No team hurt itself more this offseason than the Boston Celtics. Every other team screwed up in one lane: a goofy contract here, a summer spent sitting on its hands there. Boston somehow found both, at the exact moment it could least afford to.
Start with the report card. When NBC Sports handed out its 2026 free agency grades, the Lakers and 76ers each got an A. The Celtics got a headline saying they might need to retake the class. When your division and conference rivals bring home gold stars and you get a note sent home to your parents, that's a warning sign, not just an odd grade.
The context makes it sting more. Boston is coming off Jayson Tatum's ruptured Achilles, an injury he's been grinding back from since the tear during the 2025-26 season. He even made his return on the road, roughly four months later. This was supposed to be a bridge summer: keep the core together, add shooting, let your best player heal. Instead, reports through mid-July 2026 have Boston taking on Paul George's contract, the four-year, $212 million max deal he signed with Philadelphia back in 2024, as part of a deal that would send Jaylen Brown out the door.
In a year that called for patience, the reported plan was to swallow an aging max contract and give up a proven star wing. Pick your poison this offseason: a bad contract, a botched trade, or standing pat. Boston, apparently, ordered all three off the menu.
Compare that to the summer's other punchline. Milwaukee earned the "worst signing" crown: Sports Illustrated called the Gary Trent Jr. deal "bizarre" and put it atop its list of the offseason's worst contracts. That's embarrassing, but it's one line item. A single odd signing doesn't sink a season the way reshaping your roster around a max contract does while a rival stacks an A summer.
That's the real problem. In the NBA, hurting yourself isn't absolute, it's relative. You don't get worse in a vacuum, you get worse because the team next to you in the standings got better. The Lakers got an A. The Sixers got an A. The Celtics got told to come back next semester. Every individual Boston move might have its own defense, but the scoreboard that matters says your rivals went up while you went down.
Milwaukee made the funnier mistake. Boston made the costlier one. A weird contract you can bury on the bench. Betting against your own healing star while your rivals pass you by is the kind of mistake that echoes into spring.
Prove me wrong, Boston. As of mid-July, you haven't.
