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NBA Legend Paul Pierce Reacts to Major Celtics Changes

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Elie Deglaoui | Last updated Jul 1, 2025 4:29 PM ET

The NBA offseason officially began less than two weeks ago, but the Boston Celtics have already made multiple league-changing moves.

Last week, Boston traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Anfernee Simons. Later on, they also traded Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks in a salary dump. Both of these moves were mostly made for financial reasons, but there were some basketball reasons to make these trades as well as the Celtics prepare for a gap year without Jayson Tatum, who is dealing with an Achilles injury.

Following the Celtics' major changes, franchise legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce recently shared his reaction to the moves.

Pierce, who spent the first 15 years of his career in Boston, helped lead the team to their 17th title in franchise history back in 2008. And, according to Pierce, he still believes that the Celtics are capable of winning another championship as long as Tatum and Jaylen Brown remain in the mix ( h/t Podcast P With Paul George).

"As long as you got Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, you can figure out the other pieces because they still relatively young. I mean JB will be 29 coming up, I believe. And Tatum 27 next year...[Kevin Durant] is 37, still playing high level. Steph [Curry] 37, [LeBron James] 40. You know, even yourself (Paul George) in your 30s, y’all still play at a high level. So, they are in their prime. So, you can say for the next six years, let’s see what’s up with these two."

While the Celtics are not likely to compete for a championship next year, as long as they have Tatum and Brown on the team, they should be able to return to title contention. Hopefully for them, this happens sooner rather than later.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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