The Boston Celtics are a year removed from winning their 18th banner in franchise history, and in true modern Celtics fashion, there are rumours about the team breaking up some of the championship-winning core. So, what is the plan for this team, and who is on the chopping block? Why are the Celtics making moves?

Tingus Pingus and Jrue

Sadly, the beloved Celtics’ big man and the role player for Boston are on the chopping block.

The Celtics spent half of the year without Porzingis for an unknown illness, and frankly, the team didn’t really improve a whole lot. The C’s were only three wins off their record from last year, and Porzingis’ role at the 5 was filled by a combination of Al Horford, Neemias Queta, and Luke Kornet.

It’ll be hard for Boston to replace his skillset, but the Celtics could use a more ‘traditional’ big who could add some inside scoring. One of the main problems that I spotted in the 24-25 playoff run is that they took a lot of threes. For example, they missed 45 threes in game 1 against the Knicks. They could go out and get someone like Karl-Anthony Towns, but that would take quite the package to pry KAT away from that Knicks team.

Although Jrue is still fantastic on defence for the Celtics, his offence severely dipped this past season. That wouldn’t be the primary reason for his departure from this team (Boston has a lot of offence across the board), as the main reasons would be partially age and cost-cutting.

Cost Cutting

It is well known that the C’s are looking to drop below the luxury tax, and shedding the salaries of Jrue and Porzingis would drop them down a lot.

Currently, Porzingis and Jrue make about $30 million a piece, with Porzingis’ deal expiring at the end of the 2025-2026 season. Jrue still has a few more years left, but the AAV is expected to rise as the contract continues.

Why trade some of their key guys, you might ask? The C’s have a large tax bill ahead of them that I doubt the new owners want to front.

To make sense, the Celtics will pay more than $230 million next season, which is about $40 million over the luxury tax threshold. The Athletic’s Jay King also notes that the repeater tax will hit the historic franchise hard, bumping the bill to an eye-watering $500 million.

With new ownership set to take over the franchise, it is unlikely that they want to immediately front a massive bill without the franchise’s face playing a game for over a year.

There has also been speculation that they are willing to dump Derrick White or Jaylen Brown as a shot in the dark, but I highly doubt that will happen. After all, this team still is good.