10:48pm: The Hawks have officially acquired Jabari Bird and cash from the Celtics in exchange for a conditional 2020 second-round pick, the team announced on Thursday.
2:06pm: The Celtics are trading Jabari Bird and cash to the Hawks in exchange for a heavily protected second-round pick, tweets Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports. Chris Haynes of Yahoo first reported that Boston would trade Bird to Atlanta today.
The Hawks will waive Bird after acquiring him, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The move is simply intended to save both teams a little money and to open up a roster spot for Boston.
Bird, 24, appeared in just 13 games with the Celtics last season and didn’t play at all this year. The C’s drafted him 56th overall in 2017, mostly using him in the NBA G League with their affiliate in Maine. He was arrested on domestic violence and assault charges last September and failed to make his way back onto the court.
The pick being acquired by the Celtics is top-55 protected, meaning it most likely won’t convey to the team, Smith adds in a separate tweet. Boston will now look to the buyout market in hopes of upgrading its team before the postseason, and could express interest in free agent Enes Kanter, according to ESPN’s Ian Begley (Twitter link).
Great move for the Celtics that opens up a roster spot for the buyout market. Go get Kanter!
BIRD TRADED BY CELTICS !!!
Like button
I’m sure they’ll buy him out too. I’ll never understand NBA trades.
The Hawks are basically being paid to save the Celtics some money.
That’s because none of the other sports league have similar cap structures. MLB is basically uncapped with plenty of ways to hide or bury contracts. NHL has a very strict cap structure making it hard to dump a player’s contract on another team while also providing basically no benefits to waiving a player that isn’t on a 1 year deal. And the NFL just doesn’t trade that often in addition to having a hard cap.
me neither, couldnt celtics just buy him out and accomplish the same thing? I’m sure there is some reason why but it’s too confusing
It would cost the Celtics more money to waive him/buy him out than to send him to another team to do the same.
^ This. Whatever is left of his salary comes off the books, and it will lower their luxury tax bill. I don’t know what the numbers look like, but assuming whatever cash they sent is still less than whatever they’re saving.
What about his Bird Rights? How will that play out? I guess they will just fly away after he is waived & released.
Need to use this spot to go get the best available player, a rebounding specialist or a shooting specialist. Wayne Ellington would be a fit on the buyout market
Bird didn’t appear in any games this season
This Bird may find himself in a cage.
Let’s hope so!
Kanter would be an upgrade over the always injured Baynes