Celtics Notes: Offseason, Tatum, Stevens, Mazzulla

The Celtics‘ unexpected first-round loss to the Sixers, which featured the franchise’s first-ever blown 3-1 lead, made clear that even with a healthy Tatum back next season, there’s work to be done to rebuild the roster into a true championship favorite, Brian Robb writes for MassLive.

They have a $27.7MM trade exception from the Anfernee Simons deal that expires at next year’s trade deadline, several other smaller trade exceptions, and will also have access to the $15MM non-taxpayer midlevel exception and $5.4MM bi-annual exception. With those options, they will need to shore up their frontcourt and make some decisions regarding their plethora of young wings.

They will also have to decide what to do with Neemias Queta, who broke out as the team’s year-long starting center. They could pick up his 2.7MM team option and then extend his contract off that up to four years for $92MM, which would give some level of financial flexibility. They could also decline the option and give him a new contract, which would eat into their salary flexibility, ESPN’s Bobby Marks says in his offseason guide (video link).

We have more from the Celtics:

• After a nearly seamless return from his torn Achilles, Jayson Tatum was sidelined for Game 7 due to left knee stiffness, which left a sour note on what was the feel-good story of the year. “My recovery and comeback were going so well that how it ended, I didn’t think it was going to end that way. It was just unfortunate,” Tatum said, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “I worked really, really, really, really hard to come back in the fashion that I did and play at the level I was playing at. So for it to end the way it did was a tough pill to swallow.” Despite the negative outcome, he hopes his recovery and the level he was able to reach with his play this season can serve as an inspiration for other players who suffer similar injuries.
• Brad Stevens had a clear goal at this year’s trade deadline: getting under the tax and avoiding repeater penalties while still improving the roster in the immediate future. To accomplish both goals, they traded Simons for Nikola Vucevic. While the financial part worked, the on-court part didn’t, as evidenced by Vucevic being benched in favor of Luka Garza in the pivotal Game 7, Robb writes. Given the foul trouble Queta dealt with throughout the series, Robb calls the lack of a viable big man a rare mistake for the Celtics’ president, and one that had a huge impact on the team’s inability to get out of the first round.
• Another mistake came from the Celtics’ coach, Joe Mazzulla, according to Robb. With Tatum out, Mazzulla turned not to rotation regulars Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser, but rather to Baylor Scheierman, Ron Harper Jr., and Luka Garza as his three starters alongside Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, a group that had not played a single minute together in the regular season. The trio of late additions ended the must-win game with a combined zero points on seven shots. “I thought it was a couple things we saw tactically we wanted to test out,” Mazzulla said. “Obviously, give the series a little bit of a different feel and take advantage of the roster that we had, and take advantage of the guys that can impact plays and whatnot. So that was great by the guys, and we came up short.”