Celtics’ Prospects for Free Agency and Key Contract Choices After Trade Deadline

Celtics’ Prospects for Free Agency and Key Contract Choices After Trade Deadline.

The NBA offseason of 2023 was exciting for the Boston Celtics.

There could be a lot going on this summer.

Perhaps this season won’t be as busy as the previous one, when the team acquired two stars in trade for Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis, and gave a third player a historic paycheck. However, they might need to make a payment in order to keep one of those acquisitions, and they might have to sign yet another historic contract extension.

Oh, and they will also have a championship to celebrate if all goes according to plan.

The players may not be thinking about the summer just yet, but this front office most definitely is, so we’ll look at that as well as assess where this team is in terms of free agency and analyze two of the biggest.

The Celtics’ salary demonstrates their complete focus on winning a championship or failing miserably.

According to Spotrac, they have the least amount of expected cap space of any party. It’s improbable that this will alter this summer, and they had better pray it doesn’t.

That figure would only fluctuate significantly if Jrue Holiday decided not to exercise his $39.4 million player option and went elsewhere. A team hoping to win a championship shouldn’t want to lose a versatile player like Holiday, especially since there wouldn’t be a clear option to take his place.

Though the losses wouldn’t be as severe, it might be difficult to cover frontcourt voids in the event that Xavier Tillman and/or Luke Kornet sign free agents.

In this offseason, Holiday will turn 34 years old. Even if the quality surrounding him has mostly been responsible for his offensive volume declining to its lowest point in more than a decade, he may still enter the free market with modest counting figures (four assists and thirteen points per game).

If he manages to reach that point, that is. Holiday expressed his desire to finalize an agreement before the season finishes to Brian Robb of MassLive.

Holiday said, “I’d like to be here,” to Robb. “I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable, loving the guys, loving the organization and loving the city.”

Holiday is probably going to stay in his current position, however it’s unknown what kind of deal he will demand. An agreement that maintains him in 2024–25 but reduces his.

The Celtics are probably going to make an unprecedented commitment to an All-Star wing for the second straight season.

Jayson Tatum is about to pay out, a year after Brown did.

The five-time All-Star is eligible for a supermax extension, so Boston should take advantage of this opportunity to lock him down for the future. The 25-year-old, a consistent MVP contender, appears to hold the key to realizing this team’s championship dreams.

He is among the world’s best five to ten players, and he will likely sign the highest NBA contract in the next months.