Oct 8, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla reacts during the third quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Celtics Receive Bleak Prediction Ahead of New Season

Originally posted on Boston Celtics on SI
By Ricardo Klein | Last updated Oct 15, 2025 1:00 PM ET

The Boston Celtics will soon begin their 2025-26 season, and it will be one to forget. Actually, it depends on who you ask.

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Many are pessimistic about the Celtics this season, while others are optimistic about their chances.

Nonetheless, it will be an uphill battle for the Celtics, who have dominated most of this decade. Boston made a ton of changes this offseason regarding their roster as they needed to get under the second apron to avoid penalties.

As the season approaches, the Celtics are confident in their roster, but John Hollinger of The Athletic has a different view of the C's.

In Hollinger's latest piece, he ranked the Celtics as the 11th-best team in the lowly Eastern Conference, finishing with a 36-46 record.

"As a result, it’s a gap year in Boston, and it’s amazing that it didn’t cost the Celtics more to divest all the salary they gave up. The domino on all the other moves for Boston was that it was able to trade Jrue Holiday without having to give up assets. Owed $105 million over the next three seasons, at age 34, for a team that was miles deep into the luxury tax and clearly desperate to get out of it, that didn’t seem to be the case. But Boston didn’t get leveraged into coughing up draft picks on the Holiday deal, turning him into Anfernee Simons’ expiring contract. Then the Celtics basically salary-dumped the final year of Kristaps Porziņģis’ deal (turning his $31 million slot into George Niang’s $8 million, then donating Niang and two seconds to the Jazz)."

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The Celtics have lost four key players from the past few seasons and will be without their best player, Jayson Tatum, for some time.

Boston will look a lot different compared to what we've been accustomed compared to past seasons. Jaylen Brown will carry the load this season, and behind him will be the likes of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Anfernee Simons.

While Brown has proven to be an elite player in the league, the rest of the roster has a ton of question marks. Combine that with the losses they endured this offseason, and this season could be a long one for Boston.