Following their elimination from the 2025 NBA playoffs at the hands of the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics had one goal in mind: get under the second tax apron. This became imperative after losing Jayson Tatum to an Achilles injury, as it was rather impractical for the Celtics to foot a bill worth nearly half a billion dollars for a team that could make it to the second round of the playoffs at best without their best player in Tatum.

To their credit, the Celtics wasted not much time in fulfilling this goal of theirs. They traded away Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers for Anfernee Simons and two second-round picks, and then followed that up with a three-team trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks, bringing back just Georges Niang and a second-rounder. These deals brought them under the second apron rather swiftly, and to make matters better, both Simons and Niang's contracts are expiring at the end of the 2025-26 season.

Nonetheless, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens doused everyone with the cold reality that the team is facing, that is Tatum is out for the entirety of next season.

“The biggest problem is our First Team All-NBA player is in a boot,” Stevens said on the night of the 2025 NBA Draft, per Daniel Donabedian, Celtics beat reporter for ClutchPoints.

Indeed, games are won on the court, not on the cap sheet, and the Celtics, especially after trading away two pillars of their 2024 championship-winning squad, are about to be markedly worse next season. But the Celtics' goal is to pick up where they left off once Tatum returns, and at the very least, the trades they made put them in a good position to do so.

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More changes to come for the Celtics?

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) and head coach Brad Stevens direct players during the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks at TD Garden.
Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The Celtics are surely not done wheeling and dealing just yet. They have a huge void in their frontcourt, with both Al Horford and Luke Korney being free agents and Porzingis off to Atlanta. The only man on the roster at the moment who can play center is Xavier Tillman Sr., and Boston will surely want to reinforce that position before the season begins.

They could very well try to get under the first apron as well, if only to reduce their tax bill and grease the wheels on potential trades in the future. Boston will have to trim around $8 million from their player payroll to do so.