Celtics ownership has clearly pushed all their chips to the center of the table for Banner 18, but Wyc Grousbeck is still hesitant to put his mouth where his money is.
"That would be nice this year," the Celtics co-owner said about championship expectations in the upcoming season. "We have the makings this year, but so do a bunch of other teams. So it's all about how connected can they be? How lucky can we be with injuries? How can the ball bounce just right?"
Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca look hell-bent on keeping the pressure off this team, and that might be the smart move, publicly.
They have to hope the addition of one bona fide champion in Jrue Holiday and another seasoned veteran in Kristaps Porzingis will change the chemistry in a Celtics locker room that has vacillated the full spectrum from chaotic to languid – but they also have to give Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown the opportunity to fill the leadership void left by Marcus Smart. They don't want to put the weight of the world on Joe Mazzulla's shoulders, but they have to expect the second-year coach to blossom this season after a rocky run through the 2023 playoffs.
"I look at the next six years as a real opportunity for us," Grousbeck said. "And that's not to take anything away from this year, but we're gonna keep doing this until we uncover that banner, until we print something on that, or we're going to die trying. That was the first quote 20 years ago when we came in, 'We're going to win Banner 17, or I'm going to die trying.' And we're going for Banner 18 now. We're going to keep going."
Six years is a mighty long wait for the next championship. Tatum's first season was six years ago (just 19 years old!). Since that season, the Celtics have weathered the devastating Gordon Hayward injury, Hurricane Kyrie, the bubble playoffs implosion against Miami, Ainge's departure and Brad's move upstairs, the Kemba Knee Disaster, the Lucky Stomp Tragedy against the Nets, the Ime Udoka off-court fiasco, and the departures of Marcus Smart, Grant Williams, and Rob Williams – all impactful players on the 2022 Finals team.
And…money talks. All one needs to do is look at the payroll to determine expectations. The Celtics have soared over the luxury tax and have started dancing in the second apron, with this year's team costing some $181 million. The only year the Celtics spent over the tax in the last decade was 2018, when Hayward and Irving were on the roster. The last time they were multiyear taxpayers was the Pierce-Garnett-Allen era, when they paid the luxury tax for – you guessed it – six seasons.
It's a different landscape in today's NBA, and Grousbeck and Pagliuca could set records with their payroll in 2025-26 when they enter the new repeater tax with Tatum and Brown under supermax contracts. That payroll would hit just three years into this designated six-year window.
The 2007-08 team won right away. The next five years in spending were for another banner that ownership is still chasing in 2024, so regardless of public niceties, the pressure is on now.
