The Boston Celtics are down to 14 guaranteed contracts, following the plan I laid out last week of waiving Jabari Parker’s non-guaranteed deal and leaving a roster spot open.
“Looking at our roster overall (we) wanted to have some flexibility there,” Ime Udoka said Monday afternoon. “Taking a look around the league in general, like some of the things Jabari brought, and still looking at the last roster spot to see what opens up with other releases in the league.”
It would be a bit of a surprise if the Celtics filled that spot now. Waiving Parker saved them more than $2 million in salary but even more in taxes at the moment. The team is still about $4.6 million over the tax line, and may look to shed more salary as the season goes on.
For example, if Juancho Hernangomez doesn’t pan out, the Celtics could try to salary dump him and his nearly $6.2 million. It’s possible they would need that open roster spot to take back an extra player somehow, so filling the spot now with a guaranteed deal would defeat the purpose.
The Celtics do not have to get under the tax line before the season starts, so they can play this out if they’d like. They’ve filled their two-way spot with Brodric Thomas, a former Division II player who spent time with the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers organizations over the past two seasons.
“My mom is actually a Celtics fan too,” Thomas said. “It's kind of weird, I grew up a Houston fan, because of Tracy McGrady. And then my dad actually grew up as a Cleveland fan, and it's kind of weird when you look back on it, those are the three teams I kind of bounced from. So I don’t know if it’s fate or whatever, but I'm just enjoying the journey.”
Thomas didn’t play much at the NBA level, but the 6-foot-5 guard shot 41.3% in 14 G league games, so the Celtics are clearly hoping to find a diamond-in-the-rough shooter in him.
“A guy that we feel has some upside and potential coming from a smaller school,” Udoka said. “We like his grind, we like his story. ... Had a good workout yesterday, but someone we’ll keep an eye on for the future.”
The Cavaliers waived Thomas last week.
“As soon as I got waived, I talked to my agent and they contacted me and was interested two days ago,” Thomas said. “It's been a rapid change and a quick short amount of time, but I'm embracing it. As a young player, trying to find my way, that's how this league goes. I'm excited and I'm ready to embrace that."
Operating on the fringes of the league can be difficult for a young player, and that can have an impact on how he plays. For Thomas, the key is to focus on the task at hand rather than dwelling on the past.
“It takes a lot of mental strength,” he said. “And when adversity comes up, you can't just shut down, you can't self doubt, because there's gonna be opportunities, and you got to stay ready for that. And just like this opportunity, I stayed ready, I didn't hang my head, I knew that there's gonna be other opportunities. So it's just making sure that you have that high head on your shoulders and making sure that your mental toughness is strong.”
STILL NO JAYLEN BROWN, AL HORFORD
Both players are in health and safety protocols after contracting COVID-19. Brown is first in line to come back, and may still be cleared in time to face the New York Knicks Wednesday night.
The question is whether Udoka is comfortable enough throwing Brown out there having not practiced for 10 days or so.
“That’s a discussion we’re going to have,” Udoka said. “We like to get somebody reps obviously instead of throwing them into a game after being out all that time, so something we traditionally do not do, but something we’ll have a discussion about and see where we go.”
The Celtics and Knicks enter the season battling in the middle of the eastern pack, according to most experts. Both teams are believed to be in that fourth, fifth, or sixth seed mix. Opening night games don’t usually carry much importance but any head-to-head matchup between the teams in that mix (the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls might also figure into this) could swing a tiebreaker.
“They’re playing with tremendous pace,” Udoka said of the Knicks. “That’s a league-wide thing, but the Knicks are really getting up and down, pushing it with their guards, hunting threes in transition and playing fast.”
Defending those transition 3-pointers is a point of emphasis for Boston, so on top of dealing with a Tom Thibodeau defense, the weakest part of the Celtics defense will be targeted on Wednesday night.
“There’s some time to adjust in preseason,” Udoka said. “The Knicks will be a good test on opening night with that.”
NESMITH HOPING FOR MORE
Aaron Nesmith followed up a nice summer league with a similarly impressive preseason, which puts him in line to possibly play some rotation minutes.
“(I want) to carve out a very good role for myself,” he said after practice. “Therefore every single game I know when I’m getting in or where my shots are going to be from, how I can help the team.”
Nesmith’s preseason minutes have been productive, but we aren’t privy to the practice performances, which means we are working off of half the information. The coaches are the ones with the full story.
“We like to see what translates from practice to games. You can tell a lot and learn a lot in those situations,” Udoka said. “Their confidence, comfort, aggression level - we look at all those things, and what fits with certain lineups. We didn’t get a chance to see all of that because of certain guys missing, but you can tell from practice to games who has carried over and who is improving in certain areas.”
Nesmith is hoping to have improved enough where he now gets the full NBA experience.
“Definitely very excited,” he said. “This opportunity to be able to play in the Garden in game one, hopefully it's a packed out crowd. Last year, I didn't get to see that, so I'm looking forward to just traveling to all the different cities and playing in full arenas for the first time.”
RECORD-SETTING PRACTICE
Nesmith broke one of Jayson Tatum’s practice shooting records on Monday.
In this particular contest, the players shoot until they miss two in a row. Nesmith made 244 3-pointers before bowing out.
244.
Yeesh. Get some ice on that shoulder and elbow.