Hope he signs a 2 way deal..dont need one of those guards who already has a 2 way deal
Waters and Strus already have 2-way contracts.
They're very good players, so I don't think the Celts will give up on them any time soon.
That means Tacko will be the 15th man or he's gone.
Teams will be lining up to sign Tacko if the Celts waive him.
The hype alone that Tacko generates is enough for NBA teams to invest in Tacko.
There's no way Ainge will let Tacko end up with another NBA team.
My money is on Tacko being part of the 15-man roster on opening night.
i do not know, so i am asking other posters. aside from the scenario above, could ainge put either waters or strus on the 15 man roster and have taco as a two-way player?
Here's the thing, there are reports saying that teams will sign Tacko if the Celts don't sign him.
I'm sure Tacko will prefer being the 15th man on another team than settling for a 2-way with the Celts.
All 30 NBA teams passed on Tacko on draft night 2019.
Only the Celts gave Tacko a chance by signing him to an Exhibit 10 contract after the draft.
I don't think the other 29 teams of the NBA will once again pass on Tacko, for the 3rd time, if the Celts don't lock him up.
It should also be pointed out: Tacko is already currently ON an NBA contract. Contractually, the Celtics do not have to do _anything_ to keep him other than to NOT CUT HIM.
This would leave him on his current non-guaranteed minimum NBA contract. They can still cut him at any time all year, though his contract would become fully guaranteed somewhere around January 10th. Going this route gives them flexibility and they don't have to futz with any other players' contracts (such as they'd have to do if they tried to convert him to a 2-way). They can still just play him in Maine all year because as a player with less than 3 years service they can send him to the G-League as much as they want.
And that also happens to be the best scenario for Tacko as well. Staying the year on his current contract will pay him about 5 times more than if he was converted to a 2-Way contract and about 10 times more than if he switched to a conventional G-League contract.
There is really at this point no reason to expect that won't happen. They just won't come out and say it for now because Javante Green technically is still eligible to gain that last 15th roster slot. So they aren't going to officially say anything until Javante gets cut, probably at the end of training camp.
Javante got paid a little bit of guaranteed money to provide an incentive to go through these motions and he does have at least a non-zero chance of earning that roster spot (someone could get injured or maybe Tacko falls on his face during training camp, who knows?). Javante will be offered a spot on the Red Claws roster. That will be a normal G-League contract, but combined with the bit of guaranteed money in his camp contract he will be okay for the year. He might still jump ship for a bigger contract overseas or if another NBA team bites, though.
So while nothing is 100%, by far the most likely outcome is that Tacko is on the roster this Fall as the 15th man. However, given the depth on this team, he will likely be inactive and will spend most if not all of this year in Maine, continuing to work on fundamentals.
If he does well, they will have a chance to sign him longer term next Summer.