Celtics and Mavericks facing uncertain futures as both teams have strange years after 2024 NBA Finals

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One year ago Tuesday, the Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals to win their record-setting 18th championship. One year later, both teams are not only sitting at home as the 2025 Finals play out, but they are facing uncertain futures after disappointing 2025 campaigns. 

The Celtics and Mavericks’ current situations are a stark reminder of just how fast things can change in the NBA, especially in this new era of parity. As the 2025 Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder — two teams who lost to the Celtics and Mavericks in the playoffs last season — continue, here’s a look back at how Boston and Dallas reached this point, and where the two franchises go from here. 

What happened?

Celtics

Despite a midseason slump and various injuries, the Celtics put together one of the best title defenses in recent memory. They went 61-21 to record the 15th 60-win season in franchise history and become the first defending champion to win 60 games since the 2016 Golden State Warriors. 

Off the court, the Celtics’ sale, which was first announced in the summer of 2024, was completed in March. The Grousbeck family, who bought the team in 2002 for $360 million, sold it to Massachusetts native Bill Chisholm for a record-breaking price of $6.1 billion — the most ever paid for a North American sports franchise. 

Most years, the Celtics would have cruised to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they had to settle for the No. 2 seed due to the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ stunning 64-win campaign. Even so, the Celtics were the favorite to come out of the East. 

In the first round of the playoffs, the Celtics took care of the Orlando Magic in five games, but not without some trouble. Kristaps Porziņģis looked nothing like his usual self due to what Brad Stevens later called post-viral syndrome, Jrue Holiday strained his hamstring and Jayson Tatum bruised his wrist. 

Disaster struck in their second-round matchup with the New York Knicks. The Celtics blew 20-point leads in each of the first two games at home due in large part to historically bad 3-point shooting. After winning Game 3 in blowout fashion in New York, Tatum tore his Achilles tendon late in Game 4. They would go on to lose the series in six games. After the fact, it was revealed that Jaylen Brown was also playing through a torn meniscus. 

With their defeat to the Knicks, the Celtics became the sixth consecutive defending champion to be eliminated before reaching the conference finals. 

Mavericks

The Mavericks got off to a frustrating start, in part due to some minor injuries, and were below .500 nearly a month into the season. However, they quickly turned things around and ripped off 14-3 stretch that had them in fourth place heading into their Christmas Day showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves — a rematch of the 2024 Western Conference finals. 

In the second quarter of the Mavericks’ loss that day, Luka Dončić limped off the court with a calf strain that was expected to sideline him for at least a month. It would be the last time he put on a Mavericks uniform. 

As Dončić’s injury stretched beyond the initial one-month timeline, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison made a decision that sent shockwaves through the sports world and forever altered the history of multiple franchises: he traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of a three-team blockbuster in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. 

The chain of events that followed were almost more difficult to believe than the actual trade. 

Davis suffered an adductor strain in his Mavericks debut on Feb. 8 that would sideline him for six weeks. A few days after Davis went down, on Feb. 10, Daniel Gafford sprained his knee and would not play again for seven weeks. Less than a month later, on March 3, Kyrie Irving tore his ACL. 

Other notable Mavericks to spend time on the injured list late in the season included: Dereck Lively II, PJ Washington, Dante Exum, Caleb Martin, Jaden Hardy and Olivier-Maxence Prosper. During a March 9 defeat to the Phoenix Suns, the Mavericks only had seven healthy players. 

As the injuries piled up, so did the losses. At the time of the Dončić trade, the Mavericks were 26-24, which had them in ninth place in the Western Conference, but only 3.5 games out of fifth. They went 13-19 the rest of the way, and finished in 10th, which gained them entry into the Play-In Tournament. Davis, back from his injury, led them past the Sacramento Kings in the first play-in game, but they fell to the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round, which sent them to the Draft Lottery. 

The Mavericks had the 11th-best lottery odds and a 1.8% chance at winning the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. It turned out to be their lucky day. They won the lottery and the right to draft former Duke star Cooper Flagg with the first pick later this month. Since the lottery began in 1985, only three teams have won the No. 1 pick with worse odds than the Mavericks. 

Where do they go from here?

Celtics

Even before Tatum’s injury or the loss to the Knicks, the Celtics were facing an uncertain future because of significant financial concerns. 

Every key contributor from this season’s team is under contract for next season besides Al Horford and Luke Kornet. Without them, the Celtics already have over $227 million in guaranteed contracts on the books. Due to luxury-tax penalties, the total cost to keep the roster together could be over $500 million. 

