Brad Stevens Says Celtics Have ‘Green Light’ to Add to Payroll, But Boston Still Restricted

Brad Stevens Says Celtics Have ‘Green Light’ to Add to Payroll, But Boston Still Restricted

Brad Stevens, the president of basketball

operations for the Boston Celtics, stated

following the team’s practice at the

Auerbach Center on Thursday that he

had the “green light” from the team’s

ownership to keep increasing the team’s

payroll. According to Spotrac, they are

among the five franchises that have

invested $187.3 million in salary cap

allocations; nevertheless, given the

ownership’s demonstrable commitment

to transparency, this is not surprising.

“I look at the next six years as a real

opportunity for us,” Wyc Grousbeck said

during Jrue Holiday’s inaugural press

conference. “We’re gonna keep doing this

until we uncover that banner, until we

print something on that, or we’re gonna die trying.”

As the Celtics, who boast what’s widely

considered the most-talented top six in

the NBA, and at 26-7, have the league’s

best record, look to boost their

championship odds, the problem is they

face restrictions beyond ownership’s

control. They’re not about to shake up

their top six, and it’s unlikely they will

part with Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser, either.

To aid facilitate a deal, they have three

second-round picks in the next draft and

their first-round picks from 2024–2027.

However, their most useful weapon for

making the math work in a possible

transaction is a $6.2 million Traded

Player Exception (TPE) for Grant

Williams. Though Stevens stated that he

has permission from ownership to use

that, the difficulty lies in locating a

worthy candidate who falls into that TPE.

“That’s a small number of people, a lot of

the people that are in that were signed to

minimums or smaller contracts or are on

their rookie scale deals the teams aren’t

exactly excited to move on from yet. So,

it’s a very small group of people, but

we’re going to exhaust it. We’re going to

look at it. And again, I think it’s about, ok,

who can come in (and) have the self-

awareness to add to the group and the talent to add to the group.”

Boston is focusing more on internal

improvements than a possible external

acquisition to aid in its title pursuit, but

that doesn’t mean it won’t make a move.

Get more related News on https://dailysportnews.co.uk