Kristaps Porzingis

Celtics Notes: Holiday, Luxury Tax, Draft, White, Trades

May 28th, 2025 at 10:54am CST by Dana Gauruder

With the Celtics looking to find ways to shave their luxury tax bill, the Clippers are expected to be among the teams to show interest in veteran point guard Jrue Holiday, Brian Robb of MassLive.com reports.

Holiday will likely have multiple suitors, but the Clippers’ front office has previously pursued Holiday, Robb notes — L.A. was outbid by Boston on the 2023 trade market. The Celtics shipped Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams and two future first- round picks to Portland for Holiday.

Holiday has three years and $104MM remaining on his contract. Robb notes that Bogdan Bogdanovic ($16MM) could be a crucial matching salary piece if the two sides pursue a deal.

Here’s more on the Celtics:

Taking their cue from the Pacers and Thunder, the Celtics need to get younger and cheaper talent, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe opines. In order for the Celtics to stay under the second apron, they need to have players on rookie contracts and — when the time comes — give them less-than-max rookie extensions. They need to hit on their two draft picks at No. 28 and 32 to help achieve that goal, Washburn notes.
Regarding their trade assets, Robb details how many future picks the Celtics hold. Boston has one first-rounder and two second-rounders next year but doesn’t have a second-rounder in 2027. Robb also notes the Celtics currently have no picks in 2029.
Yossi Gozlan of ThirdApron.com (Substack link) doesn’t see the club trading Jaylen Brown but believes the next 12 months could be the optimal window to move Derrick White, who is set to begin a four-year, $128MM extension. If White is retained, the club should be able to achieve its financial goals by trading Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Sam Hauser, Gozlan writes.

Celtics Notes: Tatum, Stevens, Porzingis, Holiday

May 24th, 2025 at 5:08pm CST by Arthur Hill

Celtics assistant coach Sam Cassell is optimistic that Jayson Tatum will reclaim his place as one of the NBA’s best players whenever he fully recovers from Achilles surgery, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. Appearing on Patrick Beverley‘s podcast, Cassell said he plans to help Tatum learn how to view the game from a coach’s perspective while he’s rehabbing the injury.

“It’s good, man,” Cassell said. “When he comes back, he can be even better. He can observe the game of basketball and work on everything he needs to work on. I’m looking forward to the journey with him. Top-five first-team All-(NBA) this year. When he comes back, he’ll be first-team All-(NBA) again. He’s that good.”

Tatum was one of four players to be unanimously selected for first-team All-NBA honors this week, earning the designation for the fourth straight season. No timetable has been set for him to resume playing, but Terada states that the Celtics are confident about his prognosis because he had surgery the morning after tearing his Achilles in Game 4 of their second-round series and he was fortunate to be in New York, which offered greater access to world-class surgeons.

Tatum’s injury derailed any hopes that Boston had of rallying to win the series and it may cause the team to take a step back from contending next season. However, Cassell is confident in the long-term future.

“When you got a great group of guys who understood the situation we were in,” he said, “It’s like, ‘Guys, we’re down 3-1, OK. We’re going to get another lead, so let’s just take advantage of the lead.’ Because we had leads every game. Basketball gods are just not happy sometimes. We’ll grow from this. As a staff, we’ll grow from this as a team. We’re the Boston Celtics, baby.”

There’s more from Boston:

The press conference held Monday by president of basketball operations Brad Stevens showed that he has a plan to remake the roster and trim salary this summer, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Stevens indicated that he’s willing to use the team’s draft picks at No. 28 and 32 to help get rid of at least the roughly $20MM that will be necessary to get the Celtics below the second apron. Washburn doesn’t expect Stevens to part with Jaylen Brown or Derrick White, but he states that Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday will likely be made available, while Sam Hauser, Jordan Walsh and JD Davison may also be deemed expendable.
In a mailbag column, Brian Robb of MassLive questions how easy it will be to find teams willing to take on Porzingis and Holiday. Robb points out that Holiday is already 35 and will making $37.2MM in 2027/28, while Porzingis’ recent health issues will likely limit his market.
Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe continues his offseason series rating the team’s various units, this time focusing on the starting lineup. He notes that injuries to Tatum and Brown, along with Porzingis’ illness and Holiday’s signs of aging leave the group in much worse shape than it appeared to be when the season began.

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Knueppel, Raptors, Sixers, Porzingis

May 22nd, 2025 at 8:01am CST by Luke Adams

The Nets control a league-high five picks (all in the top 36) in the 2025 NBA draft, and general manager Sean Marks has an extensive history of making trades during or right around the draft. Those factors point toward Brooklyn being a team to watch on the trade market next month, says Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link).

