagine Jaylen needs this burden and believes he can thrive and push himself to new heights this upcoming season. If Jaylen is ready to unlock a brand new degree, the Celtics may discover themselves with two top-10 gamers on their roster. If that had been to occur, some other questions concerning the future turn into irrelevant as a result of when you will have two high ten gamers that may do as many issues as Jaylen and Jayson can do on a basketball court docket, you can be within the hunt for a championship each season — even when the Celtics should roll me on the market as their place to begin guard.
We transfer to Derrick White. Out of Jaylen, Payton, and Derrick, Derrick feels the least more likely to make the kind of impactful leap like I’ve outlined for Brown and Pritchard. This seems like a great time to say that since becoming a member of the Celtics, Derrick White has developed from a shaky three-point shooter into one of many league’s most potent weapons from past the arc.
A fast reminder of how good a shooter D White is now. Per Shane Younger, within the playoffs, there are 5 gamers in NBA historical past to shoot a minimum of eight or extra three pointers per sport, and shoot a minimum of 40% on these makes an attempt (minimal 15 playoff video games): Steph Curry 3 times, Klay Thompson, and Derrick White. That’s the listing. So, if we’re searching for indicators that Celtics gamers may take leaps into unexpected territory, Derrick White has already performed it as soon as with the Celtics. Can he do it once more? In all probability not. But when he does, the Celtics have a 3rd All-Star on the roster locked up on a discount contract.
Transferring on to the beforehand talked about younger, unproven expertise on the Celtics roster. Relying on the place your cutoff for “younger” is — let’s make it 28 years outdated) — then the whole Celtics roster exterior of Jaylen Brown (29), Derrick White (31), and Chris Boucher (33) would fall in our “younger” class. Let’s run by way of what it appears like in a Celtics-make-the-playoffs situation:
- Neemias Queta: he continues to develop as a rim protector and display setter, however most significantly, he improves his offensive processing pace. This ideally would go away us with a extra athletic Luke Kornet.
- Anfernee Simons: Mazzulla is ready to coax satisfactory protection out of a participant who has ranked close to the underside of the league in defensive estimated plus minus for everything of his profession.
- Sam Hauser: he is ready to increase his offensive sport by weaponizing his taking pictures. I’m intrigued by a scaled-up Sam Hauser. I’m a believer in his passing and really feel for the sport. By leveraging his taking pictures gravity, he could possibly unlock some secondary playmaking and contained in the arc scoring.
- Luka Garza: Not solely does he shoot plenty of threes subsequent season, however he additionally makes plenty of threes. Up till this level in his profession, Garza has confirmed to be extra of a theoretical shooter than an actual one. If he can show to be a legit risk from the skin, the Celtics can have restocked a number of the firepower that left this previous offseason.
- Baylor Scheierman: he’s one other Celtic who has been a theoretical shooter all through their NBA profession up to now. Throughout each preseason, Summer season League, common season, and G-League sport that Baylor Scheierman has performed in for the Boston Celtics, he has shot 139 from 416 from three-point vary. That’s a 33.4% clip for these enjoying alongside at house. If Baylor is a sub 35% three-point shooter, he’s not an NBA participant. Nonetheless, if he develops right into a 40%+ three-point shooter, then Baylor’s dynamic passing will shine, and Brad Stevens can have nailed the thirtieth decide within the 2024 NBA Draft.
- Hugo Gonzalez: I proceed to be enamored with Hugo Gonzalez’s body. Gonzalez coming into the league as a six-foot-six, 220-pound 19-year-old provides him high-end NBA wing instruments. If Gonzalez can harness the pure measurement and power that he already blends with a high-end motor, then the Celtics may very well be wanting on the steal of the draft.
- Josh Minott:a 22-year-old hyper athletic six-foot-nine man with stable taking pictures indicators? Minott may be my favourite Brad Stevens flier of the offseason. Why not Minott?
- Jordan Walsh: we noticed indicators of life from Jordan Walsh within the 2025 Summer season League. Essentially the most intriguing improvement was Walsh’s skill to persistently collapse the protection and generate paint touches. The paint touches led to various outcomes, however for essentially the most half, I left Summer season League inspired about Walsh. Walsh creating into the six-foot-seven Swiss Military knife bench wing that the Celtics have been looking for can be an electrical sub-plot to the 2025-2026 NBA season.
- Xavier Tillman: sure, Xavier Tillman remains to be on the Boston Celtics. I used to be worryingly excessive on Tillman coming into the 2024-2025 season. Sadly, he was by no means in a position to bounce again from the arthroscopic knee surgical procedure he acquired within the offseason. If Tillman, nonetheless solely 27 years outdated, can regain his athleticism, the Celtics can have themselves the versatile bench huge that popped off in Sport 3 of the 2024 NBA Finals.
It’s really exceptional how a lot unknown there’s on a roster that returned the whole 2024 championship group.
For enjoyable, let’s say that for the Celtics to achieve their high-end consequence of a top-five or top-six seed, they are going to want one of many Jaylen/Derrick/Pritchard situations to hit, they usually want two of the function participant situations to hit. If I received to select essentially the most enjoyable method for it to play out, give me a Pritchard leap, a Josh Minott revelation, and a Jordan Walsh renaissance.
Now, if we’re being realists, and we take a look at every of those situations one after the other, they’re all unlikely to occur. And if none of them come to fruition, the Celtics will probably be a lottery decide. So irrespective of how subsequent season performs out, there will probably be purpose for hope as we proceed our journey within the NBA abyss.
