February 8: The agreement between the Celtics and Craig is official, per a team press release.
February 6: The Celtics have agreed to a deal with forward Torrey Craig, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
The eight-year NBA veteran was waived by the Bulls earlier this week in order to make room for the players they acquired in the deal that sent away Zach LaVine.
The Celtics had two open roster spots after trading away Jaden Springer at the deadline, meaning no corresponding move will be necessary to bring Craig aboard.
Earlier Thursday, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said acquiring a wing would be the first order of business for the Celtics regarding their open roster spots, according to MassLive’s Brian Robb (Twitter link).
Boston will address that need by adding a solid shooter in Craig, who has made 39.7% of 3.1 three-point attempts per game over the past three seasons with Phoenix and Chicago (141 total games).
The veteran swingman is also considered a solid, versatile perimeter defender and is an experienced playoff performer, appearing in 75 postseason games and starting in 19 of them.
Craig was limited to just nine appearances this season with the Bulls — he has battled injuries and wasn’t a significant part of the rotation even when healthy. Before being waived, he appeared to be nearing a return from a right ankle sprain that had sidelined him since December 30.
The Celtics still have some optionality with their 15th roster spot, which they’ll likely fill later in the season.
Craig is exactly what they need.
Hauser has slipped a bit this year, an experienced wing who can D up and hit the 3 is perfection for Boston.
Thought this would have been a good fit for the Nuggets with Watson out the next month or so. They need to be aggressive on the buyout market. Won’t hold my breath
Craig is awesome. Will miss him on the Bulls. Also, his son travels with him and is usually doing funny stuff on the sidelines.
Winner- Torrey Craig.
Brad Stevens doesn’t seem to miss, in his GM role.
I called it, glad to see it happen because I think Craig is a great addition to the Celts.
This makes a lot of sense; I was thinking for a while about them needing help defensively at the 4/3 off the bench, and then again, just when I was looking at rosters a couple of hours ago lol…
They had lost some of their versatility previously, but this gives them more floor balance around their shooting
Great addition for the Celtics
They are set with a starting 5 of White Holiday Brown Tatum and KP, off the bench you had Pritchard and Horford. But in between on the wings they did lack quality options.
Walsh and Scheierman both struggle to put the ball in the hoop. Leaving Hauser as their main contributor.
Craig will definitely be of use and should slot in nicely getting about 15 minutes per night on a regular basis.
Nice move here
Another good 3 and D wing. Cavs may be right there with Celtics but Celtics are still that much better.
Celtics are OP…
He’ll do fine with the Celtics. Reinsdorf led orgs have problems with players and their.. ahem… ‘injuries’ causing them to miss games but collect their checks.
Also, most players tend to get better if their team is actually playing for something and not just taking a paid vacation as a whole.
A man can only win so much, Craig is already winning off the court so the universe will even out things on the court. Celtics are officially not winning the title this year.
Craig is an insignificant player at this point but a veteran on the deep bench is better than a young guy I guess.