According to Lewis, Marks has made a trade within two days of the draft in eight of the last nine years, and the “feeling in league circles” is that he’ll do so again this spring.

Assuming the Nets stay at No. 8, could Kon Knueppel be the choice in that spot? As Lewis writes in another subscriber-only story, Brooklyn is being connected to the Duke sharpshooter by many mock drafters, and some scouts view him as a strong value pick at that spot if he’s still available.

“Is he a really good player, and are you excited to have him on your squad? Yeah,” former Sixers scout Mike VandeGarde told Lewis. “But is he Luke Kennard? Is he Kyle Korver? Is he Gradey Dick? … Knueppel to me isn’t the best player on a playoff team, but I really like his game. And if I’m at eight, I’m looking at him.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

With Pascal Siakam and T.J. McConnell playing important roles for Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals and OG Anunoby logging big minutes for New York, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca revisits the Raptors‘ decision to trade away Siakam and Anunoby during the 2023/24 season, while Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer considers whether the Sixers should regret letting McConnell get away in 2019.
Exploring potential options for the Sixers‘ No. 3 overall pick, Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice enlists a series of fellow NBA reporters to help him evaluate hypothetical trades. Aaronson offers up proposals involving the Rockets, Hawks, Nets, Bulls, and Wizards and goes back and forth with writers who cover those teams to figure out if there’s a viable deal to be made.
After Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in his end-of-season media session that big man Kristaps Porzingis is dealing with post-viral syndrome, Tess DeMeyer of The Athletic takes a closer look at what exactly that means. As DeMeyer explains, post-viral syndrome can make person feel drained and weak for days or months after experiencing a viral illness, and even someone in peak health can have a hard time moving past the symptoms. Stevens expressed optimism on Monday that Porzingis will be back to 100% by the start of next season.

Atlantic Notes: Towns, Knicks, Holiday, Porzingis, Sixers

May 19th, 2025 at 8:12pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Karl-Anthony Towns gave the Pacers fits this season and the Knicks hope that continues over the next two weeks. He averaged 30.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 46.7 percent from three-point range in 36.5 minutes per contest vs. Indiana, Zach Braziller of the New York Post notes, with the Knicks winning two of three regular-season matchups between the Eastern Conference finalists.

Towns will likely be matched up against Myles Turner, who averaged 19.5 points and 2.5 blocks per game against New York this season.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

The Knicks have been named the 2024-25 NBATA Athletic Training Staff of the Year, Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News tweets. New York’s training staff is led by Casey Smith, VP of Sports Medicine. The staff also includes senior athletic trainer Heather Mau. Smith and Mau are former members of the Mavs’ training staff, Curtis notes. Smith was fired in 2023 by Dallas GM Nico Harrison.
All the extensions that the Celtics handed out last offseason could prove detrimental unless the front office can find a good trade offer for Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porzingis, Brian Robb of MassLive.com opines. Holiday still has value but his production tailed off this season and he’s owed $104MM over the next three years. Porzingis has an expiring contract but has contributed little in the last two postseason due to injury and illness. A more dramatic reset for the franchise could be required if shedding these big-money contracts ends up costing Boston valuable assets, Robb concludes.
While there has been some speculation that the Sixers will shop the No. 3 overall pick, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports hears an entirely different story. A source told him that the front office isn’t interested in packaging that pick to acquire a veteran star (Twitter link). The team has spoken publicly about wanting to add more youth and athleticism to its core, Neubeck notes, and the No. 3 pick will provide an opportunity to do just that.

Stevens: More Time Required To Determine Offseason Plans

May 19th, 2025 at 7:02pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens didn’t provide any clarity during his postseason press conference on his approach to a challenging offseason. Stevens said that the organization remains driven to compete for championships but there are other factors that must be considered.

“I know there will be a lot of questions about what’s next,” Stevens said, per Brian Robb of MassLive.com. “I’ll talk probably more about that at the draft time when we have a better idea after meeting with all the key stakeholders and everybody else about what next steps might be. At the end of the day, I think that will all be driven by the same thing that’s always driven us and that is how do we get ourselves in the mix to compete for championships best.”

Numerous players were signed to extensions last offseason after the Celtics won the championship. The cost of carrying those players will rise exponentially — their payroll for next season is projected to be around $225MM, with repeater tax penalties totaling approximately $280MM.

This comes at a time when majority ownership is due to change hands. The new ownership group, led by William Chisholm, is expected to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors next month, according to Robb. It’s unknown whether the new owners are willing to take on that kind of penalty.

