Headlines
Pagliuca: Celtics Willing to Enter Luxury Tax to Win
![Steve_Pagliuca_Celtics_Owner_2017_AP](https://www.basketballinsiders.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Steve_Pagliuca_Celtics_Owner_2017_AP.jpg.webp)
Steve Pagliuca says the NBA is going “back to the future” where the salary cap is concerned.
This summer’s salary cap adjustment, which lowered the number to $99.093 million for the 2017-18 season, and set the luxury tax level at $119.266 million, took an especially draconian hit on the Celtics.
That tightened cap number is the reason Avery Bradley was introduced as a member of the Detroit Pistons last Thursday, thus giving the Celtics room to account for Gordon Hayward’s four-year, $128 million contract.
But the Celtics are likely on the brink of a true throwback, to the days when Celtics ownership happily paid luxury taxes throughout the era of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
Pagliuca isn’t sure the team will re-enter tax-land next summer, but if exceeding the tax line means once again having an annual chance of reaching the NBA Finals, then the co-owner says so be it.
“I don’t know if it’s inevitable, but if we feel it’s going to help us win a championship, then we will,” he said. “We have a history of doing what we need to do to win.
Source: Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald