The Celtics have spent the weeks around the trade deadline re-configuring their lineup after altering it drastically with their biggest trade deadline move, swapping Anfernee Simons or Nikola Vučević. While awaiting Vučević’s arrival between games in Dallas and Houston, Boston moved Payton Pritchard to the bench, breaking up a four-man lineup alongside Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Neemias Queta that dominated all season. The center rotation also became a challenge. Joe Mazzulla used double-bigs against the Heat and later admitted that his experimental coaching put the Celtics in a massive hole.
“It’s not necessarily different,” he said. “I thought that’s why we got off to a slow start was because of me and yesterday, probably trying to solve for the three what-if scenarios over the course of the rest of the season and get us ready for everything instead of … what do we just have to see in a game? And then get ready from there. When you add a piece, you’re trying to anticipate things. What’re the matchups? What’re the coverages? What plays? What’re the reads in these plays? So I thought I put the guys in a tough spot to start the game just processing all the what-if scenarios.”
“Once we just simplified it and once the game went on and we were able to see those reads, I thought the guys did a much better job.”
Boston eventually returned to a single center look with Queta, while Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman and Brown filled the wing positions next to him. Pritchard stayed on the bench and thrived, averaging 22.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game with the group while shooting 52% from the field. He scored 26 points in each of the Celtics’ games around the break, and made Simons a distant memory. A larger role allowed Scheierman to thrive as a rebounder (7.8 RPG) and perhaps pave the way for Jayson Tatum to join the starting lineup if he returns.
The Celtics’ move also created implications for next season. Boston already would’ve received a full mid-level exception when Simons’ contract expired, but now have Bird rights to re-sign Vučević (1yr, $21.5M expiring) and the $15.1 million MLE to acquire a free agent. Using the latter would hard cap the Celtics at the first apron, but it at least opens the door for a Simons return, something he entertained prior to his return to Boston with the Bulls earlier this month.
“For sure,” he told Boston Sports Journal. “Obviously, we gotta finish our season here first and then see what happens there, but for sure down the line. I, like I said, enjoyed my time here, built great relationships here, so yeah, I see it for sure. We’ll see.”
Boston has $30.1 million in room below the first apron between 11 players at the moment. They could comfortably use $20-25 million of that to sign Vučević and Simons, along with their first round pick, who would make somewhere between $2.3-$3.0 million. Those three additions would court a 14-man roster if Amari Williams returns, or 15 if the Celtics sign Ron Harper Jr. long-term.
That roster building formula would also thrust the Celtics over the luxury tax line, something they may not want to do if they want to shed repeater tax status. Boston’s tax penalties become significantly less severe in 2027-28 if they don’t finish 2026-27 as a tax-payer. That said, they can begin the year above the tax and get below by the end of it, as they did this season with Simons. They’re currently in the process of utilizing 10-day contracts and their 90 allowed two-way days in the NBA to barely stay below the tax for 2025-26.
“The directive at this deadline, obviously this summer, we had to get under the second apron,” Brad Stevens said earlier this month. “There was every basketball reason in the world for that and it was the right thing to do. The directive at this trade deadline was, let’s see if we can find some size and give ourselves a little more depth there … After the Vooch trade then, we saw (getting below the tax) as an opportunity, but next year, if there’s something we look at and we say, we gotta take advantage of it right now, then we’re gonna try to take advantage of it. Bill (Chisholm) has been really clear with that. The tax, for me, there was an opportunity with two days left before the trade deadline that we didn’t necessarily think would be there.”
Multiple sources have since confirmed that Chisholm and Boston’s ownership did
