The Celtics have officially waived big man Jordan Mickey, the team announced overnight in a press release. The move will clear the way for the club to make Gordon Hayward‘s maximum salary contract official.
The 33rd overall pick in the 2015 draft, Mickey spent two seasons with the Celtics, but spent more time playing for the Maine Red Claws in the G League than he did for the NBA club. Mickey has averaged 18.6 PPG, 9.7 RPG, and 3.8 BPG in 35 total G League contests. In 41 NBA games, he has recorded just 1.4 PPG and 1.1 RPG in very limited action (4.8 MPG).
A cap casualty, Mickey was reportedly on a non-guaranteed contract for 2017/18, making him an obvious candidate to be cut when the Celtics needed to create a little extra cap room. After trading Avery Bradley to the Pistons, the Celtics remained about $300K short of the space required to sign Hayward, meaning the team had to either waive Mickey, waive Demetrius Jackson, or commit to stashing Guerschon Yabusele overseas for another year. With Mickey released, Jackson should be safe for now, and Yabusele could still sign his rookie contract.
Mickey will become an unrestricted free agent this weekend if he goes unclaimed on waivers. Meanwhile, the Celtics figure to make the Hayward and Aron Baynes signings official soon.
Finally. I am glad we kept Jackson over him, especially now that we traded Bradley. Jackson’s role should increase now that Bradley is gone, he and Rozier will be their go to guards off the bench(assuming Smart is their starter at SG) the only change I would like to would be to keep Jerebko instead of Baynes but Baynes is the better rebounder so I understand why they made this move.
Mickey will either be claimed or signed after he clears waivers. He isn’t a bad player, he just didn’t have a place on the Celtics. I could see him locking on with a team like Cleveland or another contender with little cap space remaining since he is a decent player who won’t cost much
Jerebko gonna sign with the jazz
Perfect example of why the Celtics need to trade some of these assets (picks) instead of using them. These players get cut and Celtics could’ve turned them into other NBA players via trade.
Yep
Agreed. I think Ainge held onto all his 2nd round picks hoping to uncover a diamond but the C’s don’t have the scouting that the Spurs & Warriors have so many of these picks were just wasted. It looks like Semi will make the C’s but he was a first round pick that slid to top of 2nd round so it was a no brained for C’s FO.
Agreed but to an extent. Believe it or not, this was the only 2nd round pick we had in 2015. I think Mickey had a shot but couldn’t crack the rotation here. He’s not bad on defense, but really has to work on offense if he wants to stick somewhere else.
Yeah but between this, Bentil, and RJ Hunter it’s a terrible pattern of asset management. Also what made it mind boggling they didn’t trade for a rental like PJ Tucker at the deadline that only cost 2nd rounders. It just doesn’t make sense.