The Boston Celtics came into the offseason knowing that there would be some major changes to the roster, and it's already happened. In the past two days, they've traded away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, who were key players that helped them win a championship in 2024. Though the Celtics may not be the same team they've been the past few years, Bill Simmons is keeping an optimistic mindset.

“The 2024 Celtics funeral is here,” Simmons said on his podcast. “They lopped off miraculously $28 million in two trades. They got under the second apron, which doesn’t just save them almost $200 million in luxury tax, but also has all these other positive benefits. I’m not sure the Celtics are gonna be that bad next year in this weird Eastern Conference. Holiday in the playoffs and then the next series, I thought, looked pretty rough. You flip him for Simons, who fills the scoring void that they clearly need with Tatum.”

Holiday was traded for Simons, and though they may fall off defensively, the offense in the backcourt may have just improved with the move.

Will the Celtics still be competitive next season?

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The Celtics made some major moves over the last two days, but they still have a team that is capable of making some noise in the Eastern Conference next season.

“Jaylen [Brown] is still a top 20 guy,” Simmons said. “You’re gonna have a good coach. You have this philosophy of just gunning up threes. They're gonna be way worse defensively. Porzingis played half the year last year and then was a corpse in the playoffs cause he wasn’t healthy. The Tatum piece is the piece that’s the disaster, but if you talk about the rest of it, they might be all right.”

Brown and Derrick White are going to be the two key pieces for the Celtics next season, and they've shown that they could score in bunches while also defending at a high level. They'll have help in the scoring department with Simons, and they also have a knock-down shooter in Georges Niang, who was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in the Porzingis trade.

With other injuries in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics should still be in the mix as a competitive team, and they're most likely not done making moves. The ultra-talented team may be long gone, but this new roster they're building has some potential.