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BOSTON — Rebuilding in the modern NBA is common, as it's often easier for teams to start fresh rather than flounder in mediocrity for multiple seasons. The Boston Celtics have avoided a true rebuild for over a decade, boasting the longest active playoff streak in the league. And while the 2025-26 campaign presents an opportunity for rebuilding, Celtics president Brad Stevens refused to honor that term.
Since Celtics star Jayson Tatum is recovering from a devastating Achilles rupture and has no timeline for return, Boston's outlook for next season is a lot less hopeful. Looming second apron penalties and roster shakeup as a result of the new CBA aren't helping either, putting a severe damper on the Celtics' championship aspirations.
Brad Stevens with a relatively optimistic outlook on Jayson Tatum’s recovery:
“I think one of the things about the Tatum injury that is really important to us is that there's no expectation on timeline to return, but there's an expectation of fully returning.” pic.twitter.com/NrGqTcqHwS
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) July 8, 2025
Despite all of these obstacles, Stevens wouldn't call the upcoming season a rebuild. Instead, he maintained that the Celtics are going to compete, regardless of the circumstances.
“My expectations are always the same,” Stevens revealed during a Tuesday morning press conference. “Compete like hell to win the next game. That's always going to be it, that will always be it, and that's the way that we're going to try to put our foot forward.”
Stevens preferred the word “retooling” over “rebuilding” because although Tatum is down and Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — two starters from the Celtics' 2024 championship core — were traded this offseason, the foundation remains. Four-time All-Star Jaylen Brown will lead the charge for Boston with versatile guard Derrick White and reigning Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard by his side.
“When you trade guys like Jrue and KP, there's some retooling going on,” Stevens admitted. “But, the one thing that, when I was coaching, when the term rebuild came up, I thought it was a crazy term. None of us were here before, so it should be build, right? You're always building and growing towards something. And for this group, we've got so many guys back that are really good players that, that's not going to be part of the lexicon in our building, and that's the way we're going to focus moving forward.”
There's also some new blood with former Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons, Massachusetts native Georges Niang, and ex-Minnesota Timberwolves Luka Garza and Josh Minott all arriving in Beantown this summer.
“We've got some new guys,” Stevens said. “We've got some guys that will have to take on extra in their roles, but we believe in the guys that have been in the building, and we look forward to getting the guys that haven't all working together to try to create a team that functions well together and plays hard as hell. That'll be it. I've said many times, the North Star, for me, is winning championships.”
Better looks at Luka Garza’s Celtics beginnings pic.twitter.com/LVnWAhlgM3
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) July 8, 2025
Can the Celtics truly contend for a ring next season?
At the moment, banner No. 19 feels more than a year away, at best. The Celtics are obviously without their top scorer in Tatum and have shed some depth, as bench center Luke Kornet left in free agency and veteran big man Al Horford looks poised to do the same. Relying on Garza and center Neemias Queta at the 5-spot is risky, and even Stevens acknowledged the potential weakness.
“That will not be the group that people will single out, based on paper, on what they've done with their careers thus far, as our strongest position, but it's up to them to prove it otherwise,” he stated.
Of course, the Celtics might not be done making moves. They have some more financial breathing room after dealing Holiday and Porzingis, and there's no guarantee Simons and Niang are a part of the Celtics' long-term plan. But regardless of what the final roster is, Stevens, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, and the rest of the staff expect their players to compete.
“I said this when I was coaching all the time, I'd never put a ceiling on any team,” Stevens emphasized.
From NBA champions to cost-cutters?
The Boston Celtics may look very different next year not by choice, but by cap reality.
The 2024–25 squad started the season with a juggernaut:
🔹 Jrue Holiday
🔹 Derrick White
🔹 Jaylen Brown
🔹 Jayson Tatum
🔹 Kristaps Porzingis— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 1, 2025
Just how competitive they can be without their perennial All-NBA First-Team superstar remains to be seen. However, the Eastern Conference is not as strong as the Western Conference, giving the C's a fair shot at continuing their postseason streak. And perhaps Brown, the longest-tenured Celtic who has never missed the playoffs, and the rest of his teammates will relish the fact that they're finally underdogs.
“We were fortunate to have a number of teams there as we led up to this kind of window that were really fun and that, I thought, never really cared about ceilings and had a chip on their shoulder,” Stevens recalled. “And I expect that this team will too. I mean, the last time that Jaylen Brown was on a team that was doubted was a long time ago.”
