Celtics’ Brad Stevens says collective pause on tap before diving into monumental offseason

BOSTON (AP) — The past 72 hours since the Boston Celtics were eliminated from the playoffs have been a vortex of emotions, conversations and lack of sleep for Brad Stevens.

The team’s president of basketball operations is fully aware there are a lot of questions for him and the front office as the Celtics embark on an offseason that will be replete with challenges that were both expected and unexpected entering this season.

He also wants to make it clear that they don’t plan to rush any of the decisions that lie ahead for the franchise.

“I know there will be a lot of questions about what’s next,” Stevens said during his season-ending news conference on Monday. “At the end of the day I think that will all be driven by the same thing that’s always driven us and that’s ‘How do we get ourselves in the mix to compete for championships best?’ I think that will get more clarity as we take a deep breath, get a little more sleep than we have the last three nights.”

Those three sleepless nights have included coming to terms with the end of their run as defending NBA champions, star Jayson Tatum’s devastating torn Achilles tendon injury and impending rehabilitation that will take up most of next season, and upcoming payroll decisions and potential roster moves that will affect how competitive Boston is in the immediate future.

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With Boston’s payroll for next season on track to come in around $225 million, next year’s tax bill would be at almost $280 million. The combined potential $500 million total price tag would be a league record under the current highly restrictive Collective Bargaining Agreement.

It is unclear whether the team’s incoming ownership will want to keep paying those hefty penalties after agreeing to a purchase in March expected to have a final price of a minimum of $6.1 billion.

“The north star is to have a championship contender, right? So you have to do what’s best to give yourself the best opportunity to do that when you can do that,” Stevens said. “And so, we just have to decide how feasible that is on any given year and make sure we are making the decisions accordingly.”

Stevens mostly declined to provide detail about what will go into that process, saying that he would have more to say on it around the NBA draft. But he did acknowledge that it’s unclear whether so-called championship windows are becoming smaller because of the current CBA.

“That’s a good question. I don’t know,” Stevens said. “I think certainly it is more challenging in certain circumstances for sure.”

He also was clear that even though other factors like Jaylen Brown managing what Stevens confirmed is a partially torn meniscus in his right knee, or Kristaps Porzingis dealing with “post-virus syndrome” didn’t prevent Boston from avoiding becoming the sixth straight defending champion not to make it out of the second round the following season.

“I’d rather talk about the CBA and all that crap,” Stevens joked. “The reality is we blew the first two games (against New York), and that’s why we put ourselves in a tough spot. ... That’s not on any one person. It’s not out of maliciousness. It’s not out of a bad decision. It’s not bad luck. It’s we had an opportunity to win those first two home games and we put ourselves behind the 8-ball.”

As for the outlook going forward for Brown and Porzingis, Stevens said he is hopeful that absences away from the court won’t be extended.

He said Brown conveyed to him that his knee felt better by the end of New York series, and that he’s encouraged by Porzingis’ plans to play for Latvia at EuroBasket in August.

He also has confidence that Brown can play whatever role is needed next season during Tatum’s absence.

“Those guys have been the core parts of this program for a while. So, there’s no question about that,” Stevens said. “Those guys, they’ve achieved so much. And certainly deserve all the recognition and praise and accolades they get. But, yeah, that’s a huge part of us being the best version of ourselves.”

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