Smart, Young, recent draftees headline Celtics Summer League roster

 

Day one of the NBA's free agency period is in full swing, but the only official announcement the Celtics have made as of this writing is the roster for the team's upcoming summer league appearances. Boston will send the same 13-player squad to the Utah Jazz Summer League, which will take place July 6-9, and the main NBA Summer League in Las Vegas July 10-20.

 

Second-year guards Marcus Smart and James Young will lead the team, which features five other players under contract to the Celtics: recent draftees R. J. Hunter, Jordan Mickey, Terry Rozier and Marcus Thornton, who will be making their first appearances in green, and seven-footer Colton Iverson. Iverson was a second-round pick in 2013 out of Colorado State and has spent the past two seasons in Turkey and Spain. This will be his third Summer League experience.

 

To round out the roster, the Celtics will have six invitees. Eric Buckner is a 6'10" power forward who, like Hunter, played his college ball at Georgia State. He has spent the three years since then playing professionally in Turkey and is currently under contract to Türk Telekom.

 

Small forward C. J. Fair went undrafted out of Syracuse last year despite being a consensus second-team All-American. He spent the 2014-15 season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the D-League, where he was named to the All-Rookie second team.

 

Texas forward Jonathan Holmes, as we wrote earlier this week, has been called one of the most highly regarded undrafted players in this year's crop. He was ranked inside the DraftExpress top 25 and was expected to go in the second round after averaging 10.3 points and 6.1 rebounds as a senior.

 

The C's went local to find another undrafted rookie, former Holy Cross forward Malcolm Miller, who recorded a career-high 14.5 points for the Crusaders last season. Royce O'Neale is yet another undrafted forward. He averaged 10.1 points and 5.8 boards for Baylor in 14-15.

 

The final player on the roster is 6'2" guard Corey Walden, who entered the draft after three years at Eastern Kentucky and was not selected. His numbers in his final year with the Colonels are impressive: 18.6 points on 54.7 percent shooting and 3.1 steals per game.

 

Not joining the team, contrary to earlier reports, are former Maine Red Claws Chris Babb and Omari Johnson. As we mentioned last week, assistant Jay Larranaga will coach the Celtics in Utah, while Micah Shrewsberry will take the reins in Vegas.

 

 

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