The sales force of the Celtics supermarket is amazing. Is Holiday + Pozin s departure just the beginning?

Celtic players supermarket will open sooner or later. This point has basically become a consensus among everyone after the Celtics were eliminated in this year's Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

But even though there was a consensus, the people who were obsessed with the urgent desire of the Celtics' senior management transactions. Unexpectedly, the day before the draft, the Celtics had quickly completed two major operations, sending away the two generals Holiday and Porzingis one after another.

Ironically, about two years ago, when Pozin and Holiday first arrived in Boston, they were still wearing halos.

Porzingis' unicorn traits, his outstanding size and basket protection ability were once regarded as the most scarce resource of the Celtics; as the champion defender, Holiday was considered the last perfect puzzle of the Celtics' championship lineup. Later, the two did go through a honeymoon period in the Celtics and helped the team reach the peak of honor last year.

However, one time and another, just two years later, Pozin and Holiday have become tragic characters like "abandoned shoes". The Celtics ruthlessly pressed the transaction button without even any concealment and sent away the two champions.

Of course, there are many reasons for such an unpleasant thing to happen.

First of all, the actual combat status of the two players did have big problems...

Last season, Holiday played in 62 regular season games, but averaged only 11.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. His scoring and assist indicators dropped to a new low since his rookie season. In addition, as a defensive vanguard, his influence on the defensive end has also declined significantly.

More importantly, Derek White and Prichard's continued advancement further compressed the living space of Holiday's in the Celtics system. As a 35-year-old veteran, Holiday's contract has 100 million yuan in 3 years, so the salary pressure he brought to the Celtics can be imagined.

Porzingis's situation is even worse. In the regular season, he averaged 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, and he was barely qualified in output, but in terms of attendance, he only played 42 games, and the sick girl's physique has attracted some dissatisfaction. Entering the playoffs, Pozin was gradually marginalized in the rotation. He averaged only 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. In the second round of the Knicks, his average playing time even dropped to an ultra-low level of 15.5 minutes, completely losing the trust of the coaching staff.

There is another cruel fact that last season, the Celtics paid an astonishing operating price to achieve their defending goals. After the whole season, their total salary expenditure of the players alone reached 193 million US dollars, and they also paid a luxury tax of $53 million.

In addition, after the end of last season, the Celtics have become a luxury tax team for three consecutive years, which also means that starting from next season, if their salary exceeds the standard again, they will not only have to pay the conventional luxury tax, but also face more stringent "repeated luxury tax" punishment according to the provisions of the labor-management agreement.

In other words, even if the Celtics can defend their title this season, their championship lineup is likely to not be retained. What's more, they fell in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and the team's double-core Tatum and Jaylen Brown also underwent surgery one after another. The superposition of various things has also accelerated the pace of tax reduction in the Celtics transactions.

And Porzingis and Holiday had no foundation in the Celtics and were positioned as a mercenary type. In addition, their combat power was reduced, so these naturally became the "legal" motivation for the Celtics to clear their contracts.

Preliminary forecast that after the two deals are completed, the Celtics' total salary next season has been retracted to a level of $4.5 million below the second rich line. After the operation, the Celtics will save at least US$210 million in luxury tax expenditure next season.

But some people can't help but want to ask, will the operational momentum of the Celtics stop after the initial results of salary reduction?

The answer is obviously not like this.

After experiencing such a heavy blow last season, the Celtics' senior management suddenly became extremely sober and cold-blooded. They have realized that when Tatum cannot return from injury for a short time, the team (at least) has basically lost its competitiveness next season. They have temporarily bid farewell to the championship group. Therefore, compared to being a good man and barely maintaining the existing lineup, it is a more pragmatic approach to undergo a major blood exchange and reconstruction of the roster.

With previous news from the outside world, the operation of the Celtics is likely to continue. The departure of Holiday and Porzingis may be just foreplay. Next, Prichard and Hauser on the bench, and even the most core members of the lineup - Derek White and Jaylen Brown, are also in the plan sold by the Celtics.

As for Anthony Simmons and Nion, who the Celtics just received in the trade, they may not be able to stay in Boston for a long time, and they may also become victims of this wave of huge changes.

It is very likely that the ultimate goal of the new Celtics boss is to completely reduce the team's total salary to below the luxury tax line before the start of next season, and completely bid farewell to the burden of taxes. In order to achieve this goal, the fate of the individual players and the team's performance next season are no longer what he really cares about...