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15 hours ago
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The Boston Celtics have made some major moves shaking up their core in the last week, and President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens made their motivations for doing so clear when speaking to the media last night.
"I think the second apron penalties are real, and I didn't realize how real they were until they were staring me in the face over the past month," Stevens said. "You can't overstate that."
With all of their high-paying contracts to players such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics were set to be well above the NBA's second apron salary cap threshold in the 2025-26 season, meaning their ability to make further roster moves would be heavily restricted. With Tatum expected to miss most of the season with a torn Achilles tendon, this was especially troublesome.
According to ESPN's Bobby Marks, this team missing its best player would have had to pay at least $240 million in luxury tax bills alone. But as Stevens noted, the costs were far more than just financial.
According to Marks, these are the additional restrictions Boston would have faced, as they would have been unable to:
aggregate contracts sent out in a trade;
use more than 100% of the traded player exception;
send out cash;
use a preexisting trade exception;
sign a player waived that had a salary of at least $14.1 million
Because of this, Stevens had to make the tough decision to break up his core group that won a championship a year ago. He was able to send Holiday and Porzingis out for Anfernee Simons, Georges Niang, and a handful of second round draft picks, putting the Celtics below the second apron threshold entirely.
As it stands, Boston's lineup will likely not be as good next season, but Stevens now has much more flexibility to build a strong roster for Tatum's anticipated return in 2026-27.
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