Every offensive rating, lineup mark and payroll figure below comes from a team that already traded away the player who helped produce it. Reading these numbers as a preview of the 2026-27 Celtics requires ignoring that the roster generating them has changed players.
The offense and defense that finished top five last season belonged to a roster that no longer exists.
Boston's 120.0 offensive rating ranked second in the league last season, and its 111.7 defensive rating ranked fourth, a combination that trailed only a handful of teams. Jaylen Brown played a central role in producing those marks. He is now with the 76ers, dealt for Paul George, so the numbers describe a group that has since been broken up.
The best five-man unit from last season cannot take the floor again.
Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Neemias Queta, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser played 200 minutes across 35 games and outscored opponents by 17.9 points per hundred possessions, the top mark among Boston groups with real minutes. Brown's trade to Philadelphia means that exact five cannot reassemble. Whatever combination replaces it starts this season with zero minutes played.
The payroll figure limits what comes next more than it explains what came before.
Boston carries $201.4 million in salary, past the $200.4 million tax threshold and approaching the $209.0 million first apron. That number constrains in-season additions. It says nothing about whether Tatum, George and White will outperform what Tatum and Brown built before losing to Philadelphia.
A 56-26 record and a top-four scoring margin did not survive one series.
Boston's 8.3-point scoring margin per hundred possessions ranked fourth in the league last season, the foundation of that 56-26 record. Philadelphia erased a 3-1 series lead regardless, the outcome none of these figures anticipated. The 76ers then added Brown, the player central to producing them.
Has Jayson Tatum played for the Celtics this season?
No. The 2026-27 season has not started; Boston opens October 20 at Detroit, and Tatum's knee is targeted for an October 1 return in camp.
Is Paul George reflected in any of these numbers?
No. Every figure here is drawn from 2025-26, before Boston acquired George in the trade that sent Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia.
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