Kristaps Porzingis (l) and Luke Kornet (r)

The Boston Celtics selected Jaylen Brown out of California with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, and from there, the quest to hang the legendary franchise’s championship banner number 18 was on. Starting with the 2016-2017 season the Celtics — who again had the No. 3 pick in 2017 and used it to draft Jayson Tatum from Duke — went to the Eastern Conference finals in five of the next seven seasons, even advancing to the NBA Finals in 2022 only to fall in six games to the Golden State Warriors.

But it was not until Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens pulled off two blockbuster trade-in the 2023 offseason that the Celtics were finally able to see their way to completing the mission, and winning Boston’s 18th NBA championship. First, Stevens traded away fan favorite Marcus Smart as part if package to acquire seven-foot-three-inch center Kristaps Porzingis, a player Stevens had coveted for 10 years, since Porzingis was playing in the Spanish domestic league’s top division.

Next, Stevens sent another popular player, center Rob Williams, along with veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon to the Portland Trailblazers to bring back another veteran guard, Jrue Holiday — who had already won an NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021.

With Porzingis, Celtics Finally Hang Banner 18

As advertised, the new-look Celtics featuring Porzingis and Holiday along with Tatum and Brown plus another Stevens acquisition, guard Derrick White, cruised to the NBA title, the team’s first since 2008, winning 16 of their 19 postseason games following a 64-win regular season.

With just nine games remaining in the 2024-2025 regular season, the 54-19 Celtics appear poised to win back-to-back championships, establishing the latest edition of the Celtics dynasty.

But one of those two key players acquired by Stevens may have to be traded away in the offseason, effectively ending the new Boston dynasty just as it begins — at least according to a prediction made by a writer for SI.com.

That player is Porzingis, who in the 2025-2026 campaign will be on an expiring contract set to pay him $30.7 million, the second half of a two-year, $60 million deal agreed to by Porzingis shortly after his move to the Celtics. The reason for dumping Porzingis is simple — money.

The Celtics were sold last week for a reported $6.1 billion to an investor group headed by Massachusetts native Bill Chisolm. While Chisolm has pledged to put the Celtics tradition of winning championships ahead of other considerations, the realities of the NBA’s complex salary cap system, and the penalties for going over the cap, are certain to force changes to the Celtics roster — which is now the second-most expensive in the NBA at more than $201 million.

That figure is projected to hit $230 million next season, which would cause the Celtics to incur a $270 million “luxury tax” penalty.

Celtics Cannot Stay in ‘Second Apron’ For Long

“For a Celtics club expected to owe an estimated $500 million in combined salary commitments and luxury tax obligations next year, under new ownership, the juice just might not be worth the squeeze when it comes to Porzingis,” wrote SI.com scribe Alex Kirschenbaum on Monday.

Zach Harper, an NBA correspondent for The Athletic, also named the 29-year-old native of Latvia as a likely trade candidate for the Celtics.

“We’re still looking at the Celtics having to eventually break up parts of this team,” Harper wrote last week. “It wouldn’t be shocking to see Kristaps Porzingis go soon, as he has one year left on his deal.”

Outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck, while not naming any specific player to be traded, said in a recent interview that under the rules of the current NBA collective bargaining agreement (CBA) no team can stay long in the “second apron,” that is, the second level of tax and other penalties for exceeding the salary cap.

“I predict, for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one is going to stay in the second apron more than two years,” Grousbeck said. If he is correct, that gives the Celtics one more year to keep their dynasty alive, with or without Porzingis.