It has been a very eventful week for the Boston Celtics. They traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday and sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. But during Wednesday night's draft, the NBA's most active team so far this offseason stayed quiet, not making any moves before taking Hugo Gonzalez out of Spain with the 28th pick.
Afterwards, team president Brad Stevens met with the media for the first time since Boston was eliminated in the playoffs by the New York Knicks in wake of Jayson Tatum's torn Achilles. A lot has changed, to say the least. In answering various questions about the Celtics shedding salary in the Holiday and Porzingis trades, Stevens put forth a definitive statement about the team’s new ownership and their willingness to spend money.
"Our owners, old and new, are committed to spending," Stevens told reporters. "There's a lot of things that go into these moves and a lot of things that are really important. It goes back to prioritizing our flexibility. I think the second apron basketball penalties are real, and I'm not sure I understood how real until they were staring me in the face the last month. That can't be overstated."
While Stevens is projecting confidence, fans may still be nervous. The Celtics got back a decent enough young player for Holiday, but got little worth noting in return for Porzingis, which makes it clear the objective was to clear salary rather than better the team with the move. Which was expected; if Boston didn't do anything the owners would've been on the hook for nearly $500 million after tax to put the team on the court in 2025-26. That's an impossible amount of money to spend on 13 players, especially when the best of the bunch in Tatum is sidelined for potentially the whole year.
The opportunity for the new Celtics ownership group led by Bill Chisholm to prove they're willing to put their money on the line for championships will come. Then the world will find out if Stevens is right to believe what he does.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Brad Stevens Makes Definitive Statement on Celtics Owners' Willingness to Spend Money.
