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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
It's been a great summer for the Boston Celtics.
Last month, the Celtics passed the Los Angeles Lakers for their NBA-record 18th championship. On July 1, the Celtics agreed to a five-year, $314 million contract extension with Jayson Tatum, the richest contract in NBA history, and a four-year, $126 million extension with Derrick White. On Sunday, they agreed to a four-year, $45 million extension with development success story Sam Hauser.
Boston returns all eight rotation players from last season's championship team, seven of whom are under contract for at least the next two seasons and six for at least the next three.
And as currently configured, the Celtics are on track for another historic figure: the league's first $500 million roster.
With Hauser's extension, the Celtics now have 11 players under contract through the 2025-26 season, with a combined total of $225 million in contracts. With the addition of their first-round draft pick and two minimum-salary players on the roster (projected to be about $2.3 million apiece, per ESPN's Bobby Marks), Boston's total payroll would be about $233 million, more than $45 million above the projected luxury tax line.
According to ESPN's Bobby Marks, the Celtics could face a projected tax bill of $280 million when tougher penalties are imposed on teams paying the luxury tax starting next offseason, while Boston could be on the hook for roughly $513 million in combined salary and tax penalties for the 2025-26 season alone.
That figure would break the current record of $388 million set by the Golden State Warriors last season, but it would also beat the likely new record holder, the Phoenix Suns, who are on pace to shatter that record with a projected combined salary and luxury tax expenditure of $433 million in 2024-25.
Regardless of who buys the Celtics in the coming months after longtime owner Wyck Grousbeck and his family put their controlling stake in the franchise up for sale, no one is likely to be able or willing to absorb such a financial penalty for an extended period of time.
For Celtics fans basking in the joy of winning a championship and with a front office determined to keep their key players for years to come, it's likely frustrating to hear that finances could be getting in the way of a dynasty. But it's also exactly what the league was hoping for in the current round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations.
“What we're hearing from teams is that even though the second apron is about to be invoked, teams recognize that the policy has real force,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last week during his annual press conference at the Las Vegas Summer League.
“We don't want this new system to be boring, but we do want to put all 30 teams in a position to better compete, and I think we're heading in that direction.”
The new CBA was designed to reallocate talent across the league and prevent teams from being overstocked with stars for long periods of time, and while Boston's roster composition currently defies this logic, the massive tax looming over the Celtics will ultimately do exactly what the league intended.
For example, Marks said the Celtics paid a total of $52 million in luxury tax from 2002-03 through 2021-22. In the past two seasons alone, the Celtics paid $114 million in tax and are due to pay another $66 million this season, meaning they'll pay $180 million over three years, plus an additional $280 million in 2025-26.
But while keeping this entire team might prove difficult (and they'll certainly give it a shot if the Celtics win back-to-back championships in 2025), having so many players under contract also gives the franchise options.
The Celtics have the flexibility to go in multiple directions if they need to cut payroll, with all five starters, Hauser and guard Payton Pritchard under long-term contracts. Despite the high tax and restrictions on teams above the second apron, the Celtics have the ability to retool their roster from a position of strength.
As it stands, the Celtics are expected to spend close to $25 million in the second apron, and starting this season, teams that finish the season in the second apron will have their future draft picks frozen (and therefore unable to be traded) as part of a penalty meant to prevent long-term, large-scale spending.
But if the Celtics were to shed one of their big salaries going forward and replace it with a draft pick or a player on a cheap rookie contract, it would soon become very real that Boston could fall below the second apron, giving the Celtics flexibility to continue expanding their depth.
The Suns' situation is very different: Bradley Beal is due $160 million over the next three years and has a no-trade clause, and the Suns' mid-level salaries — Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and Nasir Little — all have limited trade value, league sources told ESPN.
That leaves the only assets that could bring value back in a trade: the team's best two players, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, plus Josh Okogie, who signed a contract this summer designed to give him trade leverage for another year — and, understandably, the Suns have no interest in trading for either Booker or Durant.
Boston also doesn't want to trade players and is doing everything it can to maintain roster continuity, returning 13 of the 15 players from its championship team and two two-way players for next season. The Celtics dominated the championship season, winning 64 games and going 16-3 in the playoffs, and they'll be hoping to repeat that form next spring.
But as the team moves through the sale process — which Grousbeck said will be completed by “early 2025” — the team's financial future hangs over the franchise and will be one of the first issues facing any new ownership group.
Sources familiar with the franchise's valuation expect Grousbeck's stake to sell for roughly $5 billion, a record price for a controlling stake in an NBA team.
For now, Boston's offseason is essentially over — next season's roster is essentially set, and with Hauser's contract extension, the rotation is set for 2025-26. But as the Celtics prepare to begin their title defense in the fall, they are well aware of the looming $500 million financial cliff and the impact it could have on the franchise's quest for a dynasty.
