The Celtics reportedly missed out on second round draft target St. Joseph’s wing Rasheer Fleming on Thursday, then agreed to trade the No. 32 overall pick to the Magic for No. 46 and 57 selections that became Kentucky center Amari Williams and VCU shooter Max Shulga. Celtics executive Mike Zarren said he expects both to join the team on two-way contracts, which don’t carry a cap hit.
Orlando also returned Boston’s 2027 second-rounder from the Evan Fournier trade and offered swap rights. The best pick of Detroit, Milwaukee and Orlando’s 2026 seconds also went to the Celtics, securing them eight or nine second-rounders beyond this year.
Several factors led Boston to move back. The Suns leaped them to take Fleming in a trade with Minnesota, moving up from No. 36 overall to No. 31 with two future second-rounders. Multiple center prospects remained at 32, but the Celtics liked Williams.
“Amari, he’s (been) one of the best passing big men in college for a long time,” Zarren said. “He’s an elite rebounder, he’s a great guy, he had a wonderful career at Drexel and then stepped it up another level at Kentucky. When you meet him, you’ll see he’s got just an enormous, enormous wingspan, and as you’ll see on the court, if you haven’t seen already, he’s got incredible vision. Those things are just key abilities in the modern NBA. Your big guys have to be able to do all sorts of things. Sometimes we play through big guys at the post, with the guys we have had on our roster and Amari should fit into that pretty well.”
Williams’ willingness to take a two-way contract likely played some role, as did Shulga’s later at No. 57. Two players who logged five-year college careers may see more NBA playing time than expected in 2025-26, but Thursday’s strategy followed Wednesday’s long term selection, likely signaling that the Celtics could take a step back next season. Boston passed on potential centers more ready to play in 2024-25 between Ryan Kalkbrenner and Maxime Raynaud, though teams held drastically different opinions on where players ranked.
Supplementing future second-rounders after round one called back to 2023, when Boston traded back multiple times to secure what eventually became the No. 32 pick in this week’s draft from Detroit. The Magic used it to draft French wing Noah Penda. Financials also came into play for the Celtics, who moved about $ 5 million under the second apron with their reported trades. They’re about $7.4 million over the first apron, a line you need to cross below to utilize the full mid-level exception, acquire players sign-and-trades, use trade exceptions and regain more trade flexibility. Boston remains $15.1 million over the luxury tax threshold between 13 players.
“I think we’re always trying to compete with the guys that we have,” Zarren said. “Brad did mention last night that our First Team All-NBA player’s in a boot, and so that’s a real thing, and I think you got the update from him last night on that. But having more flexibility is always useful in these things. We have made a key part of our philosophy is to be opportunistic about opportunities that come along, and so depending on where we end up and what moves we make, obviously you guys know I can’t talk about some specifics of things, but depending on what we do, we’ll try to put ourselves in the most opportunistic position to take advantage of other opportunities as they come along. I know that’s kind of a boring answer, but that’s really how it works.”
Next up, JD Davison has a team option worth $2.3 million for next season that Boston must decide on by Sunday. They’ll inevitably decline that, since it would pull them within $5-million of the second apron and just over $12-million over the tax line, barring other moves. Another trade feels inevitable as well, since the Celtics have minimal flexibility to retain centers Al Horford and Luke Kornet at the moment. Perhaps they’re comfortable letting one walk if one player doesn’t take the minimum. But trading Anfernee Simons, Sam Hauser or Georges Niang could free up additional space below the second apron line. Consider it their hard cap.
There’s also the luxury tax consideration though. At the moment, Boston’s tax hit falls to $43 million between 12 players if the team waives Davison, but they would need to fill two roster spots and eventually return to roughly $69 million in tax. Paying Horford and Kornet more than the minimum, at the moment, would push the Celtics back closer to a $100-million tax bill. In the fourth repeater tax bracket, every $1 million spent is taxed by $6.75 million. That means a minimum worth between $2.5-3 million would add $17-20 million to the tax bill. Zarren said the Celtics don’t have a salary and tax threshold, while Brad Stevens expressed ownership’s willingness to pay luxury tax on Wednesday while prioritizing retaining Horford and Kornet.
“I’ll repeat it over and over and over,” Stevens said. “We need to maximize assets in return and we need to regain some flexibility here. And whatever that means from a final cost standpoint is what it means. But I think the biggest thing is, as you look at the rest of the team and what we’re trying to do, there’s no question our priorities would be to bring Al and Luke back. Those guys are huge parts of this organization. They’re going to have, I’m sure, plenty of options all over the place, and that’s well deserved, but I think that would be a priority. At the same time, I don’t want to put pressure on them. It’s their call ultimately, but yeah, we would love to have those guys back.”
