Damn
x.com
The 2025-26 Boston Celtics payroll and luxury tax total is set to exceed $400 million once they fill out the roster.Tax rates are set to increase in deeper levels that season while the Celitcs are also set to enter the repeater tax.
How do they get out of that?
Trade someone?
Boston has committed something like $940 million to their current group of starters. Yes, they can always trade guys. KP would be the most likely candidate (or the guy they will chose not to bring back when his contract is up). With Porzingis having health issues and Al getting old, at some point they will have to be in the market for another defensive big that can also shoot threes. Personally, I'm not married to Porzingis (NTTAWWT), as you never can truly rely on him being in the lineup. Things broke well for them this year, but in an alternate universe, they could have to play Giannis, Embiid, and Jokic to win another title. If KP were out and Horford started showing his age, that could definitely be a problem.
Being way over the second apron probably isn't that big a deal to ownership if they are winning titles . . . more gate receipts from extra games, concessions, sponsors, commercials, higher ticket prices, etc. They likely made $2-3 million on road games in the playoffs with their sold-out watch parties at the Garden. As soon as they start slipping in terms of record or not advancing in the playoffs, that fizzles a quite a bit and the tax bill would become unwieldy. I think they are also banking on the cap going up by leaps and bounds.