The Boston Celtics might not be at their strongest for the upcoming 2025-26 NBA season. During the 2025 playoffs, their best player, Jayson Tatum, suffered an unfortunate season-ending torn Achilles tendon. Tatum is expected to miss the entire campaign rehabbing and recovering from his injury. In addition, the Celtics made roster-related changes throughout the summer.
Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet are no longer part of the team. The team did not bring Horford back, and there are indications that he would probably sign with the Golden State Warriors. Kornet walked in free agency to join the San Antonio Spurs.
The management traded Porzingis and Holiday. The two-time champion was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers for Anfernee Simons. The Latvian big man, on the other hand, was part of a three-team trade that sent him to the Atlanta Hawks.
Most of the Boston Celtics’ core players left the team. Add to that the injury of Tatum, and experts believe that the team won’t be contending for the championship next season. The Athletic’s John Hollinger is one of the experts who wrote about what to expect from the team.
According to Hollinger, he expects the team to underperform. But being in the Play-In Tournament is still a potential outcome of their season.
“Much like the Pacers (see below), the Celtics have their own first-round pick this season and zero incentive to invest anything in their 2025-26 roster unless it has longer-term benefits. They’ll probably chase the Play-In Tournament if they’re close, and this conference is certainly capable of keeping them in the race. But 42.5 wins? It feels like a lot of things would have to go right for Boston to pull that off,” Hollinger wrote.
Boston Celtics’ new owner is focused on winning championships
The Boston Celtics were sold to Bill Chisholm in May of this year. The new lead owner was introduced on Thursday during the team’s Media Day. In his official introduction to the league as the new owner, Chisholm expressed his goal of leading the team to winning championships.
“My goal, and my high-level direction to Brad (Stevens) and the team, is let’s do whatever we can to win championships and raise banners,” Chisholm said. “Let’s raise as many as we can, both in the near-term and also in the medium- to the long-term.”
The Celtics are still quite fresh from winning the championship in 2024. Although they couldn’t defend their title last season. The management is still determined to build a championship-caliber team to make them consistent contenders once Tatum recovers from his injury.
They still have their star duo and will need to build a competent group around The Jays.
For other sports-related content:
Follow me on X at @BarbecueBro, and follow us at @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Reign Amurao via email at reignamuraonba@gmail.com. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
