According to Shams Charania of The Athletic , the Boston Celtics intend to waive Jabari Parker.
Last season, the Celtics took a flier on the former second overall draft pick, then, in advance of the current campaign, waived his partially guaranteed contract and brought him back on a non-guaranteed deal. However, if he's not waived today by 5:00 P.M. EST, Parker's $2,239,544 contract becomes guaranteed. For the season, the former Duke Blue Devil's averaging 4.4 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.3 minutes of playing time in 12 games.
The move helps out the Celtics financially, and as Charania mentions in the tweet above, creates roster flexibility. While discussing the state of the franchise on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich program on Thursday, the team's president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens, said: "We have a lot to fix."
Parker's contract certainly isn't substantial, but Boston has multiple trade exceptions at its disposal, including one worth $17.1 million that got created in the sign-and-trade that sent Evan Fournier to the New York Knicks. There's no need to bring up Fournier torching the Celtics for a career-high 41 points on Thursday, helping knock off his former team 108-105. The reason for mentioning the TPEs in connection with Parker getting waived is that from an owner's perspective, clearing his contract off the books makes absorbing more money than the team is sending out more palatable.
The Celtics, who currently sit 11th in the Eastern Conference, one spot out of the play-in tournament, may decide to be buyers and sellers between now and the Feb. 10 trade deadline. For instance, they could move on from Dennis Schroder, a good player, who doesn't address their needs for improved shooting and facilitating, and will have more lucrative offers on the open market than Boston can make him this offseason. Doing so would help, not hinder their ability to improve the weaknesses mentioned.
More must-reads: