{"id":65298,"date":"2025-05-30T03:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T03:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/65298\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T03:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T03:52:11","slug":"can-warriors-2022-championship-serve-as-bostons-blueprint-nbc-sports-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/65298\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Warriors\u2019 2022 championship serve as Boston\u2019s blueprint? \u2013 NBC Sports Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note:\u00a0As the Celtics enter a critically important offseason, Chris Forsberg is exploring three different paths Boston can take this summer, each with their own pros and cons for the short- and long-term future of the franchise. Part I involved “threading the needle.”<\/a> Part II featured a “full reboot.”<\/a> The final path: a “Golden State Bridge.”<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start this final entry with a brief rant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we learned anything from our deep dives into Boston\u2019s potential offseason paths, it\u2019s that the NBA really screwed up by not rewarding teams for developing homegrown talent in its latest collective bargaining agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Celtics find themselves with excruciating offseason choices, most notably having to potentially move core players drafted and developed.<\/p>\n

Instead of being rewarded for building organically, Boston has been handcuffed by the accolades of its draftees. Instead of offering some sort of incentive for teams to build through the draft, the NBA is penalizing the Celtics because their stars were deemed to be among the 15 best players in the league<\/a>, which maximized the percentage of the cap they were able to sign for on new deals.<\/p>\n

The new CBA makes it virtually impossible to build a sustainable roster around two supermax players earning 35 percent of the cap, which will be the case with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown this summer when Tatum’s extension kicks in.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The NBA should consider offering some sort of tax exemption to teams that don\u2019t simply purchase significant parts of their roster. If you want to protest that Boston did such by adding Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to set up their title win, we\u2019d push back that two other homegrown products were at the centerpiece of those deals in Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III.<\/p>\n

The constraints of this new CBA are going to leave teams hoping that their stars don\u2019t hit All-NBA status or earn other season awards, because it will further complicate the financial puzzle. Instead of embracing successes, fanbases are left celebrating snubs. It\u2019s absurd.<\/p>\n

But we digress. The same CBA that is trying to tear Boston\u2019s championship core apart also might produce the sort of league-wide parity that could help the Celtics acquire the necessary parts to chase Banner 19.<\/p>\n

For Part 3 of this series, we\u2019re pondering a path where teams craving their own slice of Boston\u2019s championship DNA might help build a bridge to the next championship team. <\/p>\n

And we\u2019re hunting for hints with the 2022 Golden State Warriors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Objectives of this path:<\/p>\n

Maintain much of the core, but understand the bumps ahead.<\/p>\n

Use interest in veteran pieces to generate future assets.<\/p>\n

The road map:<\/p>\n

Maintain a core of Tatum, Brown and Derrick White.<\/p>\n

Load manage the stars over the next two seasons and lean into youth.<\/p>\n

Focus on returning to title contention for 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n

Why this path makes sense:<\/p>\n

In Part 1, we pondered threading a needle<\/a> where the Celtics keep much of the core but attempted to stay afloat through Tatum\u2019s rehab. In Part 2, we pondered a more nuclear option<\/a> in which the team dismantled the core but prioritized getting the long-term financials in order. <\/p>\n

Path 3 here tries to do a little bit of both, and — a bit ironically — seeks to replicate what the 2022 Warriors did before upending the Celtics in the NBA Finals that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Essentially, the Celtics would embrace the reality that the next two seasons could be bumpy, but all eyes would be on giving this core another chance to tap into their championship DNA in the 2027-28 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why this path might not make sense:<\/p>\n

Even while preserving a Tatum\/Brown\/Derrick White core, there is little room to work with on the fringes. <\/p>\n

Two of those players will be over the age of 30 by the time that 2026-27 season starts. What\u2019s more, there are still obstacles to getting out of the tax long-term, and Boston has to nail its draft and development along the way. <\/p>\n

In a way, it\u2019s threading an even more fine needle than we pondered in Path 1.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Before we travel down this path…<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s zip through three paths we didn\u2019t choose for this series, but that we spent way too much time considering along the way:<\/p>\n

1. The ‘Get more Derrick Whites’ path<\/p>\n

No, we\u2019re not cloning him (unless you\u2019ve got the technology to do that). We\u2019re trying to make a bunch of trades that bring back versatile, budget-friendly players who could blossom in elevated roles. <\/p>\n