Beyond the exorbitant monetary cost to run things back, the Celtics would face significant “basketball penalties” for being over the second apron of the luxury tax again. 

“It’s not the luxury-tax bill, it’s the basketball penalties,” former owner Wyc Grousbeck said in March. “The new CBA was designed by the league to stop teams from going crazy and they decided that it’s not good enough to just go after the wallets because then the fans are like ‘hey, find someone who can afford to spend whatever — $500 million per year or whatever it is.”

“The basketball penalties mean it’s even more of a premium now to have your basketball general manager be brilliant and lucky because you’ve got to navigate, because you can’t stay in the second apron,” Grousbeck continued. “Nobody will. I predict for the next 40 years of the CBA no one is going to stay nobody is going to stay in the second apron more than two years.”

The Celtics have been above the second apron for the last two seasons, and have already dealt with restrictions, which, per Bobby Marks, include the inability to:

• aggregate contracts sent out in a trade;
• use more than 100% of the traded player exception;
• send out cash;
• use a preexisting trade exception;
• sign a player waived that had a salary of at least $14.1 million

Furthermore, because the Celtics were over the second apron this season, their 2032 first-round pick has been frozen, and they are unable to trade it. Should they be over the second apron again next season, their 2033 first-round pick would also become frozen. Furthermore, if the Celtics are over the second apron in two of the next four seasons, their 2032 first-round pick would not only remain frozen, but move to the end of the first round. 

In short, the Celtics are going to shed salary this summer, especially now that Tatum is set to miss the majority, if not all, of next season. There’s no reason for Chisholm to pay more than $500 million, nor Brad Stevens to deal with significant restrictions, to keep a non-contender together. 

The big question is how will the Celtics go about cutting costs? To get under the second apron they need to cut about $20 million. 

The most likely scenario is dealing some combination of Kristaps Porzingis (one year, $30.7M remaining on contract), Jrue Holiday (three years, including player option for 2027-28, $104M remaining on contract) and Sam Hauser (four years, $44.8M remaining on contract). 

Hauser would be the easiest to move due to his reasonable deal and 3-point shooting ability, but shedding his salary alone would not get the Celtics under the second apron. Porzingis did not have a good season and is injury prone, but he is on an expiring deal. As for Holiday, plenty of contenders would love to add him, but his bulky contract could make it prohibitive. 

Another possibility for the Celtics would be to completely blow things up this summer. Trade everyone besides Tatum and Derrick White — yes, even Brown — for a bunch of draft picks and young players, tank for a high pick in the 2026 NBA Draft and try to reset the roster for when Tatum is healthy again. That scenario seems less likely given Brown’s importance to the franchise and the city. 

One way or another the Celtics are going to look much different next season. 

Mavericks

The Mavericks’ lottery luck changed everything about the team’s future. Prior to winning the lottery, the Mavericks were staring into the abyss with an aging roster and a furious fan base. 

Irving is going to miss the majority of next season, and it’s unclear how he’ll fare after a major injury at this stage of his career. He’s also set to be a free agent next summer. Even if Irving signs an extension, the Mavericks won’t have a fully healthy Irving and Davis until the 2026-27 season, when Irving will be 34 and Davis will be 33. 

While all of that remains true, the team will soon select Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Flagg, who helped Duke reach the Final Four as a freshman, is one of the best prospects to enter the league in years. He’s the type of player who can immediately help a franchise and projects as a potential top-10 player down the line. 

“High ceiling. High floor. It’s hard to imagine Flagg not being a high-level NBA player for more than a decade,” CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish wrote of Flagg in his most recent mock draft.

Is Flagg ever going to be as good as Dončić? In a vacuum, probably not. But the Mavericks gave up a young star to get Davis, and are going to immediately replace him with an even younger player with star potential. Depending on how good Flagg is to begin his career, they may end up with the best of both worlds. 

The Mavericks’ 2025-26 roster is pretty much set, so they don’t project to be too busy this summer outside of drafting Flagg. With Harrison in charge, though, you can never be too sure. He’s already made 16 trades since being hired as the Mavericks’ general manager in 2021.

Beyond this summer, it will be fascinating to see how Harrison builds a roster around Irving, Davis and Flagg. Come 2026-27, they could absolutely be in the mix if Irving looks anything like his old self, Flagg pops immediately and Harrison finds the right pieces to put next to them. 

At the same time, if Irving is diminished after his ACL tear, Davis fails to stay healthy and Flagg turns out to be slightly worse than projected — say, All-Star caliber instead of All-NBA — the Mavericks could easily find themselves in trouble in a few years. 

This news was originally published on this post .

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