What Will the 2025 Celtics Look Like?

Zak Drapeau
Jul 8
4 min read

by Zak Drapeau 7/8/2025 FansOnlySportz

Flashback to last June. The Celtics had just won their 17th Franchise Championship and their first since 2008. Brad Stevens had ushered in an era and had the Celtics poised to be the next great dynasty. On the backs of their marquee players Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, along with new supporting cast of Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, who could stop this team from winning championship after championship?

As it turned out, the answer was Money and Injuries.

After a great but not elite 2025 season, the Celtics would find themselves in a 2nd round challenge against the Knicks and down 2-1 in the series. Just when it seemed like the Celtics had gotten all their players back after a injury-riddled season, Jayson Tatum tragically fell to a torn achilles at the end of Game 4. Not only would the Celtics lose the series and prematurely head home, but this collapse would lead to an almost exodus just one month later.

Everyone knew the Celtics' roster would undergo changes this offseason but few knew just how drastic things would change in the course of just May and June. Just one day after the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA Finals in 7 games, Jrue Holiday was traded to the Trail Blazers for Anfernee Simons, (a trade that was just altered to a player swap yesterday.) Only two days later and Porzingis would also be on the move as part of a three-team deal. The compensation for the big man would be the 32-year old PF Georges Niang and a 2031 2nd-round pick.

Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and a 2025 2nd-round pick:

For Anfernee Simons, Georges Niang and a 2031 2nd round pick.

With 2 starters traded, their key superstar likely injured for most if not all of next season and several key rotational players leaving in Free Agency, let's take a look at the current roster and how they will take the court in the 2025-26 season.

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2025-26 Roster

1st Team

PG. Derrick White

SG. Payton Pritchard

SF. Jaylen Brown

PF. Georges Niang

C. Xavier Tillman

2nd Team

PG. J.D. Davison

SG. Anfernee Simons

SF. Hugo Gonzalez

PF. Sam Hauser

C. Luke Garza

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Offseason Losses

Jayson Tatum - Injured

Jrue Holiday - Trade to POR

Kristaps Porzingis - Trade to ATL

Al Horford - Free Agent

Luke Kornet - Signed with SA

Torrey Craig - Free Agent

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Free Agency Additions?

It should be mentioned that the Celtics have been rumored and linked to Free Agents and trade targets like Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal. An acquisition like this would definitely help the Celtics add some much-needed scoring but wouldn't solve the bigger problem; the frontcourt.

With Porzingis traded and both Al Horford and Luke Kornet leaving in Free Agency, Georges Niang and Xavier Tillman are the best bigs on the team. No offense to these veterans but the step down that this group has taken in one year needs to be addressed immediately.

Al Horford is still among possible signees in the Free Agent pool, and so are players like Chris Boucher and Precious Achiuwa who could give the Celtics solid minutes and the two-way play style they would need. All 3 of theses Free Agents would immediately enter the starting lineup as well.

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2026 Season Predictions

The fortunate thing for the Celtics is that several playoff teams from last season have had down-trending off seasons as well. Let's give a quick run down of these teams:

Celtics lost 4 key players this offseason.

New York FOR SOME REASON fired their Head Coach.

Milwaukee released Dame Lillard and "apparently" Giannis is upset.

Contrastingly, several teams have had good off seasons as well and may even surpass the Celtics roster at this point:

Cleveland actually got better as long as Lonzo stays healthy.

Detroit's young core is only getting better.

Orlando kept or extended their gritty, young core.

Philadelphia drafted extremely well and hopefully will have Embiid back.

This means that we are likely to see a LOT of shake-ups in the Eastern standings. For my "Way-Too-Early Eastern Standings Predictions", it look a little like:

1. CLE 65-17

2. NY 56-26

3. DET 51-31

4. MIL 50-32

5. PHI 49-33

6. BOS 47-35

7. ORL 45-37

8. MIA 44-38

9. IND 41-41

10. ATL 40-42

A 14-win drop off for the Celtics this season should not be out of the question and within a conference filled with medium-potential teams like the Magic, Heat and Pacers all finishing below them, could actually be looked at as a win.

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Future Thoughts

The 2027 Celtics should be the focus right now and I realize for a team that was dubbed, "the next great dynasty" to completely overlook the upcoming season is a stretch. However, in this league today a roster made up of 1 superstar (Jaylen Brown), 2 potential stars (White and Pritchard) and a bunch of decent-to-good role players, is not enough to even make the Conference Finals let alone another Championship.

However, in 2027 Jayson Tatum will return and hopefully younger players like Pritchard, Simons, Tillman and maybe even Gonzalez will have gotten better too.

The Tatum injury has really hurt the Championship window for this team but as long as he returns alongside Jaylen and Stevens and Mazzulla are at the helm, this team will be right back in the race before you know it.