4:25pm: The Celtics have officially announced that Bentil was waived.
12:44pm: Bentil will look to join another NBA team and isn’t expected to play for the Celtics’ D-League affiliate, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.
12:24pm: The Celtics have become the second team to cut a player they drafted this past June, having released rookie forward Ben Bentil, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Bentil was the 51st overall pick in the 2016 draft.
Bentil, 21, averaged 21.1 PPG and 7.7 RPG at Providence last season, and signed a three-year contract with the Celtics after being selected with one of the team’s six draft picks. While his deal wasn’t fully guaranteed, he did get a strong partial guarantee of $250K, so Boston would presumably love to see him clear waivers and make it to the team’s D-League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. However, as Charania observes, Bentil could be claimed or signed by another team, since the C’s no longer hold his NBA rights.
With 16 players on fully guaranteed deals for 2016/17, the Celtics had an overcrowded preseason roster of players capable of opening the season on an NBA team. Even after cutting Bentil, the team will have to remove one player from its roster — James Young and R.J. Hunter are viewed as the most likely candidates to be cut. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link), Boston has made both players available via trade, seeking a second-round pick in return.
The Jazz were the first team to waive a 2016 draftee, cutting 55th overall pick Marcus Paige from their roster last week.
They should have kept him Over a guy like R.J Hunter
SORRY ABOUT THE SPELLING. I WAS IN A RUSH. LOL!!! THE MISPELLED WORDS WERE AS FOLLOWS: MY BROTHER WORKED IN THE NBA. I SAW HIM/AINGE AT MSG. I MEANT!!! HOW COULD HE NOT PICK BUDDY HEILD HE’S GONNA BE ROOKI OF THE YEAR. WHEN I SAID D. GUARDS ( THAT’S SLANG FOR) DEFENSIVE GUARDS WHO CANT SHOOT. AND AT THE BOTTOM I SAID DANNY AINGE’S MISSED FOUL SHOTS SET UP THE LAKERS FOR THE MAGIC HOOK SHOT!!!
I’ve have been around the nba for a long time and grew up a boston fan.imy brother worked in the league for 5 yrs and worked at espn for 2. I have met danny ainge and i can tell u he’s not a smart guy. and he was an overrated player as well. the celts would have done better without him as a player. the same holds true for him as a gm. people forget he almost got fired just before he lucked out and got garnett . it saved his job. for a while he just rode the train until those guys got to old. after they won it in 08 he let james posey go and replaced him with mcydess. and I swa him at msg and tyold him not to do it. he did it anyway. bad move. we never recovered then kg got hurt. he did nothing to help them then he let allen go for rondo forgetting he was not part of the big 3. and I knew long before anyone else rondo sucked then he trades kg and paul pierce for all these picks which looks good at first. except for the fact. that danny the dummy don’t know talent and has blown almost every great pick the nets gave him. smart is terrible. james young rots. rozier is imcomplete. and olinyick is ok!!! but this year he really blew it. how could u not pich buddy heild instead of jaylen brown??? heild is going to be the rokkie of the year. he lead his eam to the final 4. 24.4 a game 4 year grad and can shoot the lights out. which is something boston needs a good shooting guard. we have enough D. guards that cant shoot. in truth we need to get rid of some of them. we only need 1 of them. D GUARDS ARE OVERRATED. ANYWAY. WHEN WE WON OUR TITLES IN THE PAST IT WASNT BECAUSE OF OUR D. GUARDS. IT WAS BECAUSE WE PUT THE BALL IN THE BASKET ALOT!!! ainge should know he couldn’t play D. all he did was shoot and often choke in big moments!!! HE WAS THE REASON MAGIC MADE THAT HOOK ON US HE COULD HAVE ICED THE GAME AT THE FOUL LINE. BUT MISSED HIS SHOTS. THAT STE UP THE LAKERS FOR THAT HOOK SHOT. PEOPLE FORGET THAT BUT I DIDNT!!! AINGE NEEDS TO GO. HEY DANNY GO BECOME THE GM FOR THE BLUE JAYS!!! U SHOULD HAVE STUCK TO BASEBALL BOSTON WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF.
Robert…What happened, Danny wouldn’t give you his autograph?
I can’t tell if this is satire or if you’re a complete and utter moron.
AND IT WAS A MISTAKE TO CUT BENTIL HE CAN SHOOT. AND WE NEED SCORERS!!! DANNY THE DUMMY STRIKES AGAIN!!!
The big mistake was signing Jackson to a 4 year contract. Jackson is a 6’1″ shooting guard in a point guard’s body. He has poor handles, lacks great speed and turns his back on the team when pressured. He cannot finish at the rim either. His passing is deplorable too.
They should have waived Hunter or waived Gerald Green
I’d have let Zeller and Olynyk go. Never thought either one was worth a contract. Reminds of the Red Sox during The Yawkey Regime – lotsa dumb moves – like amateurs playing cards against rounders showing their tells. If The Nets claim Big Ben we’ll be the laughing stock of the NBA.
I agree with Robert 150% Keeping two stiffs like Zeller and Olynyk and letting a future perennial All Star which is what Ben Bentil will be – remember this year is the fourth year Ben’s been playing Basketball – name me ANYONE who’s been drafted with four years’ experience in any other professional sport. That is correct – there are NONE, zilch unless you consider Jim Thorpe playing Baseball with the NY Giants. Danny Ainge just had his Harry Frazee moment. I wanted Danny’s head when he broke up The Band of Brothers after Marquis went down but now I’m simply disgusted that we traded away someone with unlimited potential and kept two stiffs who rarely show up during the fourth quarter and have never made a meaningful contribution that I recall in the years they’ve been in Boston. Danny Ainge just consigned The Celtics as “the team that released Ben Bentil.” Nice one dumbass.
There are so many people in professional sports who have been drafted with less than four years of experience that you can’t even count them.
Most of these kids don’t begin in their Senior year of high school.
Looks like Chicago is the destination.
Maybe the real question is should Danny be shown the door before he screws
anything else up and can Brad Stevens do both jobs because I for one think he’s got the smarts. OurGeneral Manager seems to be more of an inpediment than anything else. Marcus goes down against the Knicks – so he waives Bentil and brings in an at best journeyman. SHREWD. AND…what’s he gonna pay this new face I ask? Not 250K.
Now ask yourself this can any of these last guys he’s kept have the upside of a Ben Bentil? This was a typical Danny Ainge BLUNDER.
Why weren’t teams breaking down Danny’s door to trade for the great Ben Bentil? They apparently couldn’t even get a second round draft choice for him.
This really doesn’t make much sense. This team is still several steps away from competing and should be committing roster spots to players with some upside like Bentil. The fact that they are waiving him over a guy like Zeller is mind boggling considering Zeller brings less to the table offensively then Kelly Olynyk and offers about the same amount of defense (which is very little). That being said…….
Half of these goons in the comment section dissing Danny Ainge sound like your typical old senile arm chair coach Boston fans, who swear that just because “I SAW BEN BENTIL PLAY AT PROVIDENCE MARK MY WORDS THE BOYS GONNA BE A STAAAAAAA”. They also seem to have some weird infatuation with 4th year seniors as if that wasn’t generally more of a negative then a positive when rating prospects. Ainge has made 2 massive coup-d’etats during his time as a GM, and Jaylen Brown has impressed in summer league and pre season. The only problem I am foreseeing is he may be buying into to a team that simply isn’t there yet. But you really can’t make that determination based on cutting a back end benchwarmer (well really a guy who would be sitting in DLeague)
Sixers have first claim, and they could use him, I expect.