![\"Head](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2266730148-e1775494159379.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Head coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics aplauds his team along with owner Bill Chisholm <\/p>\n
For casual fans of the Boston Celtics<\/a> and the NBA in general, the way things lined up were fairly direct. The team had brought on a new owner, private equity mogul Bill Chisholm, last year and in months that followed, the team began trying to find ways to slash payroll. They unloaded Jrue Holiday<\/a>, dealt away Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>, let Al Horford<\/a> walk in free agency and did the same with Luke Kornet<\/a>.<\/p>\n The push did not stop during the season, as team president Brad Stevens let go of useful young forward Josh Minott and juggled a number of other transactions to help the Celtics squeeze\u2013barely\u2013below the NBA\u2019s luxury-tax line<\/a>, a remarkable feat given they were projected to be $40 million over the tax and $20 million over the dreaded \u201csecond apron.\u201d<\/p>\n That would have resulted in a luxury-tax bill from the NBA<\/a> in the range of $240 million. So, there\u2019s no doubt that no one has benefitted more from the changes Stevens made that Chisholm.<\/p>\n Bill Chisholm \u2018We\u2019re Doing the Right Things to Win\u2019<\/p>\n And Chisholm says he is aware that he will be the subject of some finger-pointing from fans of the Celtics and others when it comes to the sometimes harsh moves Stevens made. But those with a better understanding of the collective bargaining agreement and the luxury tax rules know that Stevens made the moves he made because they would allow the Celtics to be a better team in the long term.<\/p>\n They\u2019d help the Celtics win, in the big picture, by eliminating some of the issues teams face when they are over the tax for multiple years\u2013the \u201crepeater tax.\u201d Chisholm will take some blame, but the fact is, Stevens would have likely made those moves whether there was a new owner or not.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Boston Globe, Chisholm said<\/a>, \u201cI think it\u2019s out there (that he ordered cost-cutting), but ultimately I have to prove every day in the near term, medium term, and long term that I want to win, I want to win desperately, and I\u2019m a huge fan. I can understand where some short-term decisions might feel like they\u2019re not necessarily headed in that direction, but I put hand on heart and know I\u2019m doing and we\u2019re doing the right things to win, and that\u2019s what we care about. So, you have to trust in that.\u201d<\/p>\n Celtics Not Taking a \u2018Gap Year\u2019<\/p>\n Indeed, the Celtics could have burned the roster to the ground this season, let Jayson Tatum<\/a> recover from his Achilles tendon injury and sought to save money while tanking for a draft pick\u2013much like the, say, Indiana Pacers<\/a> this year. Chisholm said that was never a consideration. The Celtics wanted to win.<\/p>\n So, instead, Boston sits at No. 2 in the Eastern Conference, with a 53-25 record and Tatum now healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cI compare us to other teams coming into the season that looked a lot like us,\u201d Chisholm said. \u201cWe were completely aligned that we\u2019re about winning. We\u2019re going to compete, play hard, develop our talent, find additional talent, and this is not a gap year. We\u2019re just not doing that. I can put my hand on heart saying that. I\u2019ll prove it and I\u2019ll continue to prove it every day, that I just want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Celtics\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Head coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics aplauds his team along with owner Bill Chisholm For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-701850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116359265054922123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701850","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=701850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}