The newest roster addition to the Celtics, veteran forward Torrey Craig, has already excited Boston fans, observes MassLive’s Brian Robb in a new reader mailbag.
The Celtics have been starved for defensive wing help off the bench. During his Boston debut, a 116-103 win over San Antonio on Wednesday, Craig flashed plenty of the 3-and-D game that convinced Boston brass to bring him aboard.
Robb notes that, should Craig play well for the club during the home stretch of the season and the playoffs, the Celtics would probably be happy to retain him on a veteran’s minimum contract. Robb speculates that the 2024/25 season might be the last year the club’s current top eight players remain together, due to huge luxury tax penalties.
Hitting pay dirt with cost-effective veteran additions like Craig could prove critical for the team going forward.
There’s more out of Boston:
- The Celtics’ impending sale could have a major impact on the team’s roster in the coming seasons, Robb writes. For just 2025/26, the Celtics are set to owe $513MM in salary and luxury tax penalties — a league record. A new ownership group may be reticent to foot that bill in the future. Beyond possibly aging Jrue Holiday‘s pricey salary, Robb notes that the rest of the team’s core pieces have fairly tradable deals.
- Celtics reserve guard Payton Pritchard has evolved into being a masterful marksman this season and a top Sixth Man of the Year candidate. During a new conversation with Jay King of The Athletic, Pritchard unpacked his process. Over the summer, he brought in multiple professional or NCAA players to push him in workouts four or five days a week. Pritchard also worked to improve his jump-shooting off the bounce, and to up his conditioning. “It’s just putting myself in different situations,” Pritchard said. “It’s not necessarily doing a certain drill, it’s certain situations where they’re guarding me, what’s the right shot to get to here? If they play it a certain way, if I’m on this side of the court and they guard me at this angle, then I should get to this shot, these shots. Just having an arsenal for those different things.”
- Celtics team president Brad Stevens, a former standout coach at Butler, has shut down rumors that he could be in the running for the head coaching gig at Indiana, he informed Jeff Goodman of The Field Of 68 (Twitter link). “I thoroughly appreciate being a Celtic and love the people I get to work with every day,” Stevens said.
Just don’t pull mavs ownership type moves.
I really hope the new ownership is willing to fit that bill as long as we’re winning. Facts are this nucleus that we have, has a great chance at multiple rings and making a dynastic run if they are kept together. I could easily see this group win 3-4 more Championships with the right complimentary pieces along the way over the next 7 years