The Celtics roster remains fully intact on Monday according to a league source, indicating the team has elected to let four contracts become fully guaranteed for the season.
Boston could have waived any of Dalano Banton, Luke Kornet, Svi Mykhailiuk or Lamar Stevens before Sunday evening if they wanted to avoid fully guaranteeing any of their contracts for the season before Tuesday’s NBA season guarantee deadline. However, Brad Stevens and Boston’s front office elected to retain the quartet of players for now, a decision he hinted at last week in a press conference.
“I’ve been really pleased with all those guys,” Stevens said Thursday in response to a question from MassLive. “I don’t want to say what we do or don’t do. I don’t ever want to speak in absolutes but I’ve been really impressed with all those guys. They’ve all come in and done well for us.”
Kornet will see his contract guarantee for $2.4 million while Mykhailiuk, Stevens and Banton will all earn just over $2 million for the season. All those players have been reliable contributors for Boston so far with teammates and coaches speaking highly of all of them. Amid a busy January schedule, they all provide solid depth as well when injuries hit. Boston currently has an open roster on the 15-man roster along with three two-way players under contract. Those deals have become guaranteed as well for Neemias Queta, JD Davison and Drew Peterson.
Boston’s decision to retain all their talent past the guarantee talent stands in contrast to last year. Last January, Boston dealt away Noah Vonleh along with cash to the San Antonio Spurs for a protected second-round pick. The move opened up a roster spot and produced millions in savings for luxury tax penalties by getting Vonleh’s deal off the books.
Boston’s willingness to retain all of these non-guaranteed deals this year is a strong sign that team ownership is willing to add onto their luxury tax bill in the coming weeks as the trade deadline approaches. While some names that were guaranteed are no-brainers (Kornet is a rotation contributor, Banton is under team control for next season), Stevens and Mykhailiuk have been depth players who have been sporadically used when the Celtics are healthy.
The fact their contracts are guaranteed now does not mean they will finish their seasons in Boston though a source tells MassLive. The Celtics could still elect to package several minimum salaries and another player(s) to make a deal for a player who would not fit into the $6.2 million Grant Williams trade exception. Stevens and Mykhailiuk’s salaries could be valuable tools on that front whereas waiving them this weekend would have made salary matching in that type of deal even tougher for Stevens.
Ultimately, multiple league sources have indicated to MassLive that the Celtics are strongly expected to make some kind of move ahead of the trade deadline. Keeping the team’s roster fully intact now past the guarantee deadline keeps more potential opportunities open for getting a deal done to bolster the back end of the roster.
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