The Celtics carry a payroll of $203.9M against a luxury tax line of $200.4M, with the roster's five largest contracts belonging to Jayson Tatum, Paul George, Derrick White, Mitchell Robinson and Sam Hauser. Next season brings its own math: Paul George can opt into $56.6M, and Neemias Queta's salary jumps to $12.5M.
The payroll sits above the tax line but below the first apron.
Boston's $203.9M in salary clears the $200.4M luxury tax line and stays under the $209.0M first apron, with the $221.7M second apron further off still. The team carries seventeen contracts against a salary cap of $165.0M, a number the payroll passed long ago. Trimming the group did not change that math: Max Shulga left the roster on September 21, a departure that touched the depth chart and not the sheet.
A handful of contracts carry the weight.
Tatum's $58.5M and George's $54.1M lead the sheet, with White at $30.3M, Robinson at $15.0M and Hauser at $10.8M behind them. Payton Pritchard, the next name down, is signed for $7.8M. Mike Conley, the newest of the group, checks in near the bottom of that list, and everyone else on the seventeen-man roster is paid $3.2M or less.
Next season raises the stakes before it lowers the bill.
George's deal carries a $56.6M player option for 2027-28, a decision that will shape the books before free agency does. Queta's salary rises from $2.7M to $12.5M that same year, and Jordan Walsh's $2.4M team option for this season is the one clean off-ramp on the current sheet.
The draft capital still runs mostly in Boston's favor.
The Celtics own their 2027 and 2030 first-round picks outright, hold swap rights in 2027 and 2029, and carry a protected 2028 first. The debts sit on the second-round ledger: picks owed to San Antonio in 2028, Oklahoma City in 2029 and Brooklyn in 2030. Owned still outweighs owed.
Are the Celtics over the luxury tax?
Yes. Boston's $203.9M payroll is above the $200.4M luxury tax line, though it remains under the $209.0M first apron.
What happens to Paul George's contract in 2027-28?
George holds a $56.6M player option for that season, the decision point that will shape Boston's books beyond this year.
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