Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens on Monday held his end-of-season press conference at the Auerbach Center. He discussed everything from the health of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to what figures to be a busy offseason. Here are the key takeaways:
⋅ The Celtics brought back their entire championship core after last season, which meant that the summer was generally quiet. That is not expected to be the case this time. They would need to shed about $20 million in salary to dip below the second apron and avoid various team-building restrictions, such as having their 2033 first-round draft pick frozen.
Also, Tatum’s ruptured Achilles’ tendon that could cause him to miss next season could reset expectations, and perhaps the team’s upcoming approach. But Stevens offered few hints about the team’s direction, partly because he needs more clarity.
The ownership group led by Bill Chisholm will soon take over a majority stake, and although lead governor Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain in that post through the 2027-28 season, there will be more voices in the room.
“I’ll talk probably more about [roster building] at the draft time when we have a better idea after meeting with all the key stakeholders and everybody else about what next steps might be,” Stevens said before taking questions. “At the end of the day, I think that will all be driven by the same thing that’s always driven us, and that is how do we get ourselves in the mix to compete for championships best?”
Stevens went on to mostly deflect questions about the predicament, but he acknowledged that it was unusual having 12 players under contract while staring at stiff restrictions.
“The reality is that we have a lot of good players,” he said. “We’re in a unique situation. They’re all under contract, and obviously there are several basketball penalties that come with that amount of salary. So, we just have to weigh it all and make those decisions.”
⋅ A league source said this weekend that Brown has been playing through a partial tear in the meniscus in his right knee. The Celtics had previously characterized the injury as a bone bruise.
Stevens said that the Celtics had known about Brown’s injury for “a long time” and that doctors determined he was not putting himself at risk by continuing to play.
“The knee is in a good place structurally, and so I think he felt comfortable getting out there and going after it,” Stevens said.
Stevens intimated that Brown intends to see how his knee responds to a few weeks of rest before considering a surgery, adding the team was encouraged by his play in recent weeks.
“I thought it got better and better and better, and I think he actually felt better, or at least he told me he felt better, at the end of the Knicks series,” Stevens said.
⋅ When Tatum suffered his Achilles’ injury on May 12, Stevens was there to help guide him to the locker room. He stayed with the Celtics star for his surgery in New York the next morning, too. He said that just missing the final two games of the conference semifinals was “grueling” for Tatum, not to mention the long road ahead.
But Stevens said the series of events that followed the crushing moment on the Madison Square Garden floor at least provided hope. The Celtics happened to be just 3 miles from the Hospital for Special Surgery, where the renowned Dr. Martin O’Malley was able to operate on Tatum early Tuesday morning.
“He was out of the MRI and consultation and done with surgery by the time we had an injury report the next day, because there was real benefit to doing it early,” Stevens said. “So as tough as that injury is and as tough as that was that night, just an amazing set of circumstances, and an amazing thank you from our organization to Dr. O’Malley, the nurses at HSS, and everybody there, the hotel that we were staying in and the accommodations they made Jayson feel comfortable in. I thought it was about as good of a transition in about as bleak of a feeling as you could have.”
⋅ Stevens is a coach at his core, and he offered a frank assessment about why his team lost to the Knicks despite entering the series as a massive favorite.
“Listen, the reality is we blew the first two games, right?” Stevens said. “That’s why we put ourselves in a tough spot. I realize, and we all realize, these leads go fast, these games go fast, but we had our opportunities. Yes, you can win when you’re down, 2-0, but you’ve just diminished your margin for error.”
The Celtics coughed up 20-point second-half leads in both games, as well as a 14-point second-half lead in Game 4.
“New York gained what I thought was not only confidence but momentum,” Stevens said. “They are peaking. You can see it … Credit to New York for the way they played and the way they came back in those two games specifically.”
⋅ During the conference semifinals, Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis was walloped by fatigue related to his March respiratory illness. Stevens said all indications were that it was a “post-viral syndrome” and not a more concerning issue.
Stevens said Porzingis felt “so good” at the start of the Knicks series, but his condition clearly deteriorated.
“In the middle of a playoff series where you play every other day, it’s not an ideal situation in terms of feeling better, especially with the travel and everything else and the amount of physical force these guys put on their bodies,” Stevens said. “Our expectation is that it’ll probably be the next couple weeks will do him good to be off.”
Stevens said that Porzingis intends to play for Latvia at EuroBasket in late August.
⋅ The Celtics hold the 28th and 32nd picks in next month’s draft. Although Stevens said discussions with the new ownership group will help determine the team’s direction, he expects draft prep to generally push forward as usual. The Celtics even held two draft workouts on Monday.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.