“The CBA has been well-known for years,” Stevens said. “So there are penalties associated with being at certain levels, and we know that. You just weigh that. You weigh where we are. You weigh everything else then you make those decisions. You have to have the clarity of a full season and a full playoffs and, like I said, a couple good night’s sleep. Then everybody gets in a room and put your heads together and figure out what’s next.”

Another major factor in the Celtics’ offseason approach will be the likely season-long absence of star forward Jayson Tatum, who tore his Achilles during their second-round series. It was later revealed that Jaylen Brown played with partially torn meniscus in his right knee, while Kristaps Porzingis continued to battle a lingering illness. Stevens wouldn’t blame the series loss to the Knicks on those setbacks.

“The reality is we blew the first two games and that’s why we put ourselves in a tough spot. … That’s not on any one person,” Stevens said, per The Associated Press. “It’s not out of maliciousness. It’s not out of a bad decision. It’s not bad luck. It’s we had an opportunity to win those first two home games and we put ourselves behind the eight ball.”

Brown’s knee issues cropped up in March, Stevens said. However, the knee injury wasn’t severe enough to keep him off the court, as Robb relays.

“Jaylen wants to play, Jaylen’s a warrior, Jaylen takes great pride in being out there,” Stevens said. “And at the same time, he saw obviously our team docs and a couple of other people and as he even said a couple weeks ago, the knee’s in a good place structurally. And so I think he felt comfortable getting out there and going after it. And hopefully he’ll feel better after being off it for a couple weeks here. The unfortunate part is we’re done in the middle of May, but some of these guys who have some nicks, bruises and other things that it’ll be good to get some rest.”

Porzingis’ illness was described to Stevens as “post-viral syndrome,” The Athletic’s Jay King tweets. Stevens believes Porzingis’ health issues will be “well cleared up” by the time he plays for Latvia in EuroBasket this summer.

Celtics Rumors: Holiday, Porzingis, Tatum, Brown, More

May 17th, 2025 at 11:12am CST by Rory Maher

Even before Jayson Tatum suffered a torn Achilles tendon, the Celtics were contemplating “significant offseason changes” due to a payroll (including luxury tax) that is projected to surpass $500MM in 2025/26, confirms Jay King of The Athletic. But with Tatum likely to miss most — if not all — of next season, a more “drastic shakeup” could be in the works.

Although Jrue Holiday battled injuries and saw his offensive numbers decline in ’24/25, he’s still expected to draw interest from contending teams if the Celtics make him available on the trade market, league sources tell King. Holiday turns 35 years old next month and is owed $104.4MM through ’27/28, but he’s highly regarded around the league due to his championship pedigree and reputation as a strong defensive player, King writes.

Kristaps Porzingis is another clear trade candidate due to his expiring contract. But don’t expect the Celtics to simply shed his salary in a straightforward salary dump, King adds.

Here are a few more rumors and notes on the 2024 champions:

According to King, Tatum’s heavy workload was an “occasional topic of contention” within the organization prior to the injury. Including the playoffs, Tatum has played more minutes than any player in the league since Boston selected him No. 3 overall in 2017, King notes, and he also won a pair of gold medals with Team USA in 2021 and 2024, so he hasn’t many rest opportunities in recent years. Tatum admitted in March that “a lot of headbutting” occurred prior to games when the team wanted to him rest but he wanted to play.
Prior to the Game 6 elimination, Chris Mannix and Rachel Nichols of Sports Illustrated speculated about what moves the Celtics might make this summer (YouTube link). “The question is what do you do here? Because I think there’s a pretty decent chance that this team gets dismantled in a major way,” Mannix said. Nichols followed up by asking if Jaylen Brown could be on the move. Mannix doesn’t think so, but said, “I think two or more rotation players in the top seven could be gone next year, and they could use next year as a gap year.” Holiday and Porzingis were two more players brought up in the discussion.
It’s clear the Celtics won’t be running things back for a second straight summer, according to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports, who is “pretty confident” that next year’s roster will feature Tatum, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Baylor Scheierman, and Jordan Walsh. However, Forsberg is less certain about the rest of the roster, including Brown, who is entering the second season of his five-year, super-max contract. Sharpshooter Sam Hauser is another trade candidate if the team is unable to cut costs elsewhere, Forsberg writes.
In his Celtics offseason preview for ESPN.com, Bobby Marks lays out some of the options Boston could consider this summer, noting that the punitive restrictions of the second tax apron will likely be the main reason the team decides to make changes. Marks also released a video version of his offseason guide via YouTube.

