Boston Celtics star Kristaps Porziņģis could miss the start of next season as he continues to recover from the leg injury that sidelined him in the 2024 NBA Finals.

"We're going to be different right out of the gate simply because we have guys like Kristaps after his surgery — we don't know exactly when he'll be back," president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said on The Ryen Russillo Podcast (via Matt Geagan of WBZ News). "But he'll probably miss at least the very start of the season," said Stevens. "That'll be a great opportunity for us to do things different and have to find different solutions and those types of things that come with it. And then we'll just evaluate our team like we always do."

Ahead of Game 3 in the Finals, the Celtics announced Porziņģis had suffered a "torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon" in his left leg. While most fans were unable to fully comprehend what that meant in medical terms, they did understand the seriousness of the situation when Boston described it as a "rare injury."

The 7'2" center missed his team's next two games before coming back for Game 5, and he was clearly limited by his leg injury in the Celtics' 106-88 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. In a little over 16 minutes on the court, he shot 2-of-4 from the field for five points.

Especially in light of Stevens' comments, it's a surprise Porziņģis came back at all.

The 28-year-old missing the 2024 Summer Olympics is one thing because they start next month. That would've been a quick turnaround time from the knee surgery he's due to undergo. Few probably would've thought his availability for the start of the 2024-25 NBA campaign was in jeopardy when he suited back up against Dallas.

The silver lining for the Celtics is they have plenty of time this offseason to plan for his absence.