With the NBA’s Board of Governors set to vote on the Celtics sale later this month, there don’t appear to be any reasons that it would be rejected, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. New majority owner William Chisholm finalized the funding for the $6.1 billion purchase in May, with Robert Hale, Bruce A. Beal Jr. and Sixth Street among the other notable investors.
The group will take over a 51% stake of the team this summer, with the remainder of the purchase to be completed in 2028. Some concerns were raised about a two-stage deal after a similar arrangement in Minnesota had to be worked out in court, but commissioner Adam Silver didn’t raise any objections when asked about the purchase during his press conference Thursday before the start of the NBA Finals.
“I’d just say that the Boston Celtics deal I don’t think of as a staged deal,” Silver said. “They’re still in the process of completing it. It’s really more about a phase-out of current ownership. I think there Bill Chisholm, who is the incoming owner, he’s got to sort of straighten out some affairs in his life and his business. He’s currently located on the West Coast. I think he’s a huge admirer of (current majority owner) Wyc Grousbeck and the way he’s been running that team. Obviously their results speak for themselves.”
There’s more from Boston:
- Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser are all likely to be traded this summer if management is determined to get below the tax threshold, Robb states in a mailbag column. With a $10MM salary next season, Hauser should be easy to move without taking back another player in return, Robb adds. That won’t be true for Porzingis ($30.7MM) or Holiday ($32.4MM), but Robb suggests that Boston can reduce the salaries it takes on by getting other teams involved.
- As the Celtics consider how to cut payroll this summer, Derrick White should be kept off the table in any trade talks, contends Chad Finn of The Boston Globe. Finn points out that White holds the franchise record for the most made three-pointers in a season, and he’s an elite shot blocker for a guard. He’s only 30 with a relatively affordable contract, and he can be part of the foundation to rebuild around when Jayson Tatum returns from his Achilles injury.
- Tatum offered an update today on his recovery from surgery, tweeting, “Day 25… days starting to get a little easier.”
Future Celtic great Colton Hiller is currently going crazy in this semifinal game of the FIBA U16 AmeriCup in Juarez. He has a team high 23 early in the 4th as his USA squad is up 35 on a pretty impressive Puerto Rican team. Hiller is the youngest kid on the team, the only White kid on the team & is definitely gonna be a top5 pick whenever he gets to the NBA (4 or 5yrs from now)… link to m.youtube.com
White is going to be 32 closing in on 33 the next time he plays a meaningful game
If you get a good haul you should pull the trigger
Keep White.
Celtics will be better w/o Tatum. No need to dump now.
Hauser won’t be easy to move without taking back salary. He doesn’t make a bunch, but he’s signed for 4 more seasons. The teams that might be interested in him have multi-year payroll issues of their own.
Hauser shoots the deep ball @ near 42% for his career. Houston, Detriot, Orlando, Brooklyn to name a few. I’m sure the spurs would take him too.
Keep Hauser.
Why is everybody trying to make the impression that Boston will be a disaster next season and the team is as good as done months before the 25-26 season tip-off?
I think Boston wins 50+ games without Tatum and will have good chances to advance in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. Everything I’ve seen from that team over the last couple of years tells me that will be the case.
They make smart trades and get value from those, they draft very well considering they pick mostly late in the rounds, their bench is always productive, they attract better-than-average FAs, they always have multiple players whose contracts can be considered “steals”, which makes the team function in the world of tight regulations.
And Tatum is by no means Boston’s Giannis.
Respectfully – when they started this they knew it would likely be a 2 year window as the new CBA kicked in , & they knew they were selling the team. The discussion isn’t about them failing, it’s about new ownership wanting to get under the tax – not wanting to start their tenure with astronomical payroll. Nobody thinks they’ll be bad – it’s just a salary cap issue they’re concerned with. Teams really don’t wanna get into the repeater tax because it gets exponentially bigger each season. Boston will be fine, they just need to slide a few high salaries out, while developing in house replacements to move into those vacated slots – while also remaining a competitive playoff team.
Thank you for a great post.
Ty , I’d say I called I huh 😊
50 games seems really high. If winning were the priority, maybe. But it’s not. There will be 3 core players remaining in 6 weeks (Brown, White, and Pritchard), kept to join Tatum in 2026 at the start of a new cycle.
Celtics want expiring contracts and draft capital in those trades, but they’re not expecting much. Only Hauser has a movable contract. The Holiday and Porzingis contracts are viewed as “negative”. As for cheap free-agents, there won’t be any ring-chasers this year.
They’re not just losing Tatum, Holiday, Porzingis, and Hauser, but also, most likely, Kornet, who should get a $10M raise as a UFA. And Horford is likely gone also.
Brad Stevens knows this has to be done.
Why do you consider Porzingis’ contract a negative? A stretch big, not old at all, and unlike some of them, very useful in his own paint, protects the rim and rebounds better than most stretch bigs who are basically just shooters. Availability is a big concern, yes. But there are many teams out there screaming for a player like him. 30m on an expiring contract, that’s quite attractive with the cap going up, and the 30m mark is starting to be considered a going rate for good role-players.
Could he help with Orlando’s spacing issues? Probably. Would Steve Kerr want to have him? I’d think so.
I think Milwaukee’s fortunes would have turned so differently had they signed KP from Washington, who would be the closest thing to Brook Lopez, and had they not gone for Lillard.
Kornet might go, but he openly said he has found his place in Boston and wants to stay there, so he might take a little less money to stay in Boston. They have that Portuguese big, Queta, I rate him. They signed him to a nice contract, and he’s a good player. I think they will be fine at the 5 even if KP and maybe Horford leave.
