With two franchise centerpieces like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics had been fighting off the inevitable price of keeping their core together for years. The second apron made that bill even harder to stomach. What had once been primarily a luxury-tax problem quickly became a roster-building one, restricting Boston’s ability to keep elite talent around its stars while maintaining a complete rotation.
The squeeze happened quickly as when Boston won the title, Tatum and Brown combined to account for less than half of the NBA salary cap. One year later, that number had climbed to 60%. By the start of 2025-26, nearly 70% of the cap was tied to two players:
