What Is The Plan?

[slightly biased bias fan]

I know I am early, but if the Celtics want to contend for a title and not just be a consistent playoff team, what is the plan? What is the front office trying to achieve? I am genuinely confused.

I am certain that this current roster (in a weak east) will make the playoffs. There will not be a high lottery pick waiting for Boston come the end of this season. Nor do the Celtics have that young player who is about to make a leap into stardom.

Next season, Tatum will be 28, Brown will be 30 and White will be 32. The Celtics should be in win now mode or looking to rebuild, not in-between.

[trickybilly]

Sorry, what are you confused about?

This is a gap year with Tatum out. Do you want to trade away our starters so we guarantee a high pick? We are only a hair above the second apron, and unless you want to move someone valuable, like Pritchard or Hauser, we won't be moving down much more... we might move Simons at the deadline, but ownership probably doesn't care too much about paying some tax.

Front office won't do that, because, as you say, we are NOT in rebuild mode - we are exactly in "in-between" mode.

They are hoping that Minott or someone else really explodes, and then we will have a cost controlled high quality bench option for next year.

[boscel33]

Contend for a title! 

As I stated in the "How Many Games" thread, they won 53 in 16-17 which was JB's rookie year.  Go back and have gander at that team and you'll wonder how they won that many.  JB is now years wiser; and they have White and Simons.  While their bigs aren't great, I see Garza separating himself from that pack to become the guy.  This team will be ready to roll by the time JT returns!

[Phantom255x]

It's a retool/rebuild year. The plan is for beyond this season. Get back Tatum (healthy), add a center, and hopefully a few others like Hugo, Minott, etc. can gain experience and carve out roles for us on the next "contending" team.

Getting a lottery pick out of this year would be big, either as trade bait or using it to draft hopefully a solid impact guy

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

This season is vibes and inshallah 

Just go with it

[Vermont Green]

Not sure what the Celtics believe is the plan but if it was me, the plan for 2025-26 would about what can be developed for the 2026-27 season.  Figure out what we have and don't have.  Then the plan needs to be how to get what we don't have.  What moves at the deadline, what moves in the offseason.  No move should be made to just make the 2025-26 team a little better unless it also makes the 2026-27 team better also.

[dannyboy35]

  If Tatum can be 85-90 percent of what he was next year we are right back in it. I do t think we will need anyone approaching stardom to be a big. Somebody with Valuciunus ability may be enough for us.
  We need guys that make plays . I don?t think Simons is here beyond this year. We have Pritchard, White, the Jays, and Hauser and after that I think Minot is the next guy up who I think will have a reliable role. The better players on this team make his job easier.

[Roy H.]

I think the plan is to tread water this season and then to trade Simons at the deadline and/or to use our large TPE for a big over the summer.

Then, you come back with a top five of:

Center
Tatum
Brown
White
Pritchard

Depending on the center, that's a contending starting five.  The bench isn't amazing, but you hope that Hauser, Minott and whoever we draft can make contributions.

[Celtics4ever]

I agree with Roy, but I also think we are trying to develop some future bench players in Garza, Minot and Gonzales.

If this returns and Tatum is healthy

Center
Tatum
Brown
White
Pritchard

Reloading the bench matters.   

[keevsnick]

I think the plan is probably pretty simple. Turn the Simons salary slot into a starting center making 15-30 million. Something along the lines of Turner, Kessler, Zubac, Stewart, Hartenstein ect. Hope one or two of the Baylor, Walsh, Gonzalez, Minot wing group pops.

Center (7'0+)
Tatum
Young Wing
Brown
White 

I think that would be an ideal starting lineup, with the "young wing" ideally being either Walsh/Hugo/Minot who can start as the primary on ball defender to take defensive reps off from White/Brown/Tatum. Personally, I'm dreaming on Hugo being that guy and the team being big and switchable at least 1-4.

Then you have a Pritchard/Hauser as your core bench with Minot/Queta/Boucher all being intriguing as 8-10 guys.

The key is A) What Center do you get? Do you go for a rim protector? A shooter? Somebody switchable? and B) Do you get development from the young guys? If you strike out on all of Walsh/Minot/Hugo/Baylor then you team gets real thin real fast. I'm optimistic on Gonzalez, he just looks like s a guy who will be at least a bench contributor perhaps soonish, but you never know for sure.

The Celtics are in no worse a situation, and in many ways better, of a situation as they were in the summer of 21' when they were fresh of a 36-36 record. The difference is now they KNOW the Jays are a championship level duo. Here's what they did after that:

-Traded a mid-round first (#16) and dead salary in Kemba for Al Horford.
-Traded salary filler in Romeo Langford and late first (#25) along with swap in 28' for Derick White.
-Developed Pritchard (#25 in 2020), Hauser (Undrafted 2021), Kornet (undrafted retread).
-Traded a guy who is always injured in Rob Williams and a guy out of the league in Brogdon, 2024 that ended up #14 first, 2029 unprotected
-Trade Marcus Smart right before he fell apart plus #35 for Porzingis, #25 and another first. 

Every one of those deals/avenues above are replicable again, there's no asset they had then that they don't have now other than having 1 less tradeable first. In some ways they are better off because they aren't saddled with a massive dead contract the way they were with Kemba back in 2021.

They need to do things we've already seen them do like find undervalued vets like Horford/White. Develop late firsts/undrafted guys Hauser/Pritchard/Kornet. They won't get everything right; they didn't last time either. They'd probably like the Nesmith/Brogdon trade back for example. But they do have a track record, so in brad we must trust.

