Checking In On Celtics’ Cap Management

The Celtics completed a pair of signings on Sunday, adding center Charles Bassey on a 10-day deal and promoting Max Shulga from his two-way contract to the standard roster.

The moves get Boston back to the NBA-mandated minimum of 14 players on standard contracts. Teams are only permitted to carry fewer than 14 for up to 14 days at a time and up to 28 days over the course of the season. The Celtics had reached both of those limits, having carried 12 players since March 1 following a separate 14-day stretch with just 12 players in February.

The Celtics are carefully managing their cap situation in order to avoid going back into luxury tax territory after shedding significant salary ahead of the trade deadline in order to duck below the tax line. Since the deadline, Boston has made the following four signings, along with their accompanying cap hits:

• Dalano Banton (10-day contract): $131,970
• John Tonje (10-day contract): $73,153
• Max Shulga (two-year contract): $212,145
• Charles Bassey (10-day contract): $131,970
  Total: $549,238

The Tonje and Shulga signings were the keys to the Celtics’ plan, since both players were 2025 second-round picks being promoted as draft-rights players from two-way contracts to their first standard deals. That means their rookie salaries weren’t subject to “tax variance” like a rookie free agent’s would have been.

Although the minimum salary for a rookie comes in well below that of a veteran, the NBA doesn’t want teams prioritizing rookie free agents over vets solely to reduce or avoid tax penalties. So if the Celtics had signed a rookie free agent in place of Tonje, that player would’ve earned the same salary on a 10-day deal ($73,153), but for tax and apron purposes, he would’ve counted as if he were a veteran ($131,970). The same goes for Shulga, another drafted rookie — signing a rookie free agent in his place would’ve cost the Celtics $382,712 for tax and apron purposes.

Having used their full allotment of 28 days below 14 players, the Celtics will have to remain at 14 for the rest of the season, which means that as soon as Bassey’s 10-day contract expires, they’ll need to either re-sign him or add a new 14th man. That will happen on March 25, with 19 days left in the season.

As of March 25, a rest-of-season contract for a veteran would carry a cap hit of $250,743. As Yossi Gozlan of CapSheets.com notes, Boston is currently $293,054 below the tax line, so the team will have enough breathing room to keep that 14th spot filled without going into the tax.

Whether the Celtics actually sign a player to a rest-of-season contract on March 25 or opt for another 10-day deal remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they take the latter route. Going 10 days at a time results in the same daily cap hit as a full-season contract while giving Boston additional roster flexibility late in the season. Bassey is a logical 14th man for now, with center Nikola Vucevic sidelined due to a finger injury, but if Vucevic looks ready to return late in the season, the Celtics may prefer to use that 14th roster spot on a guard or forward.

Meanwhile, another Celtics two-way player, Ron Harper Jr., is a candidate for a late-season promotion, but there’s no rush to get him converted to a standard contract right away. On his two-way contract, Harper can be active for up to 50 games and he’s only at 32 so far — with just 15 regular season games left on Boston’s schedule, he won’t reach that limit even if he plays in all of the team’s remaining contests.

With all that in mind, here are the likely roster moves for the Celtics from here on out:

1. Re-sign Bassey or bring in a new player on another 10-day contract on March 25, when Bassey’s first 10-day deal expires.
2. Sign Bassey or another player to a rest-of-season contract on April 4, when that second 10-day deal expires.
3. Promote Harper into the empty 15th roster spot on one of the last days of the regular season in order to ensure he’s eligible to play in the postseason.

The Celtics won’t be able to back-fill Shulga’s or Harper’s two-way slots in this scenario, so they’d finish the season with just 16 players under contract instead of 18. But their 15-man standard roster would be full for the postseason and they would’ve done it without becoming a taxpayer. That represents their first step toward resetting their repeater clock after having spent the past three seasons paying luxury tax penalties.