Aaron Scott Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Celtics Make Cuts To Set Regular Season Roster

October 18th, 2025 at 6:09pm CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics officially waived forward Hason Ward and wing Aaron Scott from their Exhibit 10 contracts on Saturday, according to NBA.com’s transaction log. Boston also moved forward with its plan to sign-and-waive RJ Luis, officially placing him back on waivers today.

As a result of the cuts, the Celtics’ roster now appears ready to go for the regular season. The team is carrying 14 players on standard contracts, including 12 on fully guaranteed salaries and Jordan Walsh and Neemias Queta on partially guaranteed deals. Additionally, all three of the club’s two-way slots are filled.

Boston isn’t expected to fill its 15th standard roster slot early in the season due to its proximity to the luxury tax line. Any player the Celtics sign into that slot would cost them exponentially more in tax penalties.

Ward, Scott, and Luis are all expected to report to the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate. They’ll be eligible for bonuses worth up to $85,300 on top of their standard NBAGL salaries if they spend at least 60 days with Maine.

This is the second time this month that Luis has been waived by the Celtics — they needed to bring him back on an Exhibit 10 contract in order to make sure he was eligible for the bonus he’ll get for spending two-plus months with the G League team.

Roster Moves: A. Scott, Cooke, Council, Carey, Hunter

October 17th, 2025 at 7:29pm CST by Rory Maher

The Celtics have signed wing Aaron Scott to an Exhibit 10 contract, per Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). Scott went undrafted earlier this year, making him an unrestricted free agent.

After spending three college seasons at North Texas, Scott transferred to St. John’s for his senior year. In 36 appearances with the Red Storm in 2024/25, he averaged 8.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 27.2 minutes per game. His shooting slash line was .389/.293/.813.

While those numbers don’t exactly jump off the page, college coaches who spoke to The Athletic in June viewed Scott as a “deep sleeper” who could potentially work his way onto an NBA roster at some point.

Here are a few more transactions from around the NBA:

The Trail Blazers have waived Javonte Cooke, the team announced in a press release. He had been signed to an Exhibit 10 deal for training camp and preseason. A 6’6″ shooting guard, Cooke has played primarily in the G League since 2022, with a stint in Canada for the Brampton Honey Badgers in 2024. The 26-year-old made 42 appearances for the Oklahoma City Blue last season, averaging 17.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 28.2 minutes per game while converting 42.4% of his shots from the floor, including 33.5% of his three-point attempts.
Portland’s G League affiliate, the Rip City Remix, acquired Cooke’s returning rights in a trade with the Blue earlier this week. While that would typically signify a player is headed to the NBAGL to open the season, Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report hears the Blazers are still considering Cooke for their vacant two-way spot, so there’s a chance he could re-sign with Portland (Twitter link).
The Rockets have signed a trio of free agents, according to Smith, who tweets that the team has added Vernon Carey Jr., Ricky Council IV and Tyrese Hunter. All three players will soon be waived, sources tell Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). High-flying wing Council spent the past two years with Philadelphia. He was waived by the 76ers in late July and was reportedly going to sign with the Nets, but that deal fell through. Carey, a 24-year-old center, was the No. 32 overall pick of the 2020 draft. He holds three years of NBA experience and last played professionally in Turkey. Hunter, a 6’0″ guard, went undrafted out of Memphis in June. As a senior last season, he averaged 13.7 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 3.6 APG and 1.5 SPG in 32 games (34.0 MPG), posting a shooting line of .415/.401/.774.
With the possible exception of Cooke, all of these players will be eligible for bonuses worth up to $85,300 if they’re released and spend at least 60 days with their respective clubs’ G League affiliates.

Draft Notes: Centers, Luis, Sleepers, Flagg, Richardson, Gonzalez

June 20th, 2025 at 3:51pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of next week’s draft, David Aldridge of The Athletic talked to several college coaches and NBA executives and scouts about the top big men in the 2025 draft class, including Khaman Maluach, Derik Queen, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Thomas Sorber, among others. Interestingly, one of the college head coaches who spoke to Aldridge believes Maluach has “the biggest upside of anybody” in this year’s draft.

“He’s huge. And he’s long. He’s a good athlete. And I think he has natural defensive instincts,” that coach said of the Duke center. “He shoots the ball better than I think, maybe, he was able to show this year. He’s a live body. He’s enthusiastic about playing. It seems he loves the process, is not afraid of it. He’s competitive. He’s not afraid. He’s ready to mix it up if he needs to. His length, size and athleticism, and then when you add those other things, I think the only thing that could stop him is injury.”

