Celtics face key question amid worst start in 12 years

The Boston Celtics are winless after the first week of the 2025-26 season, going 0-3 for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign, which was incidentally the last time they missed the postseason.

The 2013-14 season marked a new era in Celtics basketball, as the franchise traded Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett the previous summer and started a complete roster overhaul. 

While the C's are in a similar gap year, it's for entirely different reasons, some of which they cannot influence. Besides losing Jayson Tatum to a devastating injury, they were forced to cut bait with four key members of their 2024 championship roster — Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet — due to financial reasons.

Should Celtics tank for top pick?

Unlike the 2013-14 season, these Celtics are not obligated to hit a hard reset. When Tatum returns, they'll have at least four players from their championship core intact, making them contenders again in 2026-27.

The question beckons: Does it make sense for them to tank the season for a high lottery pick? As constructed, they could eke out 40 wins, but would that help their cause in the long run? 

The financial penalties imposed by the new CBA make it wiser for teams to secure high-caliber players on rookie contracts, as the Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers did with Cooper Flagg and VJ Edgecombe, respectively. Those teams are not obligated to pay those young studs for at least three more years, giving them financial flexibility to build around their veteran stars. 

Celtics face a key question

If the Celtics can nab a top-five pick, they could similarly put a young star next to Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, potentially returning to prominence in the Eastern Conference.   

Perhaps the oddsmakers expect Boston to go the tanking route in the second half of the season. According to sports prediction app ProphetX, the Celtics own the third-best lottery odds and a 40% chance of missing the playoffs. These odds weren't as high at the start of the season, when many expected the Celtics to stay competitive, with ESPN's Kevin Pelton predicting them to win 46 games.

While three games aren't a big sample size, the Celtics have appeared mediocre thus far. During their 119-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, they were outrebounded 55-38, just a few nights after the New York Knicks outrebounded them 53-37. The C's have been so bad on the glass that opponents have grabbed a stunning 16.7 offensive rebounds per game, the worst mark in the league by a wide margin. 

There's no easy fix to the Celtics' rebounding woes — they may not have the personnel. Perhaps the writing is on the wall. In the nine previous seasons in which Boston started 0-3, it missed the playoffs six times. This team may be best served by joining that group.