The Boston Celtics re-signed everyone. Is that a good idea?

The Boston Celtics are operating it again. In truth, they might simply be operating it again more durable than any workforce within the final 20 years.

With the singing of Sam Hauser to a four-year, $45 million contract extension on Sunday, the Celtics have now assured that their total championship top-nine will probably be returning for at the very least subsequent 12 months. And so far as I can inform, that’s the first time in at the very least the final twenty years that has occurred. I couldn’t even discover a championship top-eight staying intact, not to mention a top-nine.

That’s just about unprecedented, and it’s value questioning if that’s truly a good suggestion. It’s additionally extra value questioning in the event that they actually had a selection, and probably the most value questioning if it even issues proper now. I’m like 91.2 % positive it’s a good suggestion, however let’s play out all the varied conditions the Celtics have now gotten themselves into and see if we will determine it out. Break.

Simply so we’re all on the identical web page: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Vacation, Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard are all signed for at the very least the following 4 years, which is completely insane if you say it out loud. Kristaps Porzingis is beneath contract for the following two, and Al Horford will probably be an unrestricted free agent subsequent summer season, as will Luke Kornet.

That’s the Celtics’ total related rotation. They’re prone to lose Oshae Brissett to free company, a marginal contributor final 12 months, however retained Xavier Tillman who mainly subsumed Brissett’s position within the playoffs. He was significantly efficient in spots within the NBA Finals, that means that — for all intents and functions — the Celtics are mainly preserving their top-ten.

Picture by Maddie Malhotra/Getty Photos

Let’s begin with the enjoyable stuff. That’s superior, that is superior, I like this, you’re keen on this, everybody loves this. These contracts are far more enjoyable than final summer season, which was the unlucky media feeding-frenzy across the Jaylen Brown extension, on the time the richest contract in NBA history. It’s not that Celtics followers didn’t just like the contract; most of us beloved it. However none of it tasted as candy because it ought to have coming off a crushing Japanese Convention Finals defeat.

However after profitable the NBA Finals, this offseason has been dipped in a lot Nutella, powdered sugar, and topped with so many strawberries and cream that we’re mainly making a 5-year-old’s ultimate IHOP order. All the things is inherently superior, backed up by the infinite sunshine and lollipops of profitable the NBA Finals. Kornet one-year deal? Epic. Tillman coming again? Spectacular. Derrick White and Jayson Tatum extensions on the identical day?! Somebody arrange one other Duck Boat parade.

Relying on the place you stand on the Official Celtics Love/Hate Spectrum — with “Nineteen Sixties Los Angeles Lakers Fan” at one finish and “50-12 months Celtics Season Ticket Holder” on the opposite — you’ll in all probability see the flurry of extensions dramatically in a different way.

On the optimistic finish, the Celtics simply gained the NBA Finals and are going to be the favorites to win it once more on the very least by November. When wholesome, they’re the perfect workforce, and whereas the Japanese Convention has improved, it’s not precisely prime LeBron James arriving in Miami to subjugate the convention like some type of morally-depraved sixteenth Century Conquistador, like he did in 2010.

Let’s take inventory: the Milwaukee Bucks are mainly the identical, however Giannis Antetokounmpo does nonetheless undoubtedly exist. Paul George is now on the Philadelphia 76ers, which doesn’t assure them something however does make them so much higher. Mikal Bridges is now on the New York Knicks, apparently seeking to show that reconstructing a university championship workforce within the NBA is the league’s best-kept secret. Once more, nothing is assured, however they’re additionally higher, which is the aim of groups that suppose they’ve an opportunity.

The novel Celtics positivist would argue that none of these groups even have an opportunity, which I’d argue might be slightly an excessive amount of powdered sugar. Power invitations problem, and the remainder of the Japanese Convention wasn’t nearly to fold within the face of a Celtics roster that, on paper, is completely cracked and isn’t going anyplace.

The Nineteen Sixties Lakers followers amongst us will in all probability focus much less on the standard of the roster and extra on the completely bananas monetary state of affairs that is going to place the Celtics in. In 2025-26, as soon as all these extensions kick in, the Celtics will probably be operating by-far the very best payroll in NBA historical past, and nearly definitely will probably be going over the NBA’s most-recently-established wage cap boogyman for 2 straight years: “The Second Apron.”

I don’t wish to dwell on funds an excessive amount of, for the reason that sensible implications of this newfangled machine — invented final offseason to forestall overpowered superteams from present — haven’t but had time to play out, however right here’s the upshot. As a result of the Celtics will probably be exceeding a super-high quantity within the luxurious tax twice, they are going to solely have the ability to make minute roster adjustments; restricted to the veteran minimal, first spherical and second spherical exceptions. Their first spherical choose can even be moved to the top of the primary spherical.

There was a lot of hypothesis about how groups view this “Second Apron,” most of it saying it’s mainly the NBA’s fancy model of a tough cap, supposed to mainly save the house owners from themselves by offering such a colossal disincentive to overrun the posh tax that no one would do it. Not to mention twice in a row.

Properly… it looks as if the Celtics are going to do it. No matter settlement Brad Stevens and Wyc Grousbeck have behind the scenes appears to boil right down to “signal all people no matter penalties after which determine it out later.” By doing so, their roster flexibility is mainly zero, which — as long as all the pieces stays sunshine and lollipops for the following few years — shouldn’t matter.

This assertion is the 8.8 % that scares me. All the things appears superior now, however stuff tends to go incorrect within the NBA, regardless of how nice all the pieces would possibly look on paper. Groups have gone all-in, constructed superteams, and flamed out so spectacularly that individuals are left questioning if the Brooklyn Nets ought to simply transfer again to New Jersey.

I’ve quoted former Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga many occasions as saying to Brad Stevens, “If we’re not attempting to enhance, we’ll cease being good,” as I actually imagine that remaining aggressive is the important thing to not getting handed by. However I take solace within the inevitability of all of it, as a result of what have been the Celtics going to do? NOT re-sign the traditionally nice workforce that simply gained the NBA Finals?

Whether or not or not this can wind up backfiring is a moot level, and it’s in all probability much less possible than different financially-hamstrung groups. The Celtics haven’t achieved this quote-unquote superteam by buying and selling draft picks. Their hardships are monetary, not materials, and whomever Grousbeck finally ends up promoting the workforce to will know the state of affairs they’re entering into. Additionally, if the Celtics must commerce somebody so as to get beneath the Second Apron if issues go sideways, then it is going to be factor since… you recognize, issues have gone sideways.

Seneca the Youthful stated {that a} man who suffers earlier than it’s obligatory suffers greater than is critical. When issues are going properly, we could as properly simply guess on them persevering with to go properly somewhat than freaking out a couple of yet-realized future. And for now, I select to eat the 5-year-old IHOP breakfast.