Fantasy Basketball 2019: NBA Pickups to Watch After Feb. 20

Outgoing Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck said that neither he, nor incoming owner Bill Chisholm, will force changes to the team due to impending luxury tax bills. Grousbeck said it’s restrictions on roster building as a second apron team that fill force Boston to make changes.

“Let me put a pin in that balloon too,” Grousbeck said when asked about the challenges of staying in the luxury tax in an interview with WEEI in Boston. “It’s not the luxury tax bill, it’s the basketball penalties. The new CBA was designed by the league to stop teams from going crazy.”

Grousbeck said ultimately the restrictions will cause Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens to make changes to roster.

“The basketball penalties mean that it’s even more of a premium now to have your basketball general manager be brilliant and lucky,” Grousbeck said. “Because you have to navigate because you can’t stay in the second apron, nobody will, I predict, for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one is going to stay in the second apron more than two years.”

Despite all of that, Grousbeck expressed faith in Stevens and his staff to find ways to keep Boston in title contention.

“We have Brad Stevens, the reigning Executive of The Year, and thank god we do,” Grousbeck said. “He’s the one who really brought us this championship with his brilliant moves –along with many other people — but Brad is at the forefront. He’s looking at this and is going to extend our window and make it work. We’ll find out in June or July what we’re going to do.”

Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly joined Darren Wolfson for an interview from the Minnesota State Fair. Connelly touched on a wide range of topics, including Wolves center Rudy Gobert.

Gobert is eligible to sign a contract extension with Minnesota. Without getting into specifics, the Wolves front office leader said he hopes Gobert is with the team for years to come.

“We’d like Rudy to be here for a long time. We love his agent, he’s been a friend for a long time and is one of the best guys in the league. And certainly our goal with most of these guys is to keep them here as long as they want to be here,” Connelly said. “Ideally, I think continuity is going to be one of the better strengths we have going into the season and we really like our core group.”

During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Gobert was reportedly dealing with a finger injury. Connelly said that the veteran center is “good to go” with NBA training camp on the horizon.