To put this idea in perspective, I went through all 30 teams and blindly used the depth chart listed on ESPN and just took the top 3 centers listed.
Boston ranks 26th out of 30 teams, spending $11.7m on their 3 centers, while the average NBA team spends $27.7m for 3 centers.
CLE 58,359,422
PHI 55,854,819
TOR 50,455,535
MIN 43,497,710
POR 43,333,218
DEN 40,614,691
DAL 38,785,000
ORL 36,697,600
MEM 34,708,053
LAL 33,657,772
CHO 33,148,645
NOP 32,269,480
UTA 31,737,787
ATL 31,189,856
OKC 29,899,885
NYK 26,359,712
WAS 25,450,079
IND 24,346,315
MIL 23,860,024
PHO 19,783,200
GS 19,383,300
MIA 15,588,883
DET 14,947,396
CHI 14,256,210
LAC 12,771,285
BOS 11,704,520
SAC 11,505,800, excludes Bagley at $8.6m because he's out injured
HOU 9,856,012
BRK 4,338,228, excludes DJ at $9.9m because he's out injured
SAS 4,000,572, excludes Aldridge at $26m because he's out injured
*If a two-way players like Bol Bol made the top 3 depth chart, I put in 0 salary because nothing was listed on bball-ref salary page for them.
But when you add in the injured players who weren't listed on ESPN's depth chart, the Celtics are actually 29 out of 30, behind only Houston who really doesn't play any Centers (their depth chart was Tucker, Jeff Green, Carroll lol).
20 teams actually have 1 player at Center who gets paid more than Boston's top 3 centers combined! 9 teams have 2 or more centers that make more individually than Boston's trio combined. Theis+Kanter+Time Lord make $11.7m, while some of the role playing centers who make that or more include Brook Lopez ($12m), Derrick Favors ($17.5m), Kelly Olynyk ($11.7m), Cody Zeller ($14.5m), Dewayne Dedmon ($13.3m), Bobby Portis ($15m), Mason Plumlee ($14m), Larry Nance Jr. ($12.7m), Bismack Miyombo ($17m), etc.
And you want Boston to get even cheaper?