[slightly biased bias fan]

I think the plan is to tread water this season and then to trade Simons at the deadline and/or to use our large TPE for a big over the summer.

Then, you come back with a top five of:

Center
Tatum
Brown
White
Pritchard

Depending on the center, that's a contending starting five.  The bench isn't amazing, but you hope that Hauser, Minott and whoever we draft can make contributions.

I am sorry but that team is not a contender, that team is a 4 seeded playoff team.

The Cavs have two MVP level players, and two all-star complimentary talents. Last season the Celtics (with more depth) got stomped by the Knicks and the Knicks have gotten deeper.

The current healthy Celtics team (including Tatum) would struggle to make the playoffs in the western conference.

The Celtics have no major assets to give up for championship level talent, which means every addition will come at the cost of a subtraction.

Prichard is the best 6th man in the league, but he is not capable of being a title winning starter. His size is too much of a liability.

I do not want to be negative, but I have to be realistic. Without a miracle Giannis trade, the Celtics are destined for a slow & steady decline.

[slightly biased bias fan]

My fear is that Celtics ownership wants the front office to compete for the sake of competing. Either from Wyc being at the end of his control over the team, or the new ownership group wanting to recoup as much money as possible after their multi billion dollar purchase.

[hwangjini_1]

I think the plan is to tread water this season and then to trade Simons at the deadline and/or to use our large TPE for a big over the summer.

Then, you come back with a top five of:

Center
Tatum
Brown
White
Pritchard

Depending on the center, that's a contending starting five.  The bench isn't amazing, but you hope that Hauser, Minott and whoever we draft can make contributions.

I am sorry but that team is not a contender, that team is a 4 seeded playoff team.

The Cavs have two MVP level players, and two all-star complimentary talents. Last season the Celtics (with more depth) got stomped by the Knicks and the Knicks have gotten deeper.

The current healthy Celtics team (including Tatum) would struggle to make the playoffs in the western conference.

The Celtics have no major assets to give up for championship level talent, which means every addition will come at the cost of a subtraction.

Prichard is the best 6th man in the league, but he is not capable of being a title winning starter. His size is too much of a liability.

I do not want to be negative, but I have to be realistic. Without a miracle Giannis trade, the Celtics are destined for a slow & steady decline.

i understand your points and some of them i agree with. but the bolded i think is mistaken.

a healthy celtics teams has THREE all star level players - tatum, brown, white. in addition they have pritchard, reigning SMY, and hauser. both are well above average bench pieces.

I also think queta, minot, and gonzalez can contribute, but i may be overly optimistic on them for this year.

so yes, the celtics would not rule the western conference with the bigs they have. but they ain't chopped liver either. i think they would make 3 to 4 seed in the west.

[Roy H.]

I think the plan is to tread water this season and then to trade Simons at the deadline and/or to use our large TPE for a big over the summer.

Then, you come back with a top five of:

Center
Tatum
Brown
White
Pritchard

Depending on the center, that's a contending starting five.  The bench isn't amazing, but you hope that Hauser, Minott and whoever we draft can make contributions.

I am sorry but that team is not a contender, that team is a 4 seeded playoff team.

The Cavs have two MVP level players, and two all-star complimentary talents. Last season the Celtics (with more depth) got stomped by the Knicks and the Knicks have gotten deeper.

The current healthy Celtics team (including Tatum) would struggle to make the playoffs in the western conference.

The Celtics have no major assets to give up for championship level talent, which means every addition will come at the cost of a subtraction.

Prichard is the best 6th man in the league, but he is not capable of being a title winning starter. His size is too much of a liability.

I do not want to be negative, but I have to be realistic. Without a miracle Giannis trade, the Celtics are destined for a slow & steady decline.

Eh.  We won a title in 2024 with Porzingis injured for most of the playoffs, on the back of the Tatum / Brown / White combo.  Jrue was huge during that run, but we didn't get much from Pritchard or Hauser. 

Right now we have $29.7 million below the first apron next year.

Step one:  Sign Nikola Vucevic with a portion of MLE.  Let's say $8.5 million, similar to DeAndre Ayton
Step two:  Re-sign Simons to contract starting at $17 million
Step three:  Waive Scheierman if he doesn't show improvement
Step four:  Draft somewhere between 12th and 20th
Step five:  Sign defensive PG for minimum salary

Vucevic / Queta / Garza
Tatum / Minott / Boucher
Brown / Hauser
Simons / Hugo / draft pick
White / Pritchard / defensive specialist

I think that team could contend.  I'd love a more physical center, but for a patchwork solution the above team would be a lot of fun.

[Who]

I was thinking about the GS Warriors the other day. The criticism from some people here and elsewhere. That Horford shouldn't have gone there. That GSW are not a contender. That GSW are a 5th-6th seed in the West.

If they were in the East, Golden State would be the team to beat. They are better than any team in the East. They are better than Cleveland. They are better than New York.

---------------------------------------

On the above post, wondering where Boston would rank in the West if they were out there. They would be a play-in team. With a healthy Tatum and no other changes to the roster. They would be fighting for a play-in spot. They would be the 9th or 10th seed in the West (again, with Tatum).

West top 9 teams = OKC, DEN, MIN, GSW, LAL, HOU, DAL, SAS, LAC = so Boston as they currently are plus a healthy Tatum would be near the bottom of that group. They would fighting for the 9th-10th seed. The final play-in spots.