The Boston Celtics still have a few more weeks to boast the title, “Reigning NBA Champs.”
But if fans of the league’s winningest franchise hope the team can add to its record 18 NBA titles, it’s never too soon to start thinking about next year. With the 2025 NBA Draft less than a month away, now is the perfect time for general managers and basketball operations personnel to begin exploring trades and free-agent signings that could impact their strategy come draft night.
For the Celtics, who must shed a hefty chunk of their salary to avoid being hit with a payroll and luxury tax of nearly $500 million, potential roster moves have been making headlines ever since the team’s second-round exit earlier this month. Boston, reeling from the loss of superstar Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles, failed to become the first team since the Golden State Warriors in 2018 to repeat as champions when it lost to the New York Knicks in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series.
Most of the time, hypothetical trades and free-agent signings are little more than fans’ dream scenarios, where their favorite player is acquired, regardless of whether it makes sense for the team’s strategic direction. Think fans calling for a move to bring a 36-year-old Kevin Durant to Boston so their team can have two star forwards with surgically repaired Achilles.
At other times, these hypothetical moves make sense for all parties involved.
That seems to be the case when it comes to a potential move to bring former NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to Boston. Antetokounmpo, affectionately known as the Greek Freak since entering the league in 2013, has three years remaining on a five-year, $228.2 million contract with the Bucks.
But the Bucks have been trending downward since winning the title in 2021, and haven’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2022, when the Celtics eliminated them in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Boston, meanwhile, had advanced to at least the conference semifinals each of the past three years before this year’s second-round exit.
To secure a trade that would send a former MVP to Boston, the Celtics would likely have to give up a significant amount, possibly including Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and assets in upcoming drafts. But in a season where the Celtics will likely be without Tatum, the two-headed monster of Antetokounmpo and reigning NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, along with the likes of NBA Sixth Man of the Year award-winner Payton Pritchard, could be enough to keep Boston in contention.
Add a healthy Tatum to that mix in 2026, and now you’ve got a real force to be reckoned with.
For his part, ESPN NBA reporter Brian Windhorst said earlier this week that there are only a small number of teams that have the necessary assets to trade for Antetokounmpo and remain competitive, of which Boston is one.
“I think you have to look at the teams that could make a trade for Giannis that the Bucks would accept and at the other side of the trade would have a contending team,” Windhorst said during an appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “So, Boston would be on that list. I think New York would be on that list.”
As with most things involving the NBA offseason, time will tell.
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