Windhorst cools Celtics-Giannis talk, questions Boston’s big-man depth and offseason plan

A long-running Celtics storyline about a possible pursuit of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo picked up a note of caution on Tuesday. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, speaking with Bobby Manning of CLNS Media and CelticsBlog, said he has not heard that Boston is on Giannis’s list of preferred destinations, and that he has not heard that Antetokounmpo is prepared to sign an extension in Boston. In Windhorst’s framing, the idea of a Celtics bid becomes less actionable if the player’s long-term commitment is not clearly in place.

Windhorst’s comments do not directly confirm what the Celtics will or will not do in the trade market, but they challenge the premise that Boston is the most realistic endpoint for the two-time MVP. When the conversation touched the relationship between Giannis and Jaylen Brown, Windhorst suggested that, if the extension question is unresolved, the Brown variable becomes “moot,” at least from a likelihood standpoint. For a franchise already calibrated for postseason contention, the difference between “interest” and “a plan that can hold up” is significant.

The discussion also returned to a more practical Celtics concern: interior depth. Windhorst said that “everybody would agree” Boston needs more big-man depth, and posed a pointed question about what the Celtics view as the ceiling of their current center situation. He asked whether people believe Jhoan Queta is truly ready to operate as a franchise center, and whether Boston can match up in a playoff environment where elite centers set the standard. In his comments, the benchmark names were Karl-Anthony Towns and Victor Wembanyama, a comparison that underscored the size and skill gap Boston’s coaching staff must solve if it wants to keep its ceiling high.

That matters in the current Eastern Conference landscape, where roster matchups can determine how teams score, defend, and manage foul trouble. Windhorst also suggested Boston is not far from the next level, saying he thought the Celtics would win the East this season and that they were “not that far.” At the same time, his emphasis on depth suggests that the Celtics’ margin for error is smaller than it appears on a surface-level timeline, especially in series where matchups are tightened and playing time gets compressed.

On the procedural side of the offseason, Windhorst pointed to financial and roster-building tools the Celtics can use. He referenced the Celtics receiving a $27 million trade exception tied to a February deal involving Anfernee Simons for Nikola Vucevic, describing the exception as a meaningful asset for a team operating in the apron era. The basic league-wide reality, in his view, is that other teams will try to shift money, and Boston has the resources, including first-round pick control, to add one or two players through that mechanism.

There is a caveat to all of this: offseason plans inside the NBA can move quickly, and public statements from prominent insiders are not the same as definitive reports from Milwaukee’s front office or Antetokounmpo’s camp. Windhorst’s comments appear to address what he personally has not heard, which can be read as a confidence downgrade rather than proof that no path exists. Even so, his remarks help clarify how Boston’s most urgent work may be structured, with depth and fit treated as necessary regardless of whether the Giannis conversation cools down.