JULY 19: The Celtics have officially signed Ojeleye, according to a press release from the team. Meanwhile, Jackson cleared waivers this week and his partial guarantee has been stretched across seven seasons by the Celtics, as we noted on Tuesday.
JULY 15: The Celtics are planning to sign second-round pick Semi Ojeleye to a four-year deal with the first two years guaranteed, a league source told Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe (Twitter link).
Meanwhile, point guard Demetrius Jackson has been waived and his guaranteed $650K will likely have his partially guaranteed salary stretched out if he’s not claimed, Himmelsbach adds in a separate tweet.
The four-year deal for Ojeleye is quite a commitment to the 37th overall pick in the draft. The 6’7” forward played two seasons at Duke before transferring to SMU. In his season with the Mustangs, he averaged 19 PPG and 6.9 RPG. He can play either forward spot but is mostly considered a stretch four. The club lost veteran power forwards Amir Johnson (Sixers) and Jonas Jerebko (Jazz) in free agency.
Jackson’s full salary of $1,384,750 for next season would have become guaranteed today if he had not been waived. The point guard appeared in just five games with Boston during his rookie year.
I just hope he gets a shot here and doesn’t wind up like Jordan Mickey. Either way, it’s a nice job by the Celtics to sign him.
Too bad in cutting Jackson, I thought he showed a lot of promise.
It’s frankly just crappy asset management
No, It’s frankly just “to many assets” to properly manage.
Only so much money and so few spots available on the Boston and Portland benches.
I think the point being they should have traded a lot of these 2nd rounders as draft picks. It’s hard to find 2nd round gems when you don’t even let them play.
Right but when you watch a guy like PJ Tucker get moved at the deadline for only 2nd rounders and the amount of cash some of these picks sell for, you just have to question why they haven’t traded up, moved someone for a rental, or sold anything. I mean signing Bentil to that contract and cutting him loose almost immediately after, cutting RJ after one year, it is just poor asset management they should be aware they have all these future picks it’s not like they jumped up and surprised them.
The RJ thing might just have been a bad draft pick. Not convinced he’s an NBA player
Yeah I know but it’s just terrible management to cut him after 1 yr
It was a solid decision, it’s not an NBA caliber player on an upper half team , they roll the dice and loss
But my point is they keep rolling the dice and losing, and still won’t move any of their lesser picks, which results in them throwing away a lot. If they hit on one of those guys and they turn into the next Draymond I guess it’s worth it but until then it’s just not a functional strategy, especially when the biggest weakness on this team might be depth, and a couple veteran rotation players for the minimum who are either rebounding, defending, or shooting specialists are exactly what they need, not a couple wild card 2nd rounders who will sit on the bench and can’t play for a couple years.
I disagreed Jackson is a twelfth man nothing better no loss
Jackson has some promise but the team decided to give Nadar an opportunity and Jackson was the odd man out
Nadar much better
The celtics defense is still going to be really good, even though they lost Bradley. They stole Olejeye at that spot, and I really like how he complements Tatum.
I wonder if they’ll sign Kadeem Allen to replace Jackson, or try to get Allen to stash in the D-League like they did with Nader last year. I would also be surprised if they still bring Yabusele over this year, at this point
So do you think they realize that they have backed them selves into a corner next there’s a chance they could have 2 picks in the the top 5 and there own pick how do you fit them on this team with all these 4yr deals so it looks like Smart will be gone no matter what or will it be IT4 I hope not
I wouldn’t call it being backed into a corner.. If they get 2 top five picks next year, they can either consolidate them by moving up depending on what the pics are, trade the pics for a star, or simply waive some of their 2nd rounders and pay the luxury tax on the 1st round salaries of they use those pics next year. They basically have many routes that they can take…many options.
Correct, it isn’t like their roster numbers are permanently set in stone. They will still be able to add whatever players they decide to draft next season. It will just take some maneuvering on their part to get their roster number down to the max, by the time rosters have to be finalized…
The Celtics are far from having their hands tied and being backed in a corner. You can NEVER have too many assets!! The only downside is that they will most likely have to make some difficult decisions when it comes to trimming down their roster. Some talented players will be traded away for future picks, or some players may be packaged together for one higher quality player…
Basically, their options are endless, and if anything, it is definitely a problem MORE TEAMS wish they had…
Well they did have too many assets… Bentil, RJ, Mickey, Jackson, etc. have all been unnecessary casualties that could’ve and should’ve been moved as picks because they were aware all of these extra picks existed and they should’ve known they were going to have to throw away a lot of these picks in quick succession.
I just don’t see how getting rid of Ben Bentil is a real issue for a playoff team. He is a G League tweener
Yeah but it’s just a waste. Like you know most of these guys won’t pan out why not package 2 and move up higher. Some rebuilding team will always jump on that. It was just how they signed him and camp when he wasn’t likely to make the cut to begin with and immediately cut him and lost him for nothing when they could’ve just kept his rights and stashed him
Yeah, rebuilding teams are dying to trade highly valued picks for a buffet of junky second round picks.
Well no, but like if Boston offered 40 and 44 for 36 something like that would actually make sense, unless there was a player that team at 36 was super set on. I made up those numbers, but the point is teams can use multiple second rounders to move up in the second round, or even just sell a pick. GSW has been buying a pick the last couple years, and other teams would do it as well. 2 million in cash is better than signing Bentil to a deal with guaranteed money and then cutting him before the end of training camp, right?
I wasn’t suggesting that Boston should throw a collection of crap at Phoenix to move into the top 5 or anything, but consolidating assets by moving up in the 2nd round or selling picks both make a lot more sense than drafting and cutting.
I’m of the mindset if Smart takes a huge leap and Thomas were to regress they’ll move Thomas. Otherwise they’ll move Smart or Rozier by the deadline. As for Semi I like him but with this team I have my reservations about guys actually getting the opportunity to develop. Mickey looked promising but never got time on the court. Same could be said for Jackson. Its hard to get excited for some these 2nd rd guys who look like theres some potential only to be buried on the bench. As much as I like Crowder and Rozier, I think those guys could have bigger roles on another team.Go ahead and flame me just my opinion.
The Celtics r so deep.
They r going to be a tough out this year. There 2 deep can all potentially start on almost every team but the Cavs in the east