Boston Celtics 2025-26 Season Preview and Predictions: Opportunities and Changes

By: Ryan Keenan

October 21st, 2025 11:00am EST

The Boston Celtics tip off the new season tomorrow at the TD Garden against the Philadelphia 76ers at 7:30pm EST. The Celtics will look a lot different this year than the last few seasons especially through the first through months of the year. Overall, it should make for a different watching experience for the fans than what we have seen the last few seasons, with different pieces, different styles and a different team.

The biggest difference, obviously, Jayson Tatum who many should remember tore his achilles last year in the playoffs in New York in a series against the Knicks. This injury will have him shut down most of the season and especially the 1st half of the season without a doubt. Since coming into the league, we have never really seen this team operate without Jayson Tatum. He has missed games here and there, but never has been out for an extended period of time, so it will be interesting to see how we operate without him. It seems obvious that our offense will be weaker, our defense will be less versatile and not as long, and without him in the lineup we will be a worse team. Although, we still will have Jaylen Brown and Derrick White leading the offense and defense, who are both very good players in their own right, and can help us win plenty of games. How long we will be without Tatum is kind of up in the air at the moment. Plenty of videos and images of him have been released, in which he looks healthy, is moving well and seems to be in good spirits and motivated. An achilles takes a long time to heal and recover, so he won't be playing soon, but I have read and heard that we are looking at anything really between February and April. Either way he will play this season, when is still undecided but we will see him on the court. So, before he returns we just need to focus on keeping our team in the mix, locking us in a playoff spot, waiting for his return and seeing where we can go from there.

The second difference is the rest of our team. It seems as if almost everybody from a couple years ago is gone. Pritchard, Hauser, White, Brown and Tatum are still there along with Tillman and Neemias Queta. But we lost a lot of guys this offseason. Porzingis was dealt to Atlanta, Holiday was sent to Portland in exchange for Anfernee Simons, Kornet signed with San Antonio, Horford went out west to the Warriors. With all of these losses Boston is going to need players to step up that they acquired or draft picks that need to make some gains in the professional game. Look for Baylor Scheierman or Jordan Walsh to make a name for themselves this year, with injuries and trades the opportunity has opened up for these two to step up and make a name for themselves in the League. Rookie draft pick Hugo Gonzalez will also be seeing some opportunity early on this season as well, and could potentially make an impact in the game. New acquisitions Anfernee Simons, Luka Garza, Chris Boucher, Ron Harper Jr., Josh Minott and others will also be looking to carve their names in Celtics history. A lot of these guys are one 1 year deals, and will be looking to play well this year to create a market for themselves and get paid a big contract this offseason.

With the injuries and the new pieces the goal of the Celtics should remain the same, competing to win a championship. The bottom line is these years of Tatum and Brown are to compete for the championship every single year, no matter injuries or depth pieces. Are the Celtics as deep as they were the past couple years or as skilled, absolutely not. Does that change the expectations from Brown and Tatum, absolutely not. There is no reason why this team without Tatum should not be able to put us in a position to push for the playoffs as soon as Tatum comes back. The Eastern Conference is still open for the Celtics, and we should still be the team to fear when the playoffs come around. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Indiana and New York all look more or less the same as last year, and the Celtics have shown the capability to beat any one of these teams in the season or beyond. Cleveland is also very solid, but has struggles in the playoffs every year, Orlando and Detroit will look to make some strides this year after making the playoffs last year. Atlanta could possibly be back in the mix after acquiring Porzingis from Boston, but as we know here in Boston, will he be healthy all year? 

Bottom line, I think this Celtics season is actually going to be quite fun to watch, we may not dominate like we did a couple years ago, and I think it may be a bit rough at first. But, I think it will be super exciting, with a lot of opportunities for other guys to step up, and make a difference on the team. Time will tell who seizes the opportunities this year and who will not. Personally, I think Walsh does not have what it takes, he's gonna crash and burn this year, and we will see he is not a solid NBA talent. I think Baylor certainly has a chance as a solid 3 point shooter, but not sure if he has enough talent to make him an everyday rotational guy. Hugo Gonzalez could be interesting as a solid player overseas, and looks to have pretty good stuff based on some preseason games this year. Look for him to find a path in the NBA, and not break out this year but show a lot of potential, and growth throughout the season. Anfernee Simons is a really solid 3 point threat and should fit nicely in a Joe Mazzula offense, but he will be a defensive liability especially in contrast to Marcus Smart, and Jrue Holiday who we have seen dominate as defending guards the past decade or so. 

I am hoping we will be sitting around the 4 or 5 seed come March, Tatum will return from injury and come right back into action like he never left. We find our footing with Tatum back and make a run through the playoffs back to the Finals as Tatum and Brown look for their second ring.