{"id":117355,"date":"2025-08-04T04:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/117355\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T04:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:57:15","slug":"nba-analyst-predicts-celtics-to-tumble-in-eastern-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/117355\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA analyst predicts Celtics to tumble in Eastern Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCeltics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cI never put a ceiling on any team.”<\/p>\n

\"Boston
\n\tBrad Stevens and the Celtics are facing a tough season in 2025-26. .John Tlumacki\/The Boston Globe\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a painful couple of months for the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

Once tabbed as perennial contenders after winning their 18th championship in June 2024, Boston is now staring at a sobering bridge season in 2025-26 amid critical injuries and cap-related roster turnover.<\/p>\n

It felt like a given that Brad Stevens and the Celtics were going to have to subtract from this roster amid looming luxury-tax penalties, with Boston ultimately trading away two lineup regulars in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s continued cap crunch also led to Luke Kornet signing with the Spurs in free agency, while Stevens added that veteran Al Horford will also likely not return for 2025-26.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But, the most daunting hurdle facing Boston next season is the loss of superstar Jayson Tatum, who could miss the entire year after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon<\/a> during the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks.<\/p>\n

Even with players like Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard still on the roster, Boston\u2019s diminished roster could be looking at a lost season in 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As such, NBA.com<\/a> writer John Schuhmann projected the Celtics to finish 12th in the Eastern Conference<\/a> \u2014 ahead of only the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, and Brooklyn Nets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat talent remains in Boston is all on the perimeter,\u201d Schuhmann wrote. \u201cAs things stand, their bigs are Neemias Queta, Luka Garza and Xavier Tillman, with Niang probably set to play a lot of minutes at the four. That group is going to struggle matching up with the frontlines of the top six teams in these rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Celtics could set another record for 3-point rate, creating high variance from game to game and quarter to quarter. But the quality of those looks will certainly go down without Jayson Tatum\u2019s creation and with opposing defenses able to help off of pieces of the rotation more than they could in years past.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Celtics are looking to retool on the fly and extend their contention window, a tough 2025-26 campaign could allow Boston to add a top-10 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft \u2014 adding a blue-chip talent to a team that should have a healthy Tatum back in the fold the following year.<\/p>\n

But speaking in July, Stevens stressed that he isn\u2019t lowering his expectations for Boston next season in what should still be a wide-open Eastern Conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI never put a ceiling on any team,\u201d Brad Stevens said in July.<\/a> \u201cWe were fortunate to have a number of teams there as we led up to this kind of window that were really fun, and that I thought never really cared about ceilings and had a chip on their shoulders. I expected this team will, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time that Jaylen Brown was on a team that was doubted was a long time ago. The last time that Payton Pritchard\u2019s been on a team that was doubted \u2014 he probably hasn\u2019t been. I mean, you go down the list, Derrick White and all these guys. I\u2019m excited to see what this team has in store. I know Joe\u2019s excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the Today newsletter<\/p>\n

Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtics \u201cI never put a ceiling on any team.” Brad Stevens and the Celtics are facing a tough…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":117356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-117355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114968726321866454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}