After the 2025 NBA Draft ended Thursday night, veteran team official Mike Zarren stated that the Celtics had never thought about dealing Derrick White or Jaylen Brown before or after the draft.
Boston’s vice president of basketball operations, Zarren, denied reports that Brown and White were being traded. The Celtics’ two most prized trade chips were the subject of trade offers from several NBA sources, including ESPN’s Shams Charania and Brian Windhorst. However, the majority of them noted that Boston was unlikely to sell either of them.
“There hasn’t been anything even remotely serious about trading those two guys, who are really, really great NBA players,” Zarren stated during a video conference. We’re fortunate to have those guys on our team, however I’m not sure where all of this reporting originated.
In trades that saved the franchise over $250 million in salary and tax penalties, the Celtics sent center Kristaps Porzingis to Atlanta and guard Jrue Holiday to Portland earlier in the week, along with two other championship-winning mainstays. Additionally, they excluded Boston from the NBA’s luxury tax, which the team considered a regrettable offseason requirement.
Zarren stated that the penalties for the second apron are genuine. Future draft selections may be forfeited. They are able to descend. In addition to being used for picking, they may be frozen and then dropped to 30, which is significant because you frequently utilize those to go obtain good players. Additionally, when you’re up at high levels, there are a number of transactions that you simply cannot complete. When we made deals to get players that ended up being important members of a Celtics championship team a few years ago, we had a better understanding of the realities of all of this. Now, we’ve reached a stage where we need to consider our options going ahead. I don’t believe anyone likes that.
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Brad Stevens, Zarren, and the rest of the Celtics front office knew they would eventually have to deal with this apron-driven roster crisis when they made the trade for Holiday and Porzingis in 2023. In Zarren’s opinion, the championship Boston won the previous season made the gamble justified.
We sort of realized where we were a couple of summers ago that we could take advantage of the situation with the assets we had, the salary situation we were in, and the quality of players we already had during the transitional rules that were in place for the last couple of years as these rules were phased in, Zarren said. Before the regulations became as harsh as they would get, we could jump. At the time, that was a pretty deliberate choice, and it was successful. Of course, that makes us happy. I believe we took advantage of a favorable opportunity. Because of that, there is a banner that will always be present, and we are currently working on the next one.
Other Boston roster exits may be part of that process. The NBA trade market is still open after the draft, and the Celtics may be able to expand their flexibility in the near and distant future. Stevens discussed his team’s summer goals on Wednesday night more than six times, lowering salaries to fall below the first apron or avoid the luxury tax completely.
Newcomers Anfernee Simons and Georges Niang, who joined in the Holiday and Porzingis deals, respectively, are also potential trade candidates, as is Sam Hauser. Furthermore, if a strong enough offer comes up in the upcoming weeks or months, Zarren does not totally rule out the possibility of moving Brown or White. However, at his draft-night press conference, Stevens referred to them as foundation players, along with Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard.
Zarren stated that the Celtics do not have a specific salary cap barrier that they hope to meet this offseason, but they do want to be ready to compete after Tatum recovers from his Achilles injury.
Zarren replied, “No, there isn’t a specific number.” All we need to do is position ourselves such that we believe we’ll be prepared to try to win the next flag whenever Jayson is fully healthy. A portion of that is related to the cap regulations. A portion of that is related to our resources. The players on the roster are somewhat responsible for that. We attempt to create the next championship team while taking all of those factors into consideration.
