The headline move is already priced into one number: a dollar figure, a traded wing, and a lead scorer who played sixteen games last season. None of the five below forecasts this season; each describes the one just finished, or the bet made since it ended.
The best lineup from last season no longer exists.
The five-man unit of Brown, White, Queta, Pritchard and Hauser posted a net rating of 17.9 across two hundred minutes last season, the strongest figure any Celtics group produced together. Brown is now a Sixer; Boston received George and four draft picks in return. The number proves those five fit once. It says nothing about what replaces them.
The tax bill reflects a bet, not a guarantee.
Payroll sits at $203.9 million, $3.5 million over the $200.4 million luxury tax line, with Tatum's $58.5 million and George's $54.1 million covering more than half of it. The number measures commitment, not availability: George played 37 games last season, and he is one of eight rotation regulars resting rather than injured before the game against Philadelphia.
Last season's record describes a team that no longer takes the floor.
Boston went 56-26 with the league's No. 2 offense and No. 4 defense, then lost a 3-1 series lead to the team that now employs Brown. The won-loss column is real. It just belongs to a roster with one fewer All-Star wing than the one being assembled now.
Tatum's per-game numbers rode on a sample too thin to trust whole.
He played 16 games last season, averaging 21.8 points and 10.0 rebounds. That rate came from a quarter of a season, not a full one. It says he was effective when healthy. It says nothing about the sixty-six games he was not.
Is Jaylen Brown still on the Celtics?
No. Boston traded Brown to the 76ers over the offseason, receiving Paul George and four draft picks in return.
How many games did Jayson Tatum play last season?
He played 16 games, averaging 21.8 points and 10.0 rebounds. The 2026-27 season has not started, so the record is 0-0.
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