Celtics will not participate in Utah Summer League this year

Lost in the madness of Jaylen Brown’s game winning three Wednesday night Utah, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens confirmed to Jody Gennessy of Deseret News Sports that his team will not participate in Utah’s annual Summer League this year.

Boston has played in summer league games in Utah since the Jazz revived their traditional league coined the “Rocky Mountain Revue” in 2015 after a seven year absence. The Celtics will now only play in summer league games in Las Vegas. Over the past three seasons, Boston and Utah were joined by the San Antonio Spurs and the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I thought with all the picks we had (in the past), we knew that there were going to be a lot of opportunities for our young players,” Stevens said. “We talked a lot about it in the middle of the year as whether or not we were going to come out. It did feel like at the end of Vegas, it was getting long.” -Brad Stevens

The Celtics could end up with another top pick along with their own selection if the Lakers’ pick falls between slots 2-5. However, Stevens and the Celtics seem to think that they’re putting the players through too many games before most of their careers even begin.

Stevens noted in the story that the team sat Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum towards the end of last year’s Las Vegas summer league because they didn’t want them to get too much action.

So the Celtics have taken away Gordon Hayward, an important game for postseason seeding, and now their participation in Utah’s summer league. Ouch.