Phil Pressey no longer with Celtics' summer league team, time in Boston could be coming to a close
Last week, Phil Pressey was a late addition to the Celtics summer league roster, calling it "a good opportunity to showcase" what he could do.
Pressey did not see any action in three games in Utah, and on Saturday the news broke that he was not with the club in Las Vegas. Via Mass Live's Jay King, here's what Boston's head coach in Vegas, Micah Shrewsberry, had to say on Pressey's status:
He ended up going back home. He came out just to practice with us, get some extra reps.
(During Terry Rozier's) first couple of games, we wanted to really try Terry out and gave him a lot of reps at the (point guard position). Phil was OK with that.
We just wanted to let Terry exclusively play the 1, just to see kind of what we had. We want Marcus (Smart) to get a lot of reps at the 1. We want Terry to get a lot of reps at the 1. So Phil was there to just, if anything happened, give us an extra body. Unfortunately -- well, fortunately -- nobody got injured and he didn't have to really step up to play for us.
Regardless of what the logic is, this is clearly not an encouraging sign for Pressey's future with the ballclub. Boston has until Wednesday (July 15) to make a move before Pressey's $947,000 contract for 2015-16 becomes fully guaranteed.
As I've mentioned before, the Celtics already have 14 players with guaranteed deals for next year, and that doesn't include second-round pick Jordan Mickey or free-agent addition Jonathan Holmes, both of whom have looked good in Las Vegas.
Scanning Vegas summer league stats, Jordan Mickey leads the league in blocks (3.5 per game) & FG% with a minimum of 20 attempts. (.591).— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) July 13, 2015
Impressed with Texas big man Jonathan Holmes, he will make an NBA roster #celtics
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) July 12, 2015
Pressey is also still potentially involved in the David Lee trade:
According to league source, C's still debating whether to include Pressey or Chris Babb as the other piece in David Lee/Gerald Wallace trade
— Mark Murphy (@Murf56) July 11, 2015
Whether he's traded or released, Pressey's time in Boston is very likely over.
Follow Mark Vandeusen on Twitter @LucidSportsFan