Celtics Predicted To Have Their Worst Season In 12 Years

The last time the Boston Celtics missed the playoffs, Brad Stevens was in his first season as head coach, Jayson Tatum was still in high school and Jeff Green was the team’s leading scorer.

With the NBA schedule being released on Thursday, Celtics fans found out just how long their team’s odds are for winning their 19th championship.

Furthermore, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey laid out his win-loss predictions for all 30 teams on Thursday and has Boston posting its worst record since the 2013-14 campaign, when they last failed to qualify for the postseason.

Bailey predicted that the Celtics will finish 38-44 during the 2025-26 season.

“Just a few months ago, it felt like the Boston Celtics had a title-contending core locked in for the foreseeable future, but Jayson Tatum’s ruptured Achilles completely altered the course of franchise history,” Bailey wrote. “Without him, there was simply no way Boston could push for a championship in 2025-26, and that made it completely unjustifiable to stay over the second apron. That, of course, led to the fire sale that unloaded Kristaps Porziņģis, Jrue Holiday and (eventually) Al Horford.”

Since the Big Three era of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen began in the title-winning 2007-08 season, the only time the Celtics missed the playoffs was during the 2013-14 campaign, when they finished 25-57. The only other time when the team won fewer than the 38 games that Bailey predicted for them next season was in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign, when they went 36-36.

“To this point, the Celtics have spared themselves nearly $300 million in salary and luxury tax payments, but that obviously comes with massive on-court drawbacks,” Bailey wrote. “Jaylen Brown and Derrick White should have big years. Payton Pritchard and Anfernee Simons will have plenty of gaudy lines, too. But even in the East, a team with a frontcourt rotation that consists of Sam Hauser, Neemias Queta, Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher feels like one that could finish below .500.”