Kristaps Porzingis Discusses Mysterious Illness

May 17th, 2025 at 10:04am CST by Rory Maher

Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis, who is under contract for $30.7MM next season before hitting free agency in 2026, struggled mightily in the playoffs due to the lingering effects of a mysterious illness he contracted in February.

It seemed like Porzingis was mostly recovered late in the regular season, but he was particularly ineffective in Boston’s second-round loss to New York, averaging just 4.2 points and 3.7 rebounds on .240/.222/.647 shooting in 15.5 minutes per game. Those numbers are a precipitous drop compared to what he posted in the regular season: 19.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 2.1 APG and 1.5 BPG on .483/.412/.809 shooting in 45 contests (28.8 MPG).

After the Celtics were eliminated on Friday night, Porzingis admitted he still doesn’t have any solid answers about what has been causing the “energy zaps” and stamina “ebbs and flows” over the past two-plus months.

“I’m not sure,” Porzingis said, per Brian Robb of MassLive. “I mean, doctors are trying to help as much as possible. It was just some lingering fatigue, some effects.

“It was just extremely weird, and many symptoms that were kind of super weird. So I think nobody has a clear answer. I’ll see how I go from here. Maybe I do some extra testing and some extra stuff and see if we find something. If not, maybe just a reset. Reset for my whole system and that will give my energy levels hopefully back up.”

Porzingis, who played 11 minutes on Friday, said he would have fallen asleep immediately if he had laid down in the locker room after the game, according to Adam Himmselbach of The Boston Globe.

“(It was) super, super frustrating. As frustrating as you can imagine. Just to not be able to help this team more, especially with (Jayson Tatum) going out,” Porzingis said (story via ESPN’s Brian Windhorst). “Not being too much of a help just hurts deep inside.”

“… I tried to give what I had. It wasn’t much, as you could see,” he added, per Himmelsbach.

According to Robb, Porzingis never considered sitting out after he was medically cleared by doctors, who tested his heart, among other organs. He also still plans to play for Latvia at this summer’s EuroBasket.

“The main thing for me now is just to let my system get into a normal state,” Porzingis said. “Get my energy back up and then I’ll start to look into some things maybe outside of basketball at first, and then the European Championships later in the summer, so I’m excited about that.

“So this summer I expect a nice bounce-back for myself and then heading into the next season.”

Celtics’ Jaylen Brown On Loss To Knicks: ‘Feels Like Death’

May 17th, 2025 at 8:21am CST by Rory Maher

The defending champion Celtics were eliminated from the playoffs on Friday, having been blown out by the Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

“Finishing in May feels weird, it’s definitely not something we were prepared for,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who fouled out before the end of the third quarter after scoring 20 points but with seven turnovers. “Things didn’t go our way this year, and it’s unfortunate.

“But we hold our head up regardless. Losing to the Knicks feels like death. But I was always taught that there’s life after death, so we’ll get ready for whatever’s next in the journey.”

Boston had an unexpectedly poor start to the second-round series, losing the first two games at home after holding 20-point second-half leads in each contest. Things went from bad to worse in Game 4, when the Celtics blew another double-digit second-half lead and perennial All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum sustained a torn Achilles tendon.

While the Celtics had their chances, especially early on in the series, they were thoroughly outplayed in Game 6. Head coach Joe Mazzulla made sure to credit the Knicks for their dominant performance, Windhorst notes.

“We ran into a great team. You have to tip your hat off to the Knicks,” Mazzulla said. “They outplayed us. They played better.”

As Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe writes, the Celtics now face a summer of uncertainty due to Tatum’s injury, their extremely expensive roster, and the restrictions of the NBA’s tax aprons.

Center Kristaps Porzingis, who battled “extreme fatigue” — one of the lingering effects of a mysterious February illness that was never identified — throughout the playoffs, could be on the trading block this offseason, according to Himmselbach. Veteran guard Jrue Holiday could be in the same boat.

Himmelsbach also suggests that big man Al Horford could opt to retire. Windhorst recently reported the impending free agent hopes to re-sign with the Celtics, but that was before Tatum’s injury. Horford will turn 39 years old in early June.

But the team wasn’t thinking about the future in the immediate aftermath of the loss.

“It sucks,” guard Derrick White said. “You’ll never get this season back. You’re never going to have the exact same team again.”

New York, which entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the East, will now face No. 4 Indiana in the team’s first conference final appearance in 25 years.

