Which Boston Celtics alumni are earning the most dead money?

Sometimes, even very well-run ball clubs like the Boston Celtics make mistakes big enough that they hang around to haunt a team.

Sometimes, even very well-run ball clubs like the Boston Celtics make mistakes big enough that they hang around to haunt a team for seasons after the mistake was made. Most often, this comes in the form of signing a player to a contract they cannot possibly live up to the value of due to any of many unforeseen circumstances.

When that happens, a franchise will usually cut and stretch a player’s salary over multiple seasons to preserve as much of their cap space as possible for the duration of the contract remaining stretched between three and five seasons to ease the cap hit to the team. More often, however, a team will eat the deal at once, especially when it’s a smaller contract or just a season or two left on it, with what remains on the books still owed known as “dead money” in league parlance.

And in a recent HoopsHype analysis, it seems several Celtics alumni made the top 30 contracts of dead money in the league for these sorts of deals; let’s look at which deals they are on and where they are ranked.

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 8

Today’s installment focuses on the 16 players who wore No. 8 over the years as of September 2023.

The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.

In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history, with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.

Today’s installment focuses on the 16 players who wore No. 8 over the years as of September 2023.

Ex-Celtics forward Malik Fitts on his time with Boston, Joe Mazzulla’s elevation to coach

The master of bench celebration had plenty to say about his former ball club in a win over the Mexico City Capitanes on Sunday.

Though his time with the Boston Celtics was not long, Celtics fan favorite forward Malik Fitts cherishes his time playing with the team in the 2021-22 season. The Celtics Wire caught up with Fitts after his current squad, the Ontario Clippers (the G League affiliate of the Los Angeles team of the same name), beat the Mexico City Capitanes 103-96 on the road.

Still visibly exhausted from the win, Fitts made a point of noting how the elevation of Arena de Mexico at 7,350 feet impact his and the Clippers’ game against the Capitanes, requiring considerable effort to pull out the victory.

“It’s a tough slog here because of the elevation,” admitted Fitts. “It’s actually my first time in Mexico.”

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 8

This is every player in Boston’s history who wore the Celtics’ No. 8 jersey for at least one game as of September 2022.

The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.

In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history, with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.

Today’s installment focuses on the 16 players who wore No. 8 over the years as of September 2022.

Celtics trading Theis, Nesmith, Stauskas, Fitts, Morgan, ’23 first for Indiana Pacers’ Malcolm Brogdon

The club reportedly was after a ‘true playmaking point guard’ for next season, relates Woj.

The Boston Celtics threw expectations a fairly major curveball on Friday with news from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the team will trade for Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon. Per Woj, Boston is sending out veteran big man Daniel Theis, reserve wing Aaron Nesmith, and reserves Nik Stauskas, Malik Fitts, and Juwan Morgan.

The Celtics will also reportedly include a 2023 first-round draft pick to sweeten the offer for the Pacers. “The Celtics wanted to land a true playmaking point guard and now acquire Malcolm Brogdon without costing themselves a core player,” writes the ESPN NBA insider. “The Pacers land another first-round pick in the deal.”

The Celtics now have an additional four roster spots to fill via trades or minimum deals, and armed with multiple significant traded player exceptions — the largest at $17.1 million — will be active on multiple fronts in the coming hours and days.

Brogdon has averaged 15.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game while shooting 37.6% from deep over his career of 6 seasons, all spent with the Pacers.

Stay locked in for more news about this developing storyline at the Celtics Wire.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire.

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Boston assistant GM Austin Ainge reveals partial roster for Celtics’ 2022 Las Vegas Summer League squad

We now know at least some of the players headed to Sin City this July.

The Boston Celtics will field a team at the 2022 NBA Las Vegas Summer League, and the first of their four contests in the exhibition series is scheduled for July 9.

The Celtics will need to populate the roster of their summer league squad. Some of the players will be drawn from the team’s younger, more inexperienced ranks. Speaking with the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach, assistant Celtics general manager Austin Ainge revealed the players currently on the roster who will participate in this year’s Celtics summer league team.

Aaron Nesmith is undecided whether he will take part and unselected 2022 NBA draft prospects will undoubtedly be added to the roster, but let’s take a look at who we know will play for Boston in Las Vegas in July.

Grading the Boston Celtics’ postseason play from top to bottom

Boston may not have made it to the promised land, but they got pretty close in a season few expected even a deep run.

The Boston Celtics came up short in their 2022 NBA Finals series against a seasoned Golden State Warriors squad, losing in six games to end a postseason run even All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum’s father Justin wasn’t entirely sure was going to happen. 

Monday morning quarterbacking would be too easy in an assessment of that postseason run, inflected with the frustration that the Celtics couldn’t quite get the job done at their precocious average age of 25.9. But if one takes a longer view of how each player playing for Boston in the 2022 NBA Playoffs in the context of what was expected of them in the postseason, the Celtics acquitted themselves well for the most part.

Let’s take a stab at assessing the full playoff roster that saw the floor this postseason.

Celtics player grades: Assessing Boston at the end of the 2021-22 regular season

Our assessment of how each Boston player did with the opportunities in front of them this season.

Now that the end of the 2021-22 NBA season is nearly upon the Boston Celtics, attention to how the team’s remaining players did during it in terms of their level of play and contribution.16 players are currently on Boston’s roster with varying degrees of responsibility and playing time having been available to them.

How much did they aid (or harm) the success of the Celtics as a whole this season, and how much more could they have realistically done with the opportunities they had in front of them? Such assessments will rise from a trickle to a flood, and dial in on specific players increasingly while we wait for the playoffs to begin in earnest. We’ll do in-depth player grades once the Celtics have truly finished their 2021-22 regular season.

But for now, let’s take a quick and dirty look at what each player did with Boston this season, assigning a letter grade to each.

Woj: Celtics to sign forward Malik Fitts to rest-of-season deal extending into 2022-23

Next season will be partially guaranteed, according to the ESPN insider.

Per ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the Boston Celtics are planning to sign reserve forward Malik Fitts through the 2022-23 NBA season after Fitts played his way into a rest-of-season deal extending into the next as well with a partial guarantee on the 2022-23 portion of his contract.

Woj credits Fitts’ representation — agents Nick Blatchford and Derek Jackson of UNLTD Sports Group — with the news of the signing for the Celtics, who have played the product of the University of South Florida and St. Mary’s sparingly this season. To date, Fitts has appeared in just a pair of contests for Boston this season and has averaged a half-rebound per game across those two very brief appearances.

But it seems the front office likes what they see in Fitts, who at 6-foot-8 and just 24 years old, is still young enough to see his game grow with the opportunity the Celtics are reportedly extending.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Report: Celtics expected to re-sign Kelan Martin and Malik Fitts to second 10-day deals

The duo has six minutes of play with the team between them, but Boston seems to like what they bring to the table.

Fans of the Boston Celtics have yet to see the team’s two recently signed 10-day players Kelan Martin and Malik Fitts play for the Celtics, but the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach reported Friday that he is hearing the team will bring both players back for a second 10-day contract. Thus far, the duo of wings have been functioning more as an insurance policy for the team’s depth in case of injury than as players actually expected to take the court to date.

Fitts, a product of the Saint Mary’s Gaels NCAA basketball program, has played just 3 minutes for the Celtics so far in a single appearance for Boston that saw the 6-foot-8 forward pull down a single rebound and miss his sole shot attempt, a 3-pointer.

Martin, a Butler product recruited by Celtics team president Brad Stevens just before he left to helm Boston as head coach in 2013, also played in the same contest for the same 3-minute span, missing two shot attempts and also pulling down a single board.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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