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May 5, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) and forward Jayson Tatum (0) warm up before the start of game one of the second round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs against the New York Knicks at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images David Butler II-Imagn Images

Are Celtics Too Good to Tank This Year? Experts Weigh In

Originally posted on Boston Celtics on SI
By Alex Kirschenbaum | Last updated Sep 15, 2025 4:00 PM ET

The Boston Celtics made some major moves that should worsen the on-court product. When six-time All-Star forward Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles tendon during the playoffs this past spring, the club's ceiling for 2025-26 was effectively lowered.

Appreciating that, team president Brad Stevens moved off the pricey contracts of All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday and starting center Kristaps Porzingis in a pair of cost-cutting moves. Stevens even traded away minimum-salaried bench point guard JD Davison to duck under the league's punitive luxury tax. Free agent center Luke Kornet left, while the world waits on the Golden State Warriors to sign free agent big man Al Horford.

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Stevens brought in Anfernee Simons in the Holiday deal, while also signing free agents Chris Boucher, Luka Garza, and Josh Minott to minimum contracts. Boucher is a solid rotation pieces, but he'll be playing a huge role this season, and may not quite thrive under a bigger spotlight than they're used to. Simons has put up big numbers on bad Portlandd Trail Blazers teams. Former fourth-string center Neemias Queta could even start.

Are These Moves Enough to Be Very Bad?

The moves have felt so non-competitive that one wonders if Stevens is subtly trying to tank into the draft lottery next summer.

But will these downgrades make Boston bad enough to nab a top pick? Bobby Manning of CLNS' "The Garden Report" caught up with Sam Esfandiari of the "Light Years" Warriors podcast to speculate on Boston's ceiling in 2025-26.

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"Are the Celtics in the position the Warriors were in in 2020? And the immediate negative there of, the Warriors went 15-50 that year, or something like that, they were just awful," Manning said. "The downside of that 15-50 season is, you're gonna have to go do that if you're the Celtics potentially this season. And of course, Klay Thompson was down for the year with the ACL tear coming off the Finals, [Stephen] Curry gets hurt almost immediately, your two stars are down, and it's a tank season."

Golden State was also missing its best player from the 2018-19 season, All-NBA forward Kevin Durant, who departed in free agency. In fairness, he would have been on the shelf anyway, having torn his Achilles tendon during the Finals.

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"There's a lot of talk about, 'Are the Celtics gonna tank this year?' I don't think that's possible unless something like that happens. If Jaylen [Brown] goes down with something [early] into the season, Tatum's out for the year, more things go wrong beyond that, then you're talking about being one of the worst teams in the league this year," Manning noted. "If everything's available here, you're gonna be decent at the very least, I think."

The relative mediocrity of the injury-plagued Eastern Conference may doom Boston to a surprisingly respectable finish.

"You would need Jaylen Brown to miss the entire year," Esfandiari said. "You would need something like that to happen, and then all of a sudden Derrick White's being load-managed to death because they know that there's nothing going on there. I think, even with the roster that you guys have assembled, with normal health, they're a playoff team in the East... This might be the weakest East of the last decade, with all the injuries that went down."