Celtics Notes: Tatum, Hauser, Porzingis, Pritchard

May 16th, 2025 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

After undergoing surgery on his ruptured Achilles earlier this week, Jayson Tatum was out of the hospital and met with his Celtics teammates on Thursday at the team’s hotel in New York, writes Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press.

“It sucks to see someone go down like that who doesn’t deserve it,” Celtics wing Sam Hauser told reporters on Friday. “But he wouldn’t want more than us to just keep winning. We saw him yesterday. He seems to be in good spirits. Definitely thinking about him and trying to get some wins for him.”

After losing both their star player and Game 4 on Monday to fall behind 3-1 in their second-round series vs. New York, the Celtics found themselves facing long odds to advance. But they took Game 5 on Wednesday and can force a Game 7 at home if they can pull off an upset on Friday at Madison Square Garden.

While Tatum’s injury and their new underdog status has given the Celtics some added motivation to find a way to win the series, Payton Pritchard said on Friday that just getting to see their injured teammate on Thursday was an emotional lift for everyone, according to Hightower.

“We didn’t talk about basketball at all. That stuff is bigger than basketball now,” Pritchard said. “It’s seeing how he is as a person, how he’s dealing with stuff. The basketball side, we’ll handle that. But just want to check in as a friend.”

We have more on the Celtics ahead of a big Friday game:

Outside of Tatum, the Celtics have a clean injury report for Game 6, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Hauser, who returned on Wednesday and played 15 minutes after missing three games due to a sprained ankle, isn’t listed, and neither is Kristaps Porzingis, despite the fact that didn’t play in the second half of the Game 5 win as he continues to battle the lingering effects of an illness.
The Celtics have a decision to make for Game 5, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com, who argues that Porzingis should be removed from the starting lineup and should perhaps even be benched entirely due to his diminished condition. Both Al Horford and Luke Kornet look like better options in the middle right now, Robb adds.
In a separate story for MassLive.com, Robb contends that Pritchard needs to continue playing an increased role after logging a playoff-high 39 minutes on Wednesday. Even though Pritchard made just 6-of-17 shots in the Game 5 win, the team was significantly better when he was on the court, which has been a trend for much of the postseason. Boston has a +16.4 net rating and 122.9 offensive rating during the Sixth Man of the Year’s 274 playoff minutes, as opposed to marks of just +0.6 and 105.8, respectively, when he’s on the bench.

Latest On Jayson Tatum

May 15th, 2025 at 8:42pm CST by Earnest Marshall

Jayson Tatum‘s injury will have a ripple effect on the rest of the league and it will send a seismic wave down the Celtics organization, Jared Weiss of The Athletic writes. While Achilles injuries aren’t entirely uncommon in the NBA, it’s not typical that a player of Tatum’s caliber suffers an injury this catastrophic at this point in the league’s calendar year.

Unless the Celtics complete the 3-1 comeback against the Knicks, the NBA is looking at its seventh different champion in as many years. Reports were already circulating that Boston was looking to make some changes this offseason as the team continued to get more expensive. Now their superstar is out until likely, at earliest, late into next regular season.

There is somewhat of a precedent to follow in that Kevin Durant tore his Achilles in the 2019 Finals, but the Warriors were still able to build around Stephen Curry in his wake.

In a similar article, Kevin Pelton of ESPN explores what paths Boston could explore with Tatum likely sidelined all of next year. Making trades to trim salary and add depth seems likely, but it’s unclear who could be on the block. Jrue Holiday is still a valuable piece for a contender, so he could be an option if Boston opts for that route. While Jaylen Brown would be an appealing trade target for almost every team in the league, the Celtics will need to rely on him to stay competitive next year, Pelton writes.

We have more on Tatum’s injury and the shock wave it sent through the NBA:

Outside of Holiday, the Celtics could also look to move one or both of Derrick White or Kristaps Porzingis, Jay King of The Athletic suggests. Al Horford will also be an unrestricted free agent, as will Luke Kornet, and bringing both back could be challenging given the Celtics’ financial position.
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck addressed Tatum’s injury this week, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link). “Jayson has a warrior mentality like the rest of his teammates,” Grousbeck said. “He will work very hard to get back, and in the meantime the Celtics will fight hard for every game.“
Brown and Horford spoke to Celtics players in a meeting prior to Game 5’s big win over the Knicks, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on a SportsCenter appearance (YouTube link). On Wednesday, the team got a message from Tatum while he was recovering from his surgery. According to Windhorst, Tatum told the team that he would be back and encouraged them to play hard in the wake of his injury.

Load More Posts