Jabari Bird likely to get remaining two-way contract

There can be only one - more signing, that is.


And that, of course, refers to the fact that without any trades or waived contracts, the Boston Celtics 2017-18 roster, currently stocked with 16 contracts for 15 players, has room for one more. At first glance, that sentence should make no sense, but in fact does. You see, while the looming roster crunch is definitely going to require moving at least one player to another roster somehow, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that started on July 1 provides every team in the NBA two "two-way" contracts in addition to the 15-man regular season roster.

These players, who will spend the bulk of their season in the NBA G-League, which the NBA is molding into a true development league, can also play with the parent club (in this case, the Celts) for up to 45 days per year, where they can earn NBA-level compensation in addition to their base salary of $75,000 - up to $280,000 total.


One of the two slots was filled by late second-round draftee Kadeem Allen. We're now hearing reports that Jabari Bird, the other of the two players taken late in the second round of the 2017 NBA Draft and a fellow alum of Cal (he was a teammate of Jaylen Brown there), is working out the details of such a deal with his agent.

There will still be camp invites for fringe guys who might somehow sneak onto the roster with the showing of a lifetime, but with the hard decision of which regular season deal(s) to cut or trade already an issue with 16 substantial guaranteed contracts already on board (Daniel Theis is the cheapest at $815,000 and most likely to be cut if no trade happens), so another new face getting signed to a regular-season deal seems unlikely. Once this two-way contract is finalized, the Celtics are probably done signing until Fall.

For more stories about the offseason on CelticsLife, click here. For more by Justin, click here.



Image: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE
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