The Celtics have picked up their 2019/20 team options on three players, according to an official announcement from the club (Twitter link). Jaylen Brown‘s fourth-year option has been exercised, as have the third-year options for Jayson Tatum and Guerschon Yabusele.
The decisions on Tatum and Brown come as no surprise. Tatum has looked like a rising star since being selected third overall in the 2017 draft, and the decision to lock in his $7,830,000 cap hit for 2019/20 was a no-brainer. Brown hasn’t flashed the same sort of star potential as his fellow No. 3 overall pick, but the starting shooting guard continues to improve on both ends of the court, and guaranteeing his $6,534,829 cap charge for next season was also an easy call for the Celtics.
Boston’s decision on Yabusele is a little more surprising. The former 16th overall pick has played in just 38 games for the Celtics since joining the team last season, and hasn’t made an impact, with 2.2 PPG and 1.5 RPG in 6.7 minutes per contest.
Al Horford, Aron Baynes, Robert Williams, Daniel Theis, and Semi Ojeleye are all in Boston’s frontcourt mix, and the team sometimes plays Tatum or Gordon Hayward at the four, leaving few opportunities for Yabusele. Nonetheless, the Celtics apparently still value him highly enough to lock in his $3,117,240 cap hit for 2019/20. The C’s will end up paying a higher price to retain Yabusele if they’re well over the tax line next season, as is expected.
All of the rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20 can be tracked right here.
I’ve seen Yabusele play a lot of minutes in the G League and he definitely has enough of a skill set to be a good rotation player. He is still only 22 years old. His problem is he needs minutes to develop and he won’t get them in Boston.
He needs to get in shape
At the very least, he’s probably a decent trade chip…probably figured controlling him is more valuable than the tax savings.
I’m not surprised on GY either. Rare to give up on a guy after 1 season, particularly one picked in the middle of the 1st round. His salary is only about twice the minimum wage, so assuming they were going to fill out the roster anyway, this won’t result in much incremental tax. Whereas, if there’s an injury to a rotation player and he plays and plays above that salary level, they would lose him. The 4th year option is a more difficult decision if nothing changes.
picking up yabs was a no brainer- danny can’t sit on his hands very long.. especially 3/1 trades.