The Boston Celtics’ aspirations for a repeat NBA championship took a devastating blow when they were eliminated from the playoffs. The team suffered a gut-punch of an exit only 72 hours after their best player Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles tendon. This catastrophic injury will cause Darren to miss most of the next season. Our team is still trying to process this disappointment. Celtics’ General Manager Brad Stevens on the emotional drain of the Celtics’ abrupt halt to their title defense.
Stevens conceded he didn’t have peaceful nights following the playoff departure. He could feel the loss’s weight, personally and on the franchise itself. The Celtics’ failure to advance was compounded by Tatum’s injury, which has raised concerns regarding the team’s competitiveness in the next season.
Those dudes have all been the foundation pieces of this program for past six or seven years. So, there’s no question about that,” said Stevens, acknowledging the integral role Tatum plays in the team’s success. With Tatum out for the foreseeable future, the Celtics have a steep hill to climb to stay competitive.
Along with Tatum’s injury, Jaylen Brown has been banged up. He has a partially torn meniscus in his right knee. Yet somehow he was saying he felt better by the end of the New York series. During an interview last week, Stevens said he continued to hope a prolonged absence from the court was not in Brown’s future.
In the background, Kristaps Porzingis is dealing with “post-virus syndrome.” After all of this, he’s planning on making my country proud at EuroBasket in August. That makes his immediate availability to the Celtics an interesting question.
Stevens has a lot on his plate this busy offseason. He’s looking at payroll decisions and possible roster moves as the NBA draft draws near. The Celtics’ payroll for next season is projected to reach approximately $225 million, with a tax bill nearing $280 million. The total possible price tag could be more than half a billion dollars. If so, it would be a league record under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
After all, your aspiration is to have a seat at the end-of-season championship contender table, isn’t it? That needs to change, so do what you can to ensure you’re in the best position when the opportunities come knocking. Stevens as he works through the difficulties of roster management under the weight of recent injury and now financial pressure.
The Celtics have new ownership on the horizon, which is expected to purchase the team for a minimum of $6.1 billion. This transition will impact future strategic moves profoundly as the franchise looks to slow any erosion of its competitive advantage.
As the team looks ahead, Stevens acknowledged, “I know there will be a lot of questions about what’s next.” He pointed out that the guiding principle still is how do you best set up the Celtics to win more championships in the future.
At the end of the day I think that will all be driven by the same thing that’s always driven us and that’s ‘How do we get ourselves in the mix to compete for championships best?’ he concluded.
Leave a Reply