in-depth look at the C\u2019s player development staff<\/a>. But that\u2019s not the only piece of the puzzle \u2014 after all, player development coaches can only work with the players that they\u2019re given. Indeed, the C\u2019s have done a remarkable job finding diamonds in the rough, not just through the draft, but through trades and the bargain bin side of the free agent market that few people pay attention to.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Much of this can be attributed to the influence of Brad Stevens. Before Stevens took a job in the front office, the Celtics did a good job drafting (for example, they were smart enough to pick Jayson Tatum over Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball), but there were other aspects with room for improvement. The C\u2019s player development crew likely missed an opportunity to help Guerschon Yabusele mature into a solid contributor, and pro scouting did not lead to the sort of quality free agent signings at the lower end of the salary scale that have become an expected part of the Celtics roster construction these days.<\/p>\n
The Celtics, these days, have done a remarkable job matching the players they\u2019ve signed and drafted to the team\u2019s overall philosophy, and Baylor Scheierman is a classic example of this. The C\u2019s were scouting Scheierman while he was still at South Dakota State, and they interviewed him when he declared for the draft in 2022. He took their feedback to heart, transferred to Creighton, and got Boston\u2019s call with the final pick in the first round in 2024. He\u2019s since made continuous improvement in his game, and has become a key piece of the Cs bench. Sure, it seemed like the Cs were taking a flyer on him in 2024, but they had been scouting him for years beforehand, and they had a pretty good idea what they were getting.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more to roster construction in today\u2019s NBA than just good scouting and good player development. The salary cap, with its convoluted rules and its escalating penalties, has become a major factor in how rosters are assembled. With the most recent CBA, limits on trades and the ability to sign players were stiffened, so much so that even if the new owners of the team were willing to \u201cpay\u201d the tax (that is, to accept a lower profit from the Celtics than they would otherwise get), there were substantial limitations on how the Celtics could fill out the back end of their roster.<\/p>\n
They therefore did a massive salary dump in the offseason, trading away Jrue Holiday for essentially Nicola Vucevic, and Kristaps Porzingis for nothing. Further work by Mike Zarren has put Boston in a position to squeak under the tax line entirely, thus breaking a string of tax-paying seasons that puts the Celtics on the hook for the CBA\u2019s repeater penalties.<\/p>\n
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Mike Zarren has almost certainly had invitations to interview for GM jobs around the league, and he may have even been the Cs first choice when Danny Ainge stepped down, but he seems to like where he\u2019s at, and his skill at navigating the new CBA has left the number two team in the East is sitting under the tax line, with one of the best players in the NBA rehabbing an injury and nearing a return, and a dark horse MVP candidate leading the team.<\/p>\n
![\"BOSTON,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bdf7d04d78df9ca2585bc4fd54512eb5.jpeg\"\/)
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BOSTON, MA \u2013 APRIL 2: Head Coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics high fives Derrick White #9 and Jaylen Brown #7 during the game against the Miami Heat on April 2, 2025 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and\/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE(Photo by Brian Babineau\/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Of course, the Celtics also have a gem in head coach Joe Mazzulla, who has skillfully managed to keep his players bought in during a season where there is no clear pecking order outside of Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard.<\/p>\n
Believe me, this is an achievement in and of itself. Mazzulla has kept players that routinely draw \u201cDNP-Coach\u2019s Decision\u201d lines in the box scores invested in their success and the team\u2019s success, and honestly, I have no idea how he does this. When you\u2019re down at the end of the bench, too often your competition isn\u2019t just the other team, it\u2019s the guys ahead of you on your own team.<\/p>\n
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The other thing that Mazzulla and his staff do is put their players in a position to succeed.<\/p>\n
Here, Mazzulla is just continuing what Brad Stevens excelled at when he was on the bench. Stevens had a knack for running schemes that let players play to their strengths, and that\u2019s a rarity in the NBA. Perhaps only Erik Spoelstra in Miami is in the same league as Mazzulla and Stevens when it comes to getting the most out of his players.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the C\u2019s success comes down to the simple fact that there\u2019s no salary cap on basketball IQ. You can hoard it Smaug style, cramming it into every nook and cranny of your organization from the general manager on down to the 15th guy on the roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hi, everyone. It\u2019s been a while since I had something to say here. The past two years have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,1266,45,75,23764,3798,3164,46,80407,1243,568,204,78,77,2675,2038,871,4442,31669,6893,189,5497,6,405,15562],"class_list":{"0":"post-602485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-baylor-scheierman","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-boston-globe","13":"tag-bostonceltics","14":"tag-brad-stevens","15":"tag-celtics","16":"tag-defensive-linemen","17":"tag-derrick-white","18":"tag-getty-images","19":"tag-guerschon-yabusele","20":"tag-jaylen-brown","21":"tag-jayson-tatum","22":"tag-joe-mazzulla","23":"tag-jrue-holiday","24":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","25":"tag-lonzo-ball","26":"tag-ma","27":"tag-markelle-fultz","28":"tag-miami-heat","29":"tag-minnesota-vikings","30":"tag-nba","31":"tag-payton-pritchard","32":"tag-vucevic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116068265858572895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Boston,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/203e3f29966f3e4dadf4fe153f794ba8.jpeg\"\/)
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