As the team looks to build a roster capable of getting back to the NBA Finals, there are some things to think about and some questions to answer.
After going 56-26 and earning the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, it's very clear that the Boston Celtics are a good team and a well-run organization.
But how does that good team go from being good to great? How do they put themselves back in championship contention after a disappointing first round exit?
There are a handful of ways, including making big trades or making major free agent signings, and of course, the team can just expect Jayson Tatum to get back to being an All-NBA player as he gets more removed from his torn Achilles suffered at the end of 2024-25.
Any or all of those moves would help, and all of them are reasonably possible. However, there's one thing that I would want to see that doesn't really seem realistic at this point.
Getting a young and impactful player
The Celtics are in no means "old," but they are getting older and they do have several players with significant wear and tear on their bodies.
Jaylen Brown is about to be 30 and has 10 years under his belt. Jayson Tatum is 28 and has nine under his. Derrick White is about to be 32. Payton Pritchard is headed for 29 in the middle of next season. While all of these players are phenomenal assets, they are transitioning out of their athletic primes. Of course they can still be good, and they'll mature even more and learn more how to use their smarts and experience, but they are moving out of their athletic primes. That's fair to note.
As a result, I think we'd all see the value in trying to get a young and exciting piece that brings additional athleticism, additional energy, additional excitement and helps set up the organization for the future.
The problem? The Celtics don't really have that already on the roster, and acquiring one isn't really likely.
Hugo Gonzalez, the team's first-round pick in 2025, received only five second-place votes for the All-Rookie team. He's a valuable player, just not one who is the kind of impact we're talking about.
Why is this unlikely?
First off: The NBA Draft isn't really built that way. The Celtics are picking at No. 27 and No. 40 and while good players can obviously be taken there, the kind of youthful upside we want the team to go after isn't often taken there. In fact, once you are outside the lottery (13), the odds of landing that kind of player are drastically reduced.
Second off: Because of the way the money has to largely match in trades, it's not like the C's can just trade expensive older pieces for young and controllable players. And the Celtics shouldn't want to do that anyways. If the Celtics do take big swings in the trade market, they'll probably be trading expensive aging players for expensive aging players, leaving them more susceptible to getting older.
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