The Celtics are putting together their final preparations for the postseason as they close out their regular season with a couple easy tuneups. With some potential playoff opponents set to become clear as the standings shake out Sunday for Boston, let’s examine some questions in this week’s mailbag about Jaylen Brown and this team’s draft future..
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It’s a situation that has been the focus of this team for the last week or so now based on how Brown has looked and the fact that he has tried to play through it up until Wednesday. The Celtics ruled him out Friday so I would assume that his regular season is over at this point, which will give him a good 10 days off at minimum before the postseason run begins.
Brown clearly hasn’t been at his best physically in the past two weeks but has spoken candidly about wanting to play through the pain and readjust through it. Just how much the 65-game threshold influenced Brown trying to play more in recent weeks is an open question but he was clearly well enough to get the green light from the training staff for it. Why there has been a change of heart for the next few days is a fascinating question though.
Perhaps Brown’s knee is bothering him a bit more now than in recent weeks? He did not look great in the loss to the Knicks in which the Celtics played him only 21 minutes. There’s also potentially the possibility that making All-NBA was no longer a realistic aspiration even if Brown got to 65 games. Brown denied this was a factor in his decision making but it’s hard to ignore it outright with his minutes totals just clearly 20 in his last two games (the amount needed for a game to count). Regardless, he probably wasn’t going to make the cut even if he hit 65 games so there was no incentive to push it on that front to put any added miles on the knee.
Ultimately, the end goal here for the Celtics is to get Brown right for the playoff rounds they really need him for, (second round and later). That means a quick first round series with lower minute totals is probably in everyone’s interest to maximize the odds of Brown’s athleticism being able to re-emerge and sustain in later rounds.
What is worth keeping an eye on in the weeks to come with the Celtics and the NBA Draft? Are they in good shape with their own picks moving forward? Could another contender get a good lottery pick with all these trades and hurt Boston? — Lucas V
The Celtics are locked into the No. 28 overall pick for the 2025 Draft but there is still a bit of uncertainty of where they will land in the second round. They snagged an intriguing second round pick two years ago amid a host of trade downs on draft night in 2023. That gamble will pay off in what will be the No. 31 or 32 overall pick depending on how the Washington Wizards fare in the lottery. Currently, they are tied with the Jazz for the worst overall record at 17-63. If the Wizards and Jazz stay tied in the standings, whoever finishes higher in the lottery will get the lower second round pick.
Either way, the Celtics are in a good spot here to add some more cheap talent to a roster that will need it this offseason. A potential salary crunch is coming as another supermax contract kicks in, which makes adding low cost talent a top priority for the foreseeable future while Boston remains a contender. Boston will surely be active to some degree in the veteran’s minimum market but don’t be surprised to see the Celtics use those draft picks to round out the roster.
Elsewhere, the other main drama worth watching from a Celtics’ rival perspective is what happens with the 76ers pick (top-6 protected). An epic tank job has dropped Philadelphia into the 5th worst record but they still have a 35 percent chance of losing that pick to Oklahoma City. That would not be a preferred option for Boston since that selection in this draft would be a valuable tool for the Thunder to make another splashy addition to their loaded roster.
