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The Boston Celtics have waived Ben Bentil, Marcus Georges-Hunt, Jalen Jones and Damion Lee. The roster now stands at 16 players. By 5:00 PM EST Monday, the Celtics must waive or trade a player to get down to 15. This is a complicated situation, as the remaining 16 players are all on fully guaranteed contracts. We covered the entire roster situation, including extensions and Team Options here.
Bentil, a 6’9” rookie power forward out of Providence, was drafted by Boston with the 21st pick in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft. He played in 3 preseason games and averaged 5 PPG, 4.3 RPG over 12.9 MPG. Boston gave Bentil a fairly substantial guaranteed amount of $250,000.00. This was likely to entice Bentil to play in the D-League in Maine, as opposed to taking a bigger offer overseas. By waiving Bentil now, he is subject to be claimed by another team, at which point that team would own his D-League rights as an Affiliate Player.
UPDATE: According to multiple reports, Bentil will seek opportunity elsewhere and will not go Maine. Keep an eye on this situation.
Georges-Hunt, a 6’5’’ guard/forward out of Georgia Tech, appeared in 2 preseason games with the Celtics. He tallied a total of 6 points in just 15.9 minutes of play. Boston likes his versatile skill set and gave him a guarantee of $25,000.00 as incentive to go to Maine. This will give the Celtics an opportunity to evaluate him up close.
Jones, a 6’7’’ guard/forward who played college ball at Texas A&M, played in just 2 preseason games for Boston. He was also given $25,000.00, again with the idea in mind that he would also be amenable to playing in Maine.
Lee, a 6’6’’ guard undrafted guard from Louisville, was given a 2 year contract with a partial guarantee in the first season of $50,000.00. Generally a team will give a multi-year deal to a player they think could be a diamond in the rough. This is in hopes of securing his rights for multiple years. Lee never really panned out this preseason though, appearing in just 2 games and missing both of his shot attempts. Like the others, he is a candidate for the D-League squad in Maine.
As for the last roster cut, Adrian Wojnarowski of the Vertical is reporting that the Celtics are offering either R.J. Hunter or James Young around the league for the price of a second-round pick. Boston would rather add something of value for either young player vs. cutting them outright. With a few days left to get something done, this remains a situation to monitor over the weekend.