Should the Celtics tank next year?
Mark Aboyoun
No. I believe in the basketball gods and karma. I don’t want to be like the Sixers who purposely tanked. Where has that gotten them? Play each game with the intention to win. I also don’t think it’s fair to the paying fans to go watch a game where they’re trying to tank.
Mike Dynon
Absolutely not.
1. There’s no Victor Wembanyama in this draft, no can’t-miss generational prospect who’s so valued that it’s worth it to throw away an entire season.
2. No one wants to watch that, especially not the paying customers.
3. The Celtics famously have no lottery luck. Fans are still trying to forget the 15-win season in the failed quest for Tim Duncan and the 24-win season that could have brought in Kevin Durant, but didn’t.
4. The most important reason: Tanking doesn’t work. The Sixers notoriously tanked for five seasons and accumulated a boatload of top draft picks, but ended up with just one star (Joel Embiid), several busts, and a bunch of early playoff exits – no better than they did before the tank. It’s just not worth it.
Steve Hooper
I’m not sure a team with this much talent can ‘tank’ per se. Jaylen Brown, D. White, Pritchard and Hauser can still win a ton of games in the East. Will they take an overall step back, sure? At the same time, there should be a level of parity in the Eastern Conference next season. Cleveland are probably the team to beat, but Boston should be one of a handful of teams battling for spots 4-8 by the end of the season. They were a top tier contending team for multiple seasons, but now find themselves mixing new talent in with an established core group of veterans.
Nirav Barman
While I don’t think the Celtics should outright tank, I do think they should look at this year more as R&D as opposed to pushing out a real product. Like the saying goes, players don’t tank, teams do. That being said, I don’t see Mazzulla or Brad putting the players in a position where they will actively try to avoid winning games.
With maybe the exception of Derrick White, pretty much every active player on the Celtics roster has something to prove this year. The young bucks like Walsh, Scheierman, Queta, and the rookies will be trying to show off their NBA value so they can stick around in the league. Jaylen Brown is coming off of maybe the first down-year of his career last year, and is coming off of knee surgery. This is also his first opportunity to be that guy with JT being out all year, and Pritchard has a similar outlook with his chance to finally be a starter. The new additions like Simons, Garza, Minott, and Niang will all be looking to earn their next contracts too.
With the overall roster construction, the Celtics most likely don’t have enough to put together a competitive season the likes of which we’ve been seeing since the Jay’s entered the league, but they can learn a lot about the players this year. The goal is to bounce back ASAP with JT expected to come back in the 26-27 season. This is Mazzulla’s opportunity to get weird, and for the players to make mistakes. Sitting players for the sake of losing games is not the path ahead, but winning isn’t everything this season either.
Jack Anderson
I don’t think they should go into the season in a tank. Mazzulla, Brown and White are too prideful for that. I also think their core of JT, JB, White, Pritchard and Hauser is a good starting place to build. They should certainly play the young guys and if the season rolls off of the tracks start resting the veterans more but don’t start the season in a tank. They should see what they have and go from there.
Jake Issenberg
Yes. The Celtics should absolutely be leaning into the tank. A team built around two super max contracts is going to find it aggressively difficult to add high-level talent. The Celtics are very limited in how they can pull off the 2027 version of the Jrue Holiday trade, given the new CBA. Their most obvious path to adding high-level talent is through the draft. The top of the 2026 draft is stacked with franchise-changing talent. Prioritizing making the Play-In over securing the 9th-best lottery odds, which gives you a 20% chance at a top-four pick with the new flattened lottery odds, would be shortsighted. Lean into playing the young guys, trade Niang and Simons for more salary relief and future assets, then draft the modern-day Len Bias.
Jeff Clark
It isn’t in Joe Mazzulla’s DNA to tank. Same with Jaylen Brown or any of the players. So I don’t think they’ll set out to outright tank (on purpose). But that’s not the question.
I think a lot has to break right for this team to even finish in the top half of the Eastern Conference. If things start to go South for one reason or another (injuries, regression on defense, lack of depth) then I could see them leaning into load management and/or being extra cautious with any little injury. But again, that wasn’t the question.
The question was “should they tank?” I think the players and coaches should always try to win every game. The front office, however, has to keep an eye on the bigger picture. We’re already 10 toes in on the Gap Year plan. The talent drain alone will stack up a lot of losses next year. Perhaps it isn’t a traditional “tank” but a Gap Year is effectively a short term tank.
So yeah, they should continue on with the plan that they’ve already put into motion. The key, however, will be what they do with the roster NEXT offseason. Because none of this is worth it if we don’t bounce back stronger than ever.
