The Boston Celtics will have a championship-caliber roster for the next several seasons. The cost of running the team back and defending its league-leading 18th NBA title is literally north of $62 million over the total salary cap.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens knew the franchise would pay a lot in luxury taxes and the penalties associated with crossing the NBA’s second tax apron, but he had good reason, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
“We’re going to face some basketball penalties down the road that we’re going to have to make decisions on,” Stevens told ESPN. “But we’re also very cognizant that we have a really damn good team and we’re trying to win a championship.”
Stevens recalled a conversation with Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck about the latter’s intention to sell a controlling interest in the team.
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“He reiterated his support for basketball operations,” Stevens said. “And he said to just keep on doing what we’re doing … and know that this is probably going to be a long process.”
Grousbeck vowed to maintain as much of Boston’s title-winning roster as possible and stood by that word. The Celtics re-signed five-time All-Star Jayson Tatum to a record-breaking $315 million supermax extension, making the 26-year-old the league’s highest-paid player, catapulting the cost of Boston’s starting lineup of Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White to a lavish $930 million-plus price tag.
“I think our job is to continue to, with everyone in the room — owners, basketball operations, (coach) Joe (Mazzulla) — our job is to build the best team that we can under the comfort level of the people in the room,” Stevens said. “So we’re just going to do our best to put our best foot forward, and then each year we’ll have to assess how everything looks. Then certainly the new ownership group will dictate a lot of that.”
It hasn’t been a problem yet, but the Celtics’ impending sale could impact how they manage their team going forward.
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