Alas, Boston\u2019s most tradable assets make too much money to swing those sort of deals, at least without taking back bulky expiring salary in the process. It\u2019s nearly impossible to find deal that brings back a Deni Avdija or a Tari Eason that works for both sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2. The ‘We’re getting the band back together’ path<\/p>\n

You knew were weren\u2019t doing this entire series without concocting a way to get Robert Williams III back in green. <\/p>\n

In this scenario, the Celtics move on from both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis but open pathways to (eventually) bringing back Smart and Williams III.<\/p>\n

Preposterous? Both Smart and Williams III will be free agents after the 2025-26 season and should command less than their current contracts. The Celtics also could generate a disabled player exception this year if a league-approved doctor determines it\u2019s more likely than not that Tatum will not play in the 2025-26 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The DPE is typically worth half the value of a player\u2019s salary but is capped at the non taxpayer midlevel, or roughly $14 million. It can be used to sign a free agent or trade for a player in the final year of his contract, and — well, well, well — Williams III checks all those boxes. (Let\u2019s ignore the fact that Boston would still have to pay the tax on that addition.)<\/p>\n

Bottom line: It\u2019s possible and you can\u2019t convince my nostalgia-loving heart it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

3. The Pritchard\/White path<\/p>\n

The Celtics blow up the core to build around the only duo in franchise history to produce a 40\/40 game<\/a>. OK, let\u2019s get refocused here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About that ‘Golden State Bridge’…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to draw too much from how the Warriors navigated their own bridge period. Golden State benefited from getting a robust return when Kevin Durant left to join the Brooklyn Nets. While D\u2019Angelo Russell didn\u2019t exactly pan out with the Warriors, he was flipped to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins, who was a vital piece in Golden State\u2019s 2022 title run (as Celtics fans know too well).\u00a0<\/p>\n

What it does hammer home is how getting some sort of youthful return for outgoing pieces could be vital in the long-term quest. <\/p>\n

In Part 1, we wondered if the Celtics could take on the money of someone like Daniel Gafford or P.J. Washington while moving Holiday to Dallas. In this path, the goal is hoping teams fold in a prized young asset (or draft pick) as the Celtics get off Holiday\u2019s money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where parity needs to come into play. The Celtics need teams to be willing to splurge a bit — even on a 35-year-old Holiday — to maximize the return (and also limit what the Celtics might have to spend in draft assets to move his money).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doing that without eating a large, cumbersome salary isn\u2019t easy. You might have to spend a draft asset just to get another team to take on some of the incoming money. And the teams that might yearn for Holiday\u2019s services, such as the Mavericks, Lakers, and Clippers, don\u2019t have the young pieces to send out.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Forsberg reacts to a recent trade rumor and discuses why the trade would make sense for all teams involved.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The bigger theme here is patience. Maybe Brown elects to pursue surgery on his knee and is paced through the 2025-26 season while Tatum rehabs for the entirety as well. There\u2019s a chance for an earlier launch with the 2026-27 season, but even that campaign could be about staying under the tax and making sure everyone is back near their full powers.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s as simple as Boston trying to generate as many 2026 draft picks as possible, both while enduring their lumps next season but also trying to fetch that as a primary return in all their dealings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are other pain points, too. Al Horford would be north of 40 before the team is ready to compete again. Could the team splurge to keep Luke Kornet around long-term? Sam Hauser could be a cap casualty along the way as well — an unfair reality after being developed as an undrafted talent.<\/p>\n

Essentially, this path puts the pressure on Brad Stevens to accumulate assets in the short term before a hard relaunch around an older core. Like everything in this series, it\u2019s not without risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Warriors at least showed there\u2019s a pathway back to title contention, even if you have to take a big step back to get there.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s Note:\u00a0As the Celtics enter a critically important offseason, Chris Forsberg is exploring three different paths Boston can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,75,3164,11591,3329,1243,479,164,4025,4024,78,77,6,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-65298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-brad-stevens","11":"tag-celtics-offseason","12":"tag-chris-forsberg","13":"tag-derrick-white","14":"tag-golden-state","15":"tag-golden-state-warriors","16":"tag-goldenstate","17":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","18":"tag-jaylen-brown","19":"tag-jayson-tatum","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114594758349912691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65298","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=65298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}