NBA analyst predicts Celtics to tumble in Eastern Conference

It’s been a painful couple of months for the Boston Celtics.

As soon as tabbed as perennial contenders after successful their 18th championship in June 2024, Boston is now observing a sobering bridge season in 2025-26 amid important accidents and cap-related roster turnover.

It felt like a provided that Brad Stevens and the Celtics have been going to need to subtract from this roster amid looming luxury-tax penalties, with Boston finally buying and selling away two lineup regulars in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Vacation

Boston’s continued cap crunch additionally led to Luke Kornet signing with the Spurs in free company, whereas Stevens added that veteran Al Horford will also likely not return for 2025-26. 

However, probably the most daunting hurdle going through Boston subsequent season is the lack of famous person Jayson Tatum, who could miss the entire year after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon throughout the Japanese Convention Semifinals in opposition to the Knicks.

Even with gamers like Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard nonetheless on the roster, Boston’s diminished roster could possibly be a misplaced season in 2025-26. 

As such, NBA.com author John Schuhmann projected the Celtics to finish 12th in the Eastern Conference — forward of solely the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, and Brooklyn Nets. 

“What expertise stays in Boston is all on the perimeter,” Schuhmann wrote. “As issues stand, their bigs are Neemias Queta, Luka Garza and Xavier Tillman, with Niang in all probability set to play a number of minutes on the 4. That group goes to battle matching up with the frontlines of the highest six groups in these rankings. 

“The Celtics might set one other report for 3-point fee, creating excessive variance from sport to sport and quarter to quarter. However the high quality of these seems to be will definitely go down with out Jayson Tatum’s creation and with opposing defenses capable of assist off of items of the rotation greater than they may in years previous.”

If the Celtics wish to retool on the fly and lengthen their rivalry window, a troublesome 2025-26 marketing campaign might permit Boston so as to add a top-10 decide within the 2026 NBA Draft — including a blue-chip expertise to a workforce that ought to have a wholesome Tatum again within the fold the next 12 months.

However talking in July, Stevens harassed that he isn’t reducing his expectations for Boston subsequent season in what ought to nonetheless be a wide-open Japanese Convention. 

“I by no means put a ceiling on any workforce,” Brad Stevens said in July. “We have been lucky to have various groups there as we led as much as this sort of window that have been actually enjoyable, and that I believed by no means actually cared about ceilings and had a chip on their shoulders. I anticipated this workforce will, too.

“The final time that Jaylen Brown was on a workforce that was doubted was a very long time in the past. The final time that Payton Pritchard’s been on a workforce that was doubted — he in all probability hasn’t been. I imply, you go down the checklist, Derrick White and all these guys. I’m excited to see what this workforce has in retailer. I do know Joe’s excited.”

 

Conor Ryan is a employees author masking the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Crimson Sox for Boston.com, a task he has held since 2023.