Celtics Salary Cap Situation Ranked Among Worst in NBA

The Boston Celtics have been furiously making moves all summer to avoid what would have been a record-setting $500 million payroll in combined luxury tax and salary commitments.

With six-time All-Star forward Jayson Tatum on the shelf recovering from an Achilles tendon tear for most or all of the 2025-26 season, the Celtics have been in cost-cutting mode.

Boston has already ditched a pair of championship starters it only first acquired two years ago, All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday and center Kristaps Porzingis, in trades.

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The Celtics have already flipped both assets they received from their three-team Porzingis deal, a future second-round draft pick and stretch four Georges Niang, in exchange for a trade exception and two-way player RJ Luis Jr. Boston general manager Brad Stevens also offloaded an additional second-round pick in the Luis deal.

Stevens also seems poised to offload the player he acquired in the Holiday deal to the Portland Trail Blazers, scoring guard Anfernee Simons, although for now Simons remains rostered.

Third-string center Luke Kornet inked a free agent deal with the San Antonio Spurs, while backup power forward/center Al Horford appears poised to sign with the Golden State Warriors if they ever resolve power forward Jonathan Kuminga's restricted free agency.

Stevens also cut point guard JD Davison, while signing big men Chris Boucher and Luka Garza and forward Josh Minott.

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All these moves have at least gotten Boston beneath the league's brutal second luxury tax apron, and will let the team possibly avoid the repeater tax a bit longer. But the Celtics still have some real estate left before they can dip below the first tax apron.

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes that, even with all these moves, the Celtics are still saddled with among the worst cap situations in the league.

"The Celtics gave supermax extensions in back-to-back years to Jaylen Brown (before the 2024 title) and Jayson Tatum (soon after)," Pincus writes. "With expensive veterans like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, maybe the franchise would have stuck together had it won consecutive titles. Instead, Tatum suffered a torn Achilles, and Boston has gone in an entirely different direction."

Even when Tatum does come back to, presumably, his All-NBA self by 2026-27, Pincus believes Boston will merely be a "second-tier" contender.

"Paying two players (Brown and Tatum) a combined $120 million in 2027-28 may be an issue in the modern NBA era under the 2023 collective bargaining agreement," Pincus notes. "Can the Celtics continue to trim salary to get under the tax this year, but then pivot quickly back to contention?"

Pincus next takes stock of Boston's draft assets.

"Boston doesn't have much flexibility with its first-round picks, with the 2026 selection being the easiest to move (and also, probably the most valuable to the Celtics after what projects to be a down season)," Pincus adds.

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