The Boston Celtics have been very active in recent weeks, mostly in the trade market. The biggest trade they made was acquiring David Lee from the Golden State Warriors, and while that trade is still not official, it will be soon and Lee will immediately be the best big man on the Celtics roster. Another trade the Celtics made was acquiring Perry Jones from the Oklahoma City Thunder, and all they had to give up was cash considerations. It is being reported now that if training camp were to end today, Jones would likely be the odd man out in Boston and would likely be cut, according to Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston.
The Celtics have a deep roster that doesn't exactly have a star on it, but it is full of players that are very capable of giving head coach Brad Steven productive minutes. Before training camp even starts, it is being reported that Jones is at the end of the depth chart for wing players and has an uphill battle ahead of him to make the team.
The Celtics currently have 16 players under contract, meaning they have to cut one player, as 15 is the max for an NBA roster. Jones would be that guy right now, but that doesn't mean he is a lock to get cut by any means. It is being reported that if Jones shows enough potential in training camp, the Celtics will keep him and look for alternative methods to trim down the roster.
Forsberg reports that if worse comes to worse, the Celtics could just cut a player that is making less than $3.4 million next season (which is 10 out of 16 players) and eat the salary because the Celtics aren't anywhere close to over the luxury tax. Another potential option, should Jones have a strong showing in training camp, would be to wait until the end of training camp to make the cut and see if any other teams are interested in some of the Celtics guys so that they can make a trade and get something out of it instead of just cutting a guy loose.
Jones may face the longest odds of any of the guys in Celtics camp this year, but he may have as much potential as any of them. Jones was the number eight recruit coming out of high school in 2010, is an extremely gifted athlete, and is only 23 years old. Reports may have the Celtics likely to cut Jones, but it wouldn't be a surprise for him to make the team because he has a lot more upside than most of the other Celtics players do at camp.
