Championship to uncertainty: Tatum injury changes everything for Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
No matter how long you’re around this game, it’s still absolutely jarring just how quickly things can change in the NBA.
One moment it feels like everything is lining up for the Boston Celtics to fight their way back to the championship stage. An instant later, the team is on the brink of elimination and starting at an impossibly murky future.
Everything got flipped upside down for the Boston Celtics with 2:58 remaining in Monday’s Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Jayson Tatum crumpled to the floor clutching his right ankle as Boston fumbled away another double-digit, second-half lead.
The visuals seem to suggest everyone’s worse fear: a potential ruptured Achilles and the possibility that Tatum could be sidelined until the 2026-27 season.
Boston’s title hopes were already slipping away in the fourth quarter before Tatum’s injury. The Celtics were scrambling to avoid a 3-1 hole, and yet things went from bad to so much worse.
Before we get too deep in the future weeds, let’s state the obvious: The Celtics have to somehow dust themselves off and put their entire focus on keeping their 2024-25 season alive with Wednesday’s Game 5 at TD Garden. You can’t win three games on Wednesday, but you can win one.
The Celtics are 16-3 without Tatum since the start of last season, including a gritty Game 2 win over the Magic in the opening round of these 2025 playoffs. There is more than enough talent to remain competitive, though it’s understandable if players’ heads are spinning after watching Tatum get helped off the floor. It doesn’t help that Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Sam Hauser have all battled their own ailments this postseason.
Even before the Tatum injury, there were already questions about the future of this core with Boston having a prohibitively expensive roster. Now, if Tatum spends all of next season rehabbing, there could be even more motivation to trim costs with hopes of eliminating some of the second-apron restrictions that were set to hinder Boston’s quest for long-term title contention.
You could sense the reality sinking in for the Celtics as players spoke in Boston’s hushed locker room after the game. Forget the daunting task in front of them in trying to rally out of a 3-1 hole; the team must decide the most prudent path forward this summer. Changes were already coming, and now they feel particularly inevitable.
🔊 Celtics Talk POSTGAME POD: C’s season pushed to the BRINK after losing Game 4, Jayson Tatum to injury | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
The Celtics are already committed to $228 million in contracts next season. They are nearly $20 million over the second apron, and that’s before addressing a pair of free-agents-to-be in Al Horford and Luke Kornet. The team is currently projected to have a $238 million luxury tax bill, which would push the team closer to a half billion total spend if the roster was maintained.
The big question now isn’t how Boston keeps as much of its title core as possible, but instead, how does the team shed the necessary salary that will allow it to best compete when Tatum is healthy again? Would the team embrace a potentially bumpy 2025-26 with hopes of both stabilizing costs and adding young talent? (Think what the Spurs did in 1996-97 when David Robinson’s injuries begat Tim Duncan.)
The core of this team is wildly expensive. Tatum’s maximum-salary extension kicks in next season, and he’ll earn $54.1 million even if he doesn’t touch the floor. Brown will make $53.1 million in the second year of his max contract. Holiday is slated to earn $32.4 million, while Porzingis is at $30.7 million. Derrick White’s salary spikes to $28.1 million. That’s nearly $200 million on your starters.
Does 39-year-old Al Horford want to come back to a team in transition? Can the Celtics afford to keep Sam Hauser in the first year of his four-year, $45 million extension?
The Celtics must ponder every avenue forward. Do you toss the keys to Jaylen Brown and hope he can keep you competitive without Tatum? Or do you ponder a more jarring roster teardown and the possibility of moving Brown’s bulky salary to best reshape this core?
Chasing titles is a lot more fun than figuring out how it might look the next time the Celtics are in position to do so. We all knew this core had a short window when Brad Stevens made the big-swing moves to add Porzingis and Holiday in the 2023 offseason. We all tried to focus on the current quest to repeat and said we’d worry about those tougher decisions down the road.
The Tatum injury is accelerating those questions.
If the Celtics aren’t able to rally out of a 3-1 deficit — a spot they probably shouldn’t be in, regardless of injury, after fumbling away three double-digit, second-half leads to the Knicks — there will always be a bit of “What if?” with this team. This is a championship squad that won in its first season together but could never quite bottle up that magic again.
It feels a lot like the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. Kevin Garnett’s knee injury in 2009 derailed a team that seemed like it might be even better than the title squad from a season prior. Even if the 2024-25 squad never quite popped to the level of last year’s title team, it felt like the path back to the Finals might be opening, particularly with top-seeded Cleveland on the ropes in its semifinal series against the Pacers.
And yet the Celtics couldn’t get out of their own way even before Tatum got hurt.
All eyes now turn to Stevens, the architect behind this title roster. Stevens made bold decisions to acquire Porzingis and Holiday, shipping out core members in Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III. Even of the heels of a disappointing exit in the 2023 East Finals, those moves hit like gut punches that offseason.
The moves this summer could feel the same. We feel for new owner Bill Chisholm, who soon will finalize a $6.1 billion splurge to purchase the team but potentially will have to navigate Year 1 without the face of his franchise.
This would all be even more difficult if Boston hadn’t raised a banner last year. This core still carved out its own slice of Celtics history by obtaining Banner 18. But it’s also another harsh reminder of just how fast things flip in the NBA, and that nothing is ever promised in a league where things change in a blink of an eye.
Losing a season of Tatum’s prime is particularly infuriating. That it could force the Celtics to further overhaul their roster and take a step back is even more infuriating. You’re left hoping that Tatum comes back even more motivated after the recovery in front of him.
There is still more basketball to be played. The Celtics seem to produce some of their best ball whenever a key member of their core is missing. The task in front of them is daunting.
But maybe not as ominous as what comes next whenever this 2024-25 ride ends.
