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Math is hard. NBA math can be absolutely mind-dumbing even for “smart” people who write about the team. So when the cap experts talk, I like to listen.
I was watching old friend Keith Smith discuss the Celtics options on the Celtics Beat podcast and keyed in on some of the things he mentioned about the Celtics financial options (starting at about the 38:25 mark). He ran the numbers on the returning Celtics guaranteed contracts, the draft picks, and reasonable assumptions around the end of the roster guys and the two key figures he came up with are as follows.
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The Celtics are about $15M under the luxury tax threshold and about $36M under the 2nd apron.
Here’s what that means to some potential paths forward for the team.
Duck the tax again, use the MLE
The math: The Celtics have roughly $15M under the tax threshold. The MLE is right around $15M.
So they’ll be close enough to under the tax that they will be able to once again find a way to stay under and still upgrade the roster with a quality free agent. That could mean bringing back Anfernee Simons. It could mean getting a guy like Mitchell Robinson (though that might be a long shot). Keith mentioned guys like Brook Lopez or even bringing back Nic Vucevic on short term (tradable) deals if all else fails. Perhaps there’s someone I’m not even tracking that makes sense at that number. The point is, it is a valuable tool for the team to use.
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Another thing to note is that you could forget the MLE and use the space you have to make an unbalanced trade. One that comes to mind is dealing Hauser to the Pistons for Isaiah (Beef Stew) Stewart. That would save the Pistons about 4M and give them a floor spacing wing to add to their offense.
Theoretically, if the team is able to duck the tax one more time, they’ll be more willing to spend into the tax for the next several years (as it becomes harder and harder to fill out the roster around the Jays).
Pay the tax, use both the MLE and TPE
The math: The Celtics are about $36M under the 2nd apron. They could use the MLE and as much of the $27.7M trade exception as you can fit under the 1st…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/three-possible-paths-brad-stevens-090000478.html
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Publish date : 2026-05-20 09:00:00
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