The NBA draft is over, which means we finally get a chance to catch our breath.
I think.
The Celtics have gone through a gauntlet this week, remaking their roster to maneuver under the second apron and save themselves hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.
“I think the second apron basketball penalties are real,” Brad Stevens said after the first round of the draft. “I’m not sure I understood how real until they were staring me in the face in the last month. So I do think that that can’t be overstated.”
Celtics Vice President of Basketball Operations Mike Zarren got a chuckle out of the seriousness of Stevens’ comment, noting that the stress of a long draft day combined with a late media session can put people on edge. But he agreed with the sentiment of what was said.
“You can lose your future draft picks,” Zarren said. “They can be frozen and then move down to 30 — that’s a big deal because you use those to go get good players a lot of the time, in addition to just using them to pick. And there’s a bunch of transactions you just can’t do when you’re up at high levels.
“We sort of had a good idea of the realities of all of this a couple years ago when we made trades to acquire guys who became key pieces of a Celtics championship team, and now we’ve reached the point where we have to think about what to do moving forward. I think nobody enjoys that, and that’s what Brad’s talking about. He’s well aware of what all the penalties are. But it’s not fun when you’re facing them.”
The team still can’t talk about the specifics of the trade, even though both Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have said their public goodbyes to Boston. This week was just the beginning of a long process that stretches well into the upcoming season and for however long it takes Jayson Tatum to recover from his Achilles injury.
“The biggest challenge for our team is our First Team All-NBA player is in a boot,” Stevens said. “Everything else is second to that as far as how we build, grow, and improve as much as we can, and over the course of time, I said when I sat down in front of everybody a few weeks ago, my goal is to compete for championships. And there will inevitably be a lot that goes into being in the mix for those. And we just have to, again, prioritize the health of those two guys, and then also at the same time, make sure we’re regaining some of our flexibility.”
Stevens mentioned regaining flexibility more than a half dozen times during his availability. While some dark corners of online Celtics fandom have chastised the new ownership group for being cheap, the reality is that the basketball penalties drove this week’s decisions. And in fact, it’s what also drove the decisions over the past few years, including handing out the contracts they just had to move.
“We sort of realized where we were a couple summers ago that we could take advantage of the situation with the assets we had and the salary situation we were in and the quality of players we already had,” Zarren said. “We could make a jump before the rules got as punitive as they were going to get. That was a very conscious decision at the time, and it worked. So we feel good about that, obviously.”
The Celtics' front office is very well aware of what the long-term effect of this CBA will be. Teams will not be able to spend significant amounts of money for long stretches like they used to. As much as people around Boston hate that it’s tearing down their contender first, the reality is that all contenders will have shorter windows at the absolute top of the mountain.
That's not to say teams can’t be good for a long time. They can be, but the days of prolonged dominance are done as long as this governing document exists. The Celtics were first in line to be served the second apron’s comeuppance, which makes it all that much more shocking because we haven't seen this happen to a team before. Boston was first to jump into the cold tub and man does that feeling suck.
There is much more work for the Celtics to do. The draft is only a tiny piece of the retooling process. But whatever comes next, the Celtics can at least feel good that they got through it all with a championship.
“There was a good moment to seize, and I think we seized it,” Zarren said. “There's a banner that will be here forever because of it, and we're working towards the next one now."
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The Celtics selected Amari Williams and Max Shulga in the second round of the draft. They had the 32nd overall pick but traded down for the two picks in this draft and two future seconds.
Williams is a 7-foot center who played at Kentucky last year. Here’s the NBA.com breakdown:
“Williams is a physically imposing big man with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, known for his defensive prowess and basketball IQ. He excels as a rim protector and rebounder, using his length to alter shots and secure boards. His defensive versatility enables him to guard multiple positions effectively. Offensively, Williams is a capable playmaker from the high post, demonstrating strong passing instincts and vision. He serves as an effective facilitator, often initiating offense and finding open teammates. While not a primary scoring option, he is efficient around the rim and can finish plays as a lob threat. Williams’ leadership and unselfish play have been lauded by coaches and teammates.”
His passing is very intriguing. He could be a strong fit for Boston’s style of play, facilitating in pick-and-rolls when his path to the basket is cut off. He’s a standout defensive player, using his incredible reach to block a lot of shots.
“He's been one of the best passing big men in college for a long time,” Zarren said of Williams. “He’s an elite rebounder … he’s got just an enormous, enormous wingspan. And as you’ll see on the court, if you haven’t seen already, he’s got incredible vision. And those things are just key abilities in the modern NBA. Your big guys have to be able to do all sorts of things. Sometimes we play through big guys at the post, with the guys we have had on our roster, and Amari should fit into that pretty well.”
He’s 23 years old, so he’ll have to be a little bit of a plug-and-play guy. We’ll see how quickly he picks things up at the NBA level.
Shulga is also 23. He is from Ukraine and was the Atlantic 10 player of the year at VCU last year. He is 6-foot-4 and was a 40% 3-point shooter in college, routinely hitting from NBA range. He is also a good passer, and he protects the ball well. The question is whether he’ll be able to defend well enough to make it in the NBA. He’ll get a chance to prove that in Maine.
“Max is a tough guy who can handle and shoot and elite toughness,” Zarren said. “He’s been all over the world. He moved to Spain when he was 13, I think, to play basketball … he’s just a winner. I think they won 18 of their last 20 games or something like that, was the A-10 player of the year. We’ve been watching both of these guys for a long time. They had long college careers and have been very, very successful players everywhere they’ve been. So we’ll see how they do at the next level, but they’re just really, really successful, winning college players.”
Shulga was briefly a teammate of Neemias Queta, so there's an added level of familiarity.
It is expected that both second-round picks will be on two-way contracts to start their careers in Boston.