The Boston Celtics are continuing their title chase after another dominant regular season. Unlike last season, they will most likely not have the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they remain the favorites to come out of the East.
While Joe Mazzulla and the team are focused on the task at hand, the front office is already making plans for the future. GM Brad Stevens, known as one of the savviest decision-makers in the NBA, has difficult decisions to make in the near future.
Boston has one of the most talented and deepest rosters in the league, led by the elite wing duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. To build consistent winners around the two stars, however, the Celtics put together one of the most expensive rosters of all time.
Boston's payroll for next season, not accounting for the new deals of Al Horford and Luke Kornet is over $225 million. Between Brown, Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White, the Celtics have five players who will make over $28 million in the 2025-26 season.
That is why many had assumed that the Celtics would move on from at least one of their core players in the offseason or next year's trade deadline. NBA insider Jake Fischer addressed this conundrum in his latest piece.
According to Fischer, when it's Boston's time to make the tough decision, it's more likely that they would move on from Porzingis or Holiday rather than White.
"White would seemingly generate the most trade value of the three if he were to be made available after the playoffs, but his name wasn't mentioned once to me in reporting out this story."NBA insider Jake Fischer
This makes some sense, considering Holiday's age-related and Porzingis' injury concerns. The Celtics should be able to get an excellent return for either All-Star if they move them this offseason.
This organization has shown a willingness to make uncomfortable decisions with beloved Celtics players, as we saw with Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. Moving on from Holiday or Porzingis may be difficult, but Stevens has won too many of these trades for fans to doubt his judgment.