Holiday still has his reputation as a fierce defender, a good shooter and an all-around competent guard. I think he still carries a positive value. CP3 is still getting jobs, was making 30m at age 39 and was traded for Poole and a 1-st round pick at that age.
One of the reasons I think Boston will win many games is that they very seldom have a below .500 record. They’re just not a team that loses a lot. They still have the guys who shoot all those 3s. Even without Holiday, Tatum, Porzingis and Horford, I don’t expect them to be a losing team. They will trade some players, will get stuff in return, and they will have enough to win around 50 games, maybe a bit less, maybe even more. And will not be lower than 5th after 82 games.
The draft lottery turned out brutal on most Eastern teams, from Washington to Brooklyn, so the conference will not be filled with young talent that can propel someone to winning.
Unless, like you’ve said, they set out to be a losing team from day 1. It will be a different story then, of course.
Peter_Cantrope,
Good stuff. We see things differently on this one. IMO, Stevens is already in full rebuild mode. This is not Chicago or Utah. We’ll see ruthlessly decisive moves that sacrifice winning this season for a future that begins in the 2026-27 season.
The only players retained after the trade deadline in Feb 2026 are a part of the plan for 2026-27 and beyond. Stevens will ruthlessly exchange all other movable assets for 2nd round picks, future trade exceptions, etc. Some players, like Porzingis’, may not get moved until Feb.
1) It seems like our larger disagreement hinges on whether the Celtics get much back in return for Holiday and Porzingis. You think they will, and I think not for the reasons I stated earlier: BOS want expiring contracts and assets that have value in the future, not this season.
2) As far as Holiday’s being a “negative contract”, there have been a few recent articles here to that effect: 35 years old, declining play, and 3 years remaining at $35/yr.
2) Agreed that Porzingis is talented, but he’s a “negative contract” because of EXCEPTIONAL availability concerns. I don’t believe any of the teams you mention would touch KP at $30M/yr. (At $12M, maybe.)
At present, Porzingis has a “mystery” respiratory illness for which doctors are unable to predict ‘“full recovery”. Until/unless that’s resolved, his contract is unmovable.
Assuming the mystery condition is resolved, consider:
– He’s either missed or been too lame to contribute in the playoffs for the last 2 seasons.
– He played 41 games this season. His career average is under 55. He has recurring injuries, and he’ll be 30 years old.
– When healthy, KP can’t play back-to-back games. The Celtics had the luxury of depth at the C, including Horford and Kornet, but contending teams don’t like paying $30M for a platoon player.
I see where you’re coming from. If they are already rebuilding, it all makes sense.
I don’t think they are capable of doing what GS did when Curry got injured. They are too good to lose that many games. Tatum is not their Curry or Giannis. And they will not do ugly things some teams were doing down the stretch this season. But we’ll see. Picking 5-10 would still be good.
And if they win a good number of games, it means that they will play well, and players they want to move will perform, which will increase their value.
And I agree that if he is to be traded, KP will probably be moved in February. On his availability, he did spend time recovering last season and at the start of this season, his minutes have been managed heavily, so from a perspective of a team that would look to sign him, some part of the thinking process should probably be “yes injury prone, but he did not have the wear of playing under Thibodeau. Celtic methodically prepared him for the finals”, so that’s on some level a good thing. Better to have an injury-prone player who was recovering than the one who was playing through it. Kawhi returned rather strong at the end of this season.
The illness is very suspicious. I’m sure Boston have access to the best healthcare available, and for them to not be able to rectify it… It will be interesting to see how other teams approach it.
With Holiday, I think there will be teams out there who have worse players under similar contracts compared to him. That’s always the case in the NBA. Holiday will not bring firsts, but he will bring smth.
I will remember this conversation. :) Your bet is full rebuild mode and likely lots of losing; mine is that they will be too good, will keep more players than you suggested, and will be at least somewhat above .500
Curious to see how this plays out :)
Keep Holiday.
One of my concerns is that porzingis’s illness is something on the more serious side like tuberculosis. The fact that the team is keeping it under wraps is concerning and after months I just don’t see it still being a “mystery”. I may be wrong, I just know that people travel the world to come here to Boston for medical treatment and I can’t imagine what would still be a mystery at this point. If I was right about my example of an illness it would put him out for about a year, and thats prior to being able to do any physical activity to regain strength, if not force Him to retire altogether because He’ll never return to full form. Respiratory illnesses lasting this long can’t be anything that isn’t atleast borderline serious. I have a bad feeling about this sickness and have ever since they called it a “mystery illness” and had been commenting on his breathing whenever He was on the court. I think we need to consider the possibility that they’re hiding something from us that they’re trying to work out without being honest with the fans. I’m not gonna look at Him as dead weight because I’m gonna look at Him as a person before a player, but until they tell us what’s wrong with Him I dont see Him going anywhere. I know that my example is extreme but I’m really not fond of how this is being treated because I dont believe that it’s still an unknown.
> Curious to see how this plays out :)
Peter, it’s Tuesday, June 24, 6pm PST. What’s your call? Or, is it still too early to say.
Cheers
Hey!
They were very aggressive in getting under the aprons, you made a good call. Holiday trade is more or less what one would expect, Simons thing is interesting, though. Porzingis trade was quite ruthless, they went for the lowest possible salary they could get, it seems.
After they made these moves, I wouldn’t be surprised to even see Brown moved. And other deals involving Hauser, Simons, that guy from Atlanta.
In any case, I still believe they will not be lower then 5th after 82 games xD
Keep Kornet.
NBA trade rules are confusing to me. I thought incoming salaries had to match outgoing salaries (within a percentage), which obviously isn’t the case for Boston…
Teams below the first apron have a lot of flexibility
You can always take back less salary than you send out. Could be $1 less, could be $40MM less.
The rules get more complicated when you want to take back MORE salary than you send out.