Championship to uncertainty: Tatum injury changes everything for Celtics
Boston’s looming roster questions just got a lot more pressing.
No matter how long you’re around this game, it’s still absolutely jarring just how quickly things can change in the NBA.
One moment it feels like everything is lining up for the Boston Celtics to fight their way back to the championship stage. An instant later, the team is on the brink of elimination and starting at an impossibly murky future.
Everything got flipped upside down for the Boston Celtics with 2:58 remaining in Monday’s Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Jayson Tatum crumpled to the floor clutching his right ankle as Boston fumbled away another double-digit, second-half lead.
SIGN UP HERE The visuals seem to suggest everyone’s worse fear: a potential ruptured Achilles and the possibility that Tatum could be sidelined until the 2026-27 season.
Boston’s title hopes were already slipping away in the fourth quarter before Tatum’s injury. The Celtics were scrambling to avoid a 3-1 hole, and yet things went from bad to so much worse.
Before we get too deep in the future weeds, let’s state the obvious: The Celtics have to somehow dust themselves off and put their entire focus on keeping their 2024-25 season alive with Wednesday’s Game 5 at TD Garden. You can’t win three games on Wednesday, but you can win one.
The Celtics are 16-3 without Tatum since the start of last season, including a gritty Game 2 win over the Magic in the opening round of these 2025 playoffs. There is more than enough talent to remain competitive, though it’s understandable if players’ heads are spinning after watching Tatum get helped off the floor. It doesn’t help that Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Sam Hauser have all battled their own ailments this postseason.
Even before the Tatum injury, there were already questions about the future of this core with Boston having a prohibitively expensive roster. Now, if Tatum spends all of next season rehabbing, there could be even more motivation to trim costs with hopes of eliminating some of the second-apron restrictions that were set to hinder Boston’s quest for long-term title contention.
You could sense the reality sinking in for the Celtics as players spoke in Boston’s hushed locker room after the game. Forget the daunting task in front of them in trying to rally out of a 3-1 hole; the team must decide the most prudent path forward this summer. Changes were already coming, and now they feel particularly inevitable.
🔊 Celtics Talk POSTGAME POD: C’s season pushed to the BRINK after losing Game 4, Jayson Tatum to injury | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
The Celtics are already committed to $228 million in contracts next season. They are nearly $20 million over the second apron, and that’s before addressing a pair of free-agents-to-be in Al Horford and Luke Kornet. The team is currently projected to have a $238 million luxury tax bill, which would push the team closer to a half billion total spend if the roster was maintained.
The big question now isn’t how Boston keeps as much of its title core as possible, but instead, how does the team shed the necessary salary that will allow it to best compete when Tatum is healthy again? Would the team embrace a potentially bumpy 2025-26 with hopes of both stabilizing costs and adding young talent? (Think what the Spurs did in 1996-97 when David Robinson’s injuries begat Tim Duncan.)
The core of this team is wildly expensive. Tatum’s maximum-salary extension kicks in next season, and he’ll earn $54.1 million even if he doesn’t touch the floor. Brown will make $53.1 million in the second year of his max contract. Holiday is slated to earn $32.4 million, while Porzingis is at $30.7 million. Derrick White’s salary spikes to $28.1 million. That’s nearly $200 million on your starters.
Does 39-year-old Al Horford want to come back to a team in transition? Can the Celtics afford to keep Sam Hauser in the first year of his four-year, $45 million extension?
The Celtics must ponder every avenue forward. Do you toss the keys to Jaylen Brown and hope he can keep you competitive without Tatum? Or do you ponder a more jarring roster teardown and the possibility of moving Brown’s bulky salary to best reshape this core?
Chasing titles is a lot more fun than figuring out how it might look the next time the Celtics are in position to do so. We all knew this core had a short window when Brad Stevens made the big-swing moves to add Porzingis and Holiday in the 2023 offseason. We all tried to focus on the current quest to repeat and said we’d worry about those tougher decisions down the road.
The Tatum injury is accelerating those questions.
If the Celtics aren’t able to rally out of a 3-1 deficit — a spot they probably shouldn’t be in, regardless of injury, after fumbling away three double-digit, second-half leads to the Knicks — there will always be a bit of “What if?” with this team. This is a championship squad that won in its first season together but could never quite bottle up that magic again.
It feels a lot like the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. Kevin Garnett’s knee injury in 2009 derailed a team that seemed like it might be even better than the title squad from a season prior. Even if the 2024-25 squad never quite popped to the level of last year’s title team, it felt like the path back to the Finals might be opening, particularly with top-seeded Cleveland on the ropes in its semifinal series against the Pacers.
And yet the Celtics couldn’t get out of their own way even before Tatum got hurt.
All eyes now turn to Stevens, the architect behind this title roster. Stevens made bold decisions to acquire Porzingis and Holiday, shipping out core members in Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III. Even of the heels of a disappointing exit in the 2023 East Finals, those moves hit like gut punches that offseason.
The moves this summer could feel the same. We feel for new owner Bill Chisholm, who soon will finalize a $6.1 billion splurge to purchase the team but potentially will have to navigate Year 1 without the face of his franchise.
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This would all be even more difficult if Boston hadn’t raised a banner last year. This core still carved out its own slice of Celtics history by obtaining Banner 18. But it’s also another harsh reminder of just how fast things flip in the NBA, and that nothing is ever promised in a league where things change in a blink of an eye.
Losing a season of Tatum’s prime is particularly infuriating. That it could force the Celtics to further overhaul their roster and take a step back is even more infuriating. You’re left hoping that Tatum comes back even more motivated after the recovery in front of him.
There is still more basketball to be played. The Celtics seem to produce some of their best ball whenever a key member of their core is missing. The task in front of them is daunting.
But maybe not as ominous as what comes next whenever this 2024-25 ride ends.
