It’s July 8th, and the Celtics have still not signed any of their draft picks. This is somewhat unusual for the team. Last year Robert Williams signed the day Summer League started. The year before both Jayson Tatum and Ante Zizic signed on July 1st. (In the prior CBA, draftees used to only have a cap hold equal to their draft slot, and would then sign for 120%, so players like Jaylen Brown would delay their signing until after their team had used up its cap space, but now the cap hold is 120% of slot values for draftees).
Once the Celtics (or any team) signs a draftee, that player cannot he traded for 30 days. Meanwhile, until the player is signed, he can be traded and he doesn’t count for purposes of matching salaries. Since the cap hold is equal to 120% of slot value (in other words, what the player will ultimately sign for) there’s no reason to delay these signings other than for immediate trade flexibility. So what deal do you think Danny is working on? Speculate below!