Celtics Facing Decision After Making $5 Million Move on Tuesday

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt John | Last updated Jul 1, 2025 5:17 PM ET

The Boston Celtics continue to take flyers on unproven young players. After signing Luka Garza, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the Celtics also signed free agent forward Josh Minott to a two-year contract worth $5 million.

Signing them and potentially doing the same with draft picks Hugo Gonzalez, Amari Williams, and Max Shulga adds more money to Boston's payroll, but not too much. However, the Celtics made it their offseason priority to get under the NBA's second tax apron by trading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.

Those trades did just that for the Celtics, but they only got them slightly under the second tax apron. By signing four more players to the roster, Boston has crossed it again.

For that reason, Boston will likely make another deal. Cap expert Yossi Gozlan revealed that by signing Minott, the Celtics will make another move to get back under the NBA's second tax apron. The decision Boston now faces, is how to best achieve that.

"This puts the Celtics slightly back over the second apron with 15 players," Gozlan wrote. "Could get below it with a trade or waiving a non-guaranteed salary."

This puts the Celtics slightly back over the second apron with 15 players.

Could get below it with a trade or waiving a non-guaranteed salary. https://t.co/Z4sZ7c6jQv
— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) July 1, 2025

The Celtics can do this in various ways. Neither the Holiday nor Porzingis deals are official yet, so the Celtics can reroute Anfernee Simons and/or Georges Niang to another team to save even more money. They can also look to trade Sam Hauser or Payton Pritchard.

Another alternative is waiving one of their players with a non-guaranteed contract, like JD Davison, or a partially guaranteed contract, like Jordan Walsh. More than anything, Boston has made it clear it wants to avoid being in the second apron for a third straight year.

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

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