Javonte Green has been a delight to watch in both summer league and the preseason and he might’ve earned an NBA job for himself because of it.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania noted in a story he published Friday that Green, not Max Strus, is the likely winner of the Boston Celtics’ 15th and final roster spot.
“Guard Javonte Green is emerging as the likely winner of the training camp battle for the Celtics’ open roster spot, league sources said,” wrote Charania. “The Celtics signed Green to a partially guaranteed deal and he is the leader to earn the spot over Max Strus, who signed a partially guaranteed, two-year deal last weekend.”
Green played overseas after going undrafted out of Radford in 2015, and at 26-years-old he is a little longer in the tooth than most NBA rookies. Still, his ability to score and throw down electrifying dunks turned plenty of heads in the preseason, to the point that other teams reportedly are prepared to pounce should the Celtics decide to move on from him. It will be tough for him to get any sort of regular minutes once the season starts, but it’s a good story nevertheless.
As for Strus, when the Celtics converted the DePaul product to a two-year NBA deal earlier this week, it opened up a two-way roster spot for either Green or Tacko Fall, with the latter signing that pact. Strus now has some guaranteed money in his deal, which means should he get cut he’ll still get paid and will have the option of either playing overseas, elsewhere in the NBA if a deal presents itself or with the Maine Red Claws of the G League if he wants to remain in the organization. In short, it means the Celtics didn’t want to totally hose Strus and leave him with no money should they decided to cut him.
