Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Boston Celtics.
Free agent signings
Neemias Queta: Three years, minimum salary ($7,180,128). Second year partially guaranteed ($1,174,789). Third-year team option. Re-signed using Non-Bird rights.- Xavier Tillman: Two years, minimum salary ($4,784,366). Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
- Luke Kornet: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
- Tristan Enaruna: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Ron Harper Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
Trades
- None
Draft picks
- 1-30: Baylor Scheierman
- Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $12,810,352).
- 2-54: Anton Watson
- Signed to two-way contract.
Two-way signings
Departed/unsigned free agents
- Oshae Brissett (unsigned)
- Svi Mykhailiuk (Jazz)
Other moves
- Signed Jayson Tatum to a five-year, super-max contract extension that begins in 2025/26. The deal includes a fifth-year player option and has a projected value of $313,933,410.
- Signed Derrick White to a four-year, $118,048,000 contract extension that begins in 2025/26. The deal includes $7,840,000 in incentives and a 15% trade kicker.
- Exercised Sam Hauser‘s 2024/25 team option ($2,092,344); signed Hauser to a four-year, $45,000,000 contract extension that begins in 2025/26.
Salary cap situation
- Operating over the cap ($140.6MM), over the luxury tax line ($170.8MM), and above the second tax apron ($188.9MM).
- Carrying approximately $196.6MM in salary.
- No hard cap.
- No form of mid-level or bi-annual exception available.
- Two traded player exceptions frozen/unavailable (largest worth $2,019,706).
The offseason so far
The Celtics dominated the 2024/25 campaign, posting the NBA’s best regular season record (64-18) and net rating (+11.7) by a wide margin, then losing just three playoff games (no more than one in any series) en route to a league-record 18th championship.
It’s no surprise then that the front office’s strategy this offseason was simply to keep this group intact, especially since the team’s position relative to the tax aprons made it difficult to bring in outside help.
Of the seven Celtics players who reached free agency this offseason, five are back under contract with the team — big men Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta each returned on minimum-salary contracts, while Drew Peterson and JD Davison signed new two-way deals.
Little-used wing Svi Mykhailiuk is the only free agent to join a new team (Utah), while another reserve wing, Oshae Brissett, is the only one who remains unsigned. The Celtics still have one open 15-man roster spot, so it’s not out of the question that Brissett returns, but it looks like the team will be happy adding a pair of draft picks (Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson) to the back of the roster and entering the fall with that last spot still open.
Besides re-signing most of their own free agents, the Celtics agreed to long-term extensions with All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum, All-Defensive guard Derrick White, and sharpshooting reserve Sam Hauser. With the exception of 38-year-old big man Al Horford, the Celtics’ top eight rotation players are now under contract for multiple seasons, with five of them locked up for at least the next four years.
It hasn’t been a perfect offseason in Boston. Top assistant Charles Lee left Joe Mazzulla‘s staff to take the head coaching job in Charlotte, and the Celtics’ majority ownership group put control of the franchise up for sale, raising some questions about the long-term feasibility of maintaining one of the NBA’s most expensive rosters, which will only get pricier in 2025/26 as many of those aforementioned extensions take effect.
For now though, the outlook in Boston remains overwhelming positive, with the Celtics poised to enter the 2024/25 season as the favorites to repeat.
Up next
It’s possible the Celtics’ offseason business is over. The team has 14 players on standard guaranteed contracts and three on two-way deals, so the roster is regular-season-ready.
The only remaining extension-eligible player is fourth-year guard Jaden Springer, who probably hasn’t shown enough to warrant a long-term investment at this point. He logged just 7.6 minutes per game across 17 regular season appearances with the Celtics after being acquired from Philadelphia at the 2024 trade deadline, and only saw garbage-time action in four playoff contests.
With two open spot on Boston’s 21-man offseason roster, the team will probably bring in a couple more camp invitees on Exhibit 10 contracts. And maybe those players will even get the opportunity to compete for one of the two-way spots currently held by Davison or Peterson (I wouldn’t expect Watson, who holds the third two-way, to be cut before his rookie season).
But for the most part, a quiet fall should be in store for the Celtics, who will be eager to get their title defense underway this October.
Best offseason of any team in the league , rich get richer
BOS will be this year’s test case on Second Apron operations, maintenance mode. I think the FO did about all it could to “maintain” their team (unlike DEN last year, BOS didn’t lose a core rotation player).
But the year-over-year look doesn’t change the fact that the roster this year is (still) top heavy, and the perimeter depth chart, in particular, is too pedestrian to provide much beyond rotational depth. It didn’t hurt them last year, and likely won’t this year either, IF the top 4 guys are heathly and productive wire to wire. Still, they’re another (needlessly) vulnerable defending champion. It’s the way the league wants it apparently, but it hasn’t made for good results on the court.