Brad Stevens didn’t say Jaylen Brown by name, but the message was easy to read at Celtics media day.
When Stevens talked on the NBC Sports Boston live stream about what Boston needs to become a better offense, he pointed straight at the kind of basketball the Celtics have struggled to sustain in the biggest moments.
“One of the things that I've always thought is to be a great offense, you have to be able to score in isolation against certain matchups, you have to be able to score in pick-and-roll, and you have to be able to score off movement,” he said. “I think at times in the past, in the biggest moments, we've had a tendency to be stagnant. I think this group can be more versatile in those ways.”
That is about as direct as a front office executive can get without naming the player at the center of it. Brown was a major part of those stagnant stretches, and while he was far from the only culprit, Boston’s decision to move him clearly wasn’t just about money.
The Celtics are trying to change more than the payroll. They’re trying to change the way the offense breathes when the game tightens up.
That matters because most of the players from last season are still here. Fifteen players got minutes in that series, and the only ones gone are Dalano Banton, Max Shulga, Nikola Vucevic, and Jaylen Brown. So when Stevens says “this group,” it carries real weight.
Brown shouldn’t be pinned as the lone reason Boston bogged down. Jayson Tatum deserves his share of the blame too. But Stevens’ comments made it clear the Celtics saw a basketball problem, not just a financial one.
That leaves Joe Mazzulla with a clear job: make this roster work in a different way.
Stevens has removed one of the league’s most dangerous scorers, along with a player who could cover for a lot of other mistakes. If the Celtics want more scoring off movement, Mazzulla has to build the movement that creates it.
“It's not as much of as what it looks like without one person or the other as much as … how can we take advantage of the strengths and the talent that we have,” Mazzulla said. “I don't know that I have that answer on day one.
I think your team naturally grows, and you're always learning about your team. And so I think that's the point of training camp.
By the end of training camp, can we have a clear establishment of what our identity is as a team and what we look like on both ends of the floor?”
That’s the task now. In a league where defenses are too smart and too connected to survive on raw talent alone, teams need depth, effort, and brains to create clean looks when the pressure rises.
Talent still matters. It just can’t do the whole job by itself.
Stevens sounds convinced this group has enough of the rest.
“I think we are really savvy,” Stevens said of this year’s team. “I think we really have a great skill set.
We'll know how to play basketball. I think we have a lot of guys who process it very quickly.
I think we can play a lot of different ways, which will be a fun challenge and fun for the coaches.”
In Other News...
Celtics Suddenly Have A Low-Risk Shot At Former Top-10 Talent
Rob Dillinghams rapid slide has turned him into an intriguing free-agent possibility, and the Celtics are among the teams looking hard enough to notice. The former eighth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has already been waived by the Hornets after earlier stops with the Timberwolves and Bulls, a reminder of how quickly a promising young guard can get lost in the churn of roster moves.
Bostons interest makes sense as a low-risk swing on talent rather than a short-term fix. A two-way contract would give the Celtics a chance to bring in a former top-10 pick who is still available as an unrestricted free agent, with very little downside if the fit never develops and a meaningful upside if his game starts to stabilize. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Still Carry One Surprising 2026-27 Ceiling After Major Change
Bostons future outlook has a way of staying surprisingly upbeat even after a major roster shakeup. Stephen Noh of The Sporting News has the Celtics pegged for 54 wins and the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2026-27 season, a projection that comes with the obvious caveat of moving forward without Jaylen Brown and asking Jayson Tatum to return to All-NBA form after injury.
Paul George and Mitchell Robinson are also part of that optimistic equation, and their contributions would matter almost as much as Tatums health. It is a reminder that the Celtics ceiling still looks formidable on paper, but the whole forecast depends on key players being available and productive when it counts. [Read more 🡒]
NBA Officiating Change Just Put An Ex-Celtics Star In Focus
The NBA is putting a fresh spotlight on offensive players use of the off-arm, and it is the kind of rule tweak Celtics fans will want to keep an eye on as the league continues to clean up perimeter contact. For the 2026-27 season, the focus will be on closer monitoring of push-offs and other actions that create space illegally, part of a broader effort to sharpen enforcement on screens and straight-line pathway plays.
Monty McCutchen, the leagues senior vice president of referee development and training, used examples involving Jaylen Brown and Paul George to help draw the line between legal and illegal use of the off-arm. For Boston, the timing matters because Brown has long been one of the leagues most physical downhill wings, and any tightening of that standard could change how stars at his position are defended and how often they get away with that extra bit of separation. [Read more 🡒]