Meanwhile, multiple college assistant coaches questioned what sort of players Queen will match up with defensively at the NBA level.

“I don’t worry about him at all on offense. But I don’t think he can guard fives. I don’t think he’s great in pick-and-roll defense, and I don’t think he can move well enough laterally to guard Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and Michael Porter Jr., these scorers,” one of those assistants said. “Can he guard (Mikal) Bridges? Can he guard Josh Hart? Can he guard Stew (Isaiah Stewart), the next tier of guys who aren’t the primary offensive option, but they know how to cut, how to go to the glass?”

We have more on the 2025 NBA draft:

Speaking to Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype, St. John’s standout RJ Luis Jr. – a second-team All-American in 2025 – discusses his breakout junior year, what he can bring to an NBA team, and why he believes he can be “even better” in the NBA than he was at the college level.
CJ Moore of The Athletic surveyed college basketball coaches to get their thoughts on some of this year’s second-round prospects and to have them identify some deeper sleepers who might find their way onto NBA rosters as undrafted free agents. Houston guard LJ Cryer, St. John’s wing Aaron Scott, Butler wing Jahmyl Telfort, Missouri guard Caleb Grill, and San Francisco guard Marcus Williams earned mentions as sleepers.
Applying his stats-based model to some of this year’s top prospects, Kevin Pelton of ESPN finds that Kon Knueppel (No. 2) and Noa Essengue (No. 5) are among the players whom that model likes a little more than draft experts do, while Ace Bailey (No. 22) and Tre Johnson (No. 24) are among those who don’t fare nearly as well. Interestingly, Pelton notes that his projection for Cooper Flagg is the third-best in his overall database, which dates back to 2005, behind only Zion Williamson and Luka Doncic.
With green room invitations sent out to a total of 24 prospects for next week’s draft, the only players in ESPN’s top 25 who didn’t get invites are Jase Richardson (No. 18) and Hugo Gonzalez (No. 22), notes Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Gonzalez is still playing in the Spanish League postseason.

Nets Notes: Sharpe, Cap Space, Giannis, Scott, Pierre

June 12th, 2025 at 9:03pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Nets have seen steady improvement from center Day’Ron Sharpe since he was drafted in 2021. He’s set to be a restricted free agent this summer, and Brooklyn has a decision to make on him after re-signing starting center Nic Claxton to a four-year, $97MM contract last year.

In an interview with Swish Theory’s Charlie Cummings (hat tip to Net Income of NetsDaily), Sharpe identified what it will take for him to reach the next level in the league.

“Offensive rebounding — that’s always gonna be my thing, that’s my bread-and-butter,” Sharpe said. “Being the strongest is going to help me do that. I’m trying to get to a point where it don’t matter who’s on that court, I’m moving you and I’m gonna get that board.”

Sharpe averaged 7.9 points and 6.6 rebounds in 18.1 minutes last season.

“I just want to do whatever we can to help the team,” Sharpe said. “If it’s talking to the next person, then I can do that. If it’s bringing energy, I can do that. If it’s ‘go and grab every offensive rebound,’ I can do that. If it’s ‘go and drop 20,’ I can do that.”

We have more from the Nets:

The Nets will enter the 2025 offseason as the only team with significant cap space, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll use their spending flexibility on free agents. Instead, as Brian Lewis of the New York Post details in a subscriber-only story, Brooklyn can position itself to land unwanted contracts from other clubs that want to get in on the offseason action, especially star-level trades that require a third-team facilitator. The Nets also have five picks in next month’s draft and are said to be exploring a move up.
With multiple reports suggesting that the odds of Giannis Antetokounmpo requesting a trade out of Milwaukee appear to be decreasing, the Nets’ “Plan A” this offseason may be off the table. However, that clarity could prove to be a good thing, Lewis writes in a separate piece (subscriber link). Instead of going all-in on a superstar, the team can focus on youth development as it heads into the second year of a rebuild.
The Nets, who control five draft picks (Nos. 8, 19, 26, 27, and 36) held a pre-draft workout featuring St. John’s forward Aaron Scott and Belmont guard Jonathan Pierre, according to The Draft Stack (Twitter link). Scott averaged 8.4 points and 1.4 steals per game in his final collegiate season at St. John’s and Pierre averaged 13.8 PPG while shooting 36.9% from three last year.