According to Shams Charania of ESPN, the Boston Celtics have signed Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley Jr. in free agency.
Robinson signed a three-year, $47.4 million deal with Boston. It will almost certainly take up the Celtics' entire non-taxpayer MLE. He got a player option in the third year.
Meanwhile, no contract details were reported with Conley's one-year signing, so it is presumably a minimum contract.
Last year, Robinson was an integral part of the New York Knicks' NBA Championship run. They managed his health issues throughout the year, prioritizing his long-term availability.
The 7-footer appeared in 60 games for the Knicks last year, playing 19.6 minutes per contest. He averaged 5.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks while shooting 72.3% from the field.
As for Conley, he played in 54 games for the Minnesota Timberwolves last year (18.4 minutes per game). He averaged 4.5 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists while shooting 33.5% from the field and 33.7% from deep range on 3.1 3-pointers per contest.
BSJ Analysis
Robinson is as good as it was going to get in free agency for the Celtics. They didn't have the space to make any signings larger than the roughly $15 million MLE, and they needed big-man depth to play alongside Neemias Queta and Luka Garza.
Enter Robinson.
Obviously, he's not the type of player who is going to play heavy minutes, but the Celtics don't necessarily need that. Queta will almost certainly still be Boston's starting center. The Celtics are clearly confident in his ability to continue to grow into that role and improve. However, in last year's playoffs, Queta got in foul trouble. So did Garza. Nikola Vucevic really couldn't stay on the floor. The Celtics were left with some serious question marks at the center position.
Adding Robinson gives them another body. Another player to soak up playoff minutes. And Robinson's offensive rebounding is