BOSTON — The Celtics are running it back next season with nearly the entire roster, re-signing five of their own free agents in the opening days of free agency. A number of those deals are for the veteran’s minimum for next season, a very team friendly number for a Boston squad that will be dealing with a hefty luxury tax bill.
On Monday, Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge spoke about how pleased he was with the team’s roster continuity this offseason while also revealing an intriguing tidbits about those deals.
“Extremely grateful,” Ainge said of free agency. “We had some guys turn down more money other places to come back. It feels really good that guys we care about a lot to come back and go for another run.”
The Celtics officially signed Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta all to veteran’s minimum deals last week. Queta was a restricted free agent so the Celtics would have had to match an offer sheet for him. With Kornet and Tillman being unrestricted free agents, it is likely the duo had a chance to play elsewhere.
A league source told MassLive that Kornet had multiple other suitors in free agency but eventually opted to return on a one-year deal. Tillman’s new deal is for two years guaranteed at the league’s minimum. Queta is also signed on a three-year deal but just the first year of the contract is fully guaranteed.
Brad Stevens spoke back in June about how much he valued continuity heading into this upcoming season.
“Everybody on our roster we love having here,” Stevens said. We’ll continue to work on filling out our roster for the upcoming season, but there’s no doubt that we’ll really value continuity of that.”
Queta will suit up for the Celtics Summer League team in Las Vegas where he will see action at center. All three returning bigs could be in the mix for minutes early in the season with Kristaps Porzingis sidelined until December following offseason leg surgery.
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