The Celtics' 2023-24 title came on the 5th-highest payroll of 30; their 2021-22 Finals run came on the 16th-highest
In 2011-12 the Boston Celtics carried an Effective Payroll of $87.2M, the second-highest of 30, and reached the conference finals.
The wins sat lower than the bill that year: 39, the 10th-most in the league.
By 2013-14 the payroll had dropped to the 19th-highest, and the team won 25 games, the 26th-most. It is the one spring in the record without the playoffs.
Then the wins began to outrun the bill. In 2016-17 Boston spent the 20th-highest payroll and won 53 games, the fourth-most, and that roster reached the conference finals.
In 2017-18 the Celtics won 55 on the 15th-highest payroll and went back to the conference finals.
In 2019-20 Boston paid the 24th-highest bill, won the fifth-most games and played in a third conference final in four years.
In 2021-22 a payroll in the middle of the league, the 16th-highest, carried the Celtics to the NBA Finals.
The bill changed after that run. In 2022-23 Boston's Effective Payroll reached $246M, with $70.0M of luxury tax inside it.
That roster won 57 games, the second-most, and lost in the conference finals.
The taxed payroll came before the title. In 2023-24 Boston paid the fifth-highest bill, won 64 games, the most in the league, and won the championship.
In 2024-25 the payroll stood at $246M, the third-highest, and the 61 wins ended in a conference semifinal.
In 2025-26 the Effective Payroll came down to $190M, the ninth-highest of 30.
The team still won 56 games, the fourth-most, and that return earned a WAGE Score of 79, in the Smart Money tier.
Two contracts shaped that bill. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the two highest salaries, took 57% of the 2025-26 payroll and produced 15% of the roster's production, so the rest of the roster supplied the larger share of it.
That roster lost in the first round, on a bill below each of the three before it, and its WAGE Run closed at 81.