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Three questions for Celtics ahead of 2025-26 NBA season
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown. Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

Three questions for Celtics ahead of 2025-26 NBA season

The Boston Celtics will be without Jayson Tatum for most, if not all, of the upcoming season. 

President of basketball operations Brad Stevens has spent the summer retooling the roster. Therefore, HC Joe Mazzulla will be leading a team full of young and inexperienced talent for the first time in his head-coaching career.

As such, the Celtics could be in store for a challenging year. Wins won't come as easily or as frequently. Instead, the campaign will be measured by the level of internal development within the roster. With that in mind, here are three big questions the Celtics must answer to begin the new season.

Who will partner with Derrick White in the backcourt? 

Mazzulla must choose between Payton Pritchard and Anfernee Simons. Both guards are score-first talents. Simons' defense will be a major drawback for Boston; however, there's genuine value in keeping Pritchard with the second unit. He is, after all, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year.

After losing Jrue Holiday via trade earlier this summer, the Celtics' perimeter defense was always going to suffer. Mazzulla will likely look to offset that with improved scoring. Pritchard and Simons are both battle-tested at the NBA level. 

Therefore, Mazzulla's task will be to determine which of the two guards provides more balance to the bench rotation than the starting lineup. Expect to see some early experimentation before Mazzulla settles on a decision.

Can Jaylen Brown shoulder the load? 

Without Tatum in the rotation, the Celtics will be short on playmaking and shot creation. Brown, the de facto primary option heading into the new season, will likely be tasked with shouldering that additional workload. 

The issue is that Brown has struggled when asked to create offense for others. For his career, he has averaged 1.8 assists per 1.0 turnovers, which is far from ideal for a player being asked to become a lead ball-handler. Mazzulla will likely task Brown with attacking off secondary actions, using his explosiveness and speed to generate passing opportunities on the fly.

Furthermore, Brown will be relied upon to shoulder the offense and provide lockdown perimeter defense. With so many new responsibilities, it will be interesting to see whether he sinks or swims. 

Can Neemias Queta thrive as a starter?

Boston's center position has suffered the most this summer. Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet — all core members of the 2024 championship team — left the franchise this summer. In their place, Neemias Queta will be thrust into the starting center role.

Queta has been impactful when inserted into the Celtics rotation in recent years. However, his defensive limitations and poor scoring around the rim (70 percent) have raised some questions regarding his overall ceiling. 

Nevertheless, Queta is the favorite to anchor Boston's rotation in 2025-26. If he struggles, Stevens could be forced to explore the trade market. However, if he can emerge as a viable starting big man, the Celtics would have found another diamond in the rough, which is exactly what retooling phases are for. 

Adam Taylor

Adam Taylor is a sports journalist based out of the UK. Adam has been covering the NBA for nearly a decade with a core focus on the Boston Celtics. He currently holds bylines with Yardbarker, SB Nation and USA Today

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