Grousbeck pushes back against notion of Celtics' rebuild

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Are the Boston Celtics in the midst of a rebuild?

Not so fast, Celtics majority owner Wyc Grousbeck said on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show" Tuesday morning.

Rather, the team is going through what Grousbeck called a "pretty comprehensive reset."

"We're taking a very deliberate approach to try and get back all the way," Grousbeck said. "And if that's this year, or if this year builds towards that, we'll obviously have to see. Almost the entire team is in their early to mid 20s, and has a path ahead of it.

"Let's just leave it at that. It's going to be a building process, and we're really excited about it."

Celtics extend Josh Richardson beyond this season

After advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals three times between 2017 and 2020, the Celtics failed to win a playoff series last season for the first time since 2015-16. At 36-36 in an abbreviated 72-game schedule, Boston failed to finish with a winning record for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign.

But Grousbeck said he expects the Celtics to be "highly competitive" this year, pointing to the return of budding superstars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown -- the latter of whom missed the team's final seven regular season contests and entire postseason series against the Brooklyn Nets with a wrist injury.

"It doesn't feel like a rebuild when we had two young All-Stars last year, and still have them this year," Grousbeck said. "We have Marcus Smart and Robert Williams playing well. We extended them. It doesn't feel like a classic rebuild. It feels like, let's take a step forward."

Brown and Tatum are under team control through 2024 and 2025, respectively. Fresh contract extensions for Marcus Smart and Robert Williams have them tied to Boston through 2026.

Grousbeck is also pointed to the presence of new head coach Ime Udoka, an understudy of Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs, as reason for optimism.

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