The Boston Celtics are less than a month away from kicking off their 2025-26 season with a roster that will look a whole lot different than the one that won 60-plus games the last two years. Jayson Tatum will likely miss the entire season with a torn Achilles injury, and the team lost several players over the offseason via trade or free agency.
Two players that departed in free agency were big men Luke Kornet, who signed with the San Antonio Spurs, and Al Horford, who joined the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
Recently, Celtics general manager Brad Stevens spoke on those two departures during the team's media day on Monday.
“Those guys have the right to make decisions for themselves, especially when they are unrestricted free agents,” said Stevens, per Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog on X, formerly Twitter.
“We offered both Al and Luke the opportunity to stay, but you can see what our contracts were with who we signed,” he added.
Stevens also noted that “We gave Al an offer, but there wasn't any expectation he wouldn't take a bigger offer elsewhere.”
A different Celtics team
In addition to losing Horford and Kornet in free agency, the Boston Celtics also traded big man Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks and point guard Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers in an attempt to get under the NBA's second apron.
All of these decisions led many fans to assume that the Celtics are essentially punting on the 2025-26 season and hoping to be able to hit the ground running once Tatum returns the following year.
However, Tatum himself recently raised eyebrows by posting footage of himself back on the court on his YouTube channel as well as taking to ESPN's First Take to declare that he had not been ruled out for the 2025-26 season, although he was being cautious in his recovery process.
In any case, the Celtics are slated to kick off their 2025-26 season on October 22 with a home game against their divisional rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers, at 7